Parents' Guide to

The Umbrella Academy

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Great actors in quirky, dark, violent comic adaptation.

TV Netflix Drama 2019
The Umbrella Academy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

  • five young people stand under a black umbrella
    1:08
  • The Umbrella Academy Series: Scene #1
  • The Umbrella Academy Series: Scene #2
  • The Umbrella Academy Series: Scene #3

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 66 parent reviews

Joseph B.
Joseph B. Adult
August 10, 2021
age 17+

stylized creepiness with a dark film noir

It's really very good but you've got to keep it in the right age group. It is just plain violent, with a lot of gratuitous violence used for humor and entertainment. Beyond that it is profane, vulgar, and filled with conflicted and inconsistent characters that make for very good interest but poor role models. In a sense it's a creator of a lot of good conversation between you and your older teen. But the level of violence is inappropriate for younger teens who are still trying to separate fantasy violence from reality, and even many adults can become desensitized to violence and abuse, and this series is rife with them. That said the performance of the actors in this very quirky slightly supernatural mystery is extraordinary. Likewise the plot with its twists and the sets with their detail are brilliant. It is a beautiful piece of art, but the fact that it has a character who presents as 13 years old does not mean this is for 13 year olds. This is not some kind of real life drama where we discuss choices that the characters make with our kids. This is mad cap fantasy that requires a maturity to just simply recognize this is entertainment, it is over the top, it has nothing to do with reality.
SpiceWeasel
SpiceWeasel Parent of 12-year-old
April 23, 2022
age 13+

great show

This is suitable for 13+ if they are mature. I think at some points of this show it is a TV-MA show there is a scene of a tank shooting someone’s head off you can see his headless body and you see the tank shoot it off. The show is so violent that it earned a TV-MA rating for a short time period on netflix but was then moved back to TV-14. But currently it is back to TV-MA which I assume is because of the season 3 which is coming soon. they probably looked at season 3 and decided to rate it TV-MA before adding it. but for seasons 1&2 i recommend for a mature 13 year old. so yeah great show recommend.
See all 66 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Decades before THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY opens, 43 infants were inexplicably born to women all over the world who weren't pregnant the day before. Eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Meany) figures these children must have some kind of special powers. And so he sets out to adopt as many of them as he can. His final tally: seven, including Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who can make things come true merely by saying things out loud; Klaus (Robert Sheehan), who can speak to the dead; Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), who can jump through time; and Vanya (Elliot Page), who is, as Hargreeves says, "nothing special." Years after they were a hot crime-fighting family, the super-siblings are now estranged. But when Hargreeves dies mysteriously -- and when a character missing for over a decade reappears, warning that eight days from now, a fiery apocalypse destroys all of humanity -- the gang teams up again for a major mission.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (66 ):
Kids say (320 ):

Inventive visuals and quirky actors clearly instructed to let their freak flags fly breathe life into the somewhat hackneyed setup of a school for superheroes. Hey, didn't we do that already? X-Men? Sky High? But this show takes it to the limit, and as time goes on, the emotional stakes of the show deepen, which makes the action and villainy more exciting and sets this show apart from similar outings. The show's early hyperkinetic action sequences set to cheerful pop aren't as effective as they could be. They'll remind you of Kick-Ass, for one thing, and they're over the top logically speaking: Does a bank robber really deserve to be flung out of a third-story window to certain death? Um, maybe the super-sibs could just call the police? But other moments are sheer joy, like a scene in which the siblings dance to "I Think We're Alone Now" in separate rooms of the house before the camera pulls back as if they were dancing in a dollhouse, each in his or her own box.

Two of Umbrella Academy's actors are also reliable fun whenever they show up: Robert Sheehan, all elfin-fey jittery energy as the junkie bad sheep of the family, and Aidan Gallagher, tasked with playing a character with the consciousness of a 58-year-old and the body of a 13-year-old. Grousing his way believably and magnetically through scenes in which he can't believe the stupidity of everyone around him, Gallagher is a kick -- and, incidentally, has a really cool superpower. Unfortunately, the sublimely gifted Page mopes around for a while, not given as much to do until her "I'm so ordinary!" storyline shifts. It's always great to see an underdog get hers, but it's frustrating to watch Page's sparkly light dimmed while we wait. Thankfully, the show deepens and gets better as the first season plays out, and the second one is even better, with an apocalyptic storyline that heightens the tension and a lot of time spent investigating the characters' inner lives and frustrations. The violent set pieces and sci-fi weaponry remain, but the show takes time to illuminate the characters caught up in the violence, which imbues the battles with meaning and heart and turns what could be an empty spectacle into something gripping, moving, and, ultimately, entirely thrilling, on many levels.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the level of violence in The Umbrella Academy. Is it more or less violent than you expected? More or less violent than other shows or movies about superheroes? How can you tell the difference between a superhero and a supervillain? Is the violence in this show enjoyable? What impact does media violence have on kids?

  • How well do you think comic books translate to feature films or TV shows? Which comics-based productions have made the best adaptations? Is it important to your enjoyment of the show to have read the comic before watching?

  • What makes stories about humans with extraordinary powers especially appealing? Why would people want to have superpowers, particularly at this moment in time? If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

TV Details

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