The Umbrella Academy Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

Ups

7. The Music

Music hasn't been this well used in a comic book adaptation since Guardians Of The Galaxy and to be honest, it's used even better in The Umbrella Academy. The song choices are exceptional and integrated into the episodes in a way that doesn't feel like Suicide Squad's unsublte manner (which suggested that David Ayer was just absent-mindedly flicking through his iPod while filming.

The song sequences are often some of the most inspired of the entire show, married to action or to dancing at times and absolutely feeling like encouragement to switch over to Spotify to plug directly into a playlist of it all.

Though you might have expected Gerard Way to include some of his own My Chemical Romance music, he wasn't in charge of the turntable (it would have been too much like dating himself to include any anyway). All we get, in a show of impressive restraint, are covers of Simon and Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade Of Winter" and The Turtles' "Happy Together" with Ray Toro. Excitingly, he promises to cover more songs for future seasons and has even started recording new music.

And on top of the excellent use of pop music, there's a great score by Jeff Russo.