The Umbrella Academy Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

2. The Humour

This might be a show about the apocalypse and ghosts with a pretty obvious bloodthirst at times, but it's still delightfully funny. Gerard Way was always very open about the fact that he'd taken inspiration from Doom Patrol and the off-kilter tone of that comic manifests itself in this show as a dark comedic spirit.

Where something like the first episode's "I Think We're Alone Now" dance sequence or the assassins dancing to Tom Swoon’s “Shingaling” could have been jarring or silly, the general tone of the show and the way music mean they work wonderfully. They become more an expression of the inherent otherness - and how much it celebrates that than empty quirks shoe-horned in for fake personality.

The show positively drips sardony at times and there's humour in some of the most unconventional sources. It's immediately obvious in that sequence in the diner in the first episode: despite the hyper-violence, there's a clear attempt to find humour in the choreography too. It's perverse and delicious and everything anyone who's waited so long for this show to happen could ever hope for.