Last year Netflix gave to comics fans the transposition of the homonymous "comics" written by Gerard Way (singer of "My Chemical Romance") and enriched by Gabriel Bà's drawings:

The Umbrella Academy. The TV series was immediately a big success and was called to collect the legacy of the 4 products (+1) by Marvel/Netflix, which had recently "lowered the shutter" in view of the landing of Disney+.

With them, The Umbrella Academy, shared only the background genre, the only common thread that brought together the various Luke Cage, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist with the 6 boys (+1) of the academy.

Then, a few weeks later, Amazon Prime Video arrived to tarnish the good things Netflix did, thanks to the debut of another product related to comics: The Boys.

Compared to the Marvel/Netflix titles mentioned above, The Boys proved to have more than a link with The Umbrella Academy, projecting us, in fact, towards a new phase in the relationship between television and comics.

Abandoned the comfortable and conciliatory faces of tormented but fundamentally good men/superheroes, this new phase has presented us with characters rich in power and responsibility, but fragile, often selfish, very imperfect or even self-destructive.

If The Boys pushed this concept to the limit, with heroes in the pay of multinationals and increasingly violent, The Umbrella Academy seemed to be more conciliatory towards that slice of the audience less inclined to gloomy and leaden atmospheres and still in need of heroes, that although vulnerable and weird, were 100% of the good heroes, or at least willing to be.

The first season of the series, written and directed by Jeremy Slater, had introduced us to the Hargreeves family. 7 brothers, all born on the same day, October 1, 1989 and endowed with extraordinary powers.

Their father, Reginald, is also their "kidnapper". A rich tycoon, obsessed with the history of the birth of his adopted children, who educated them to be extraordinary people, in anticipation of unspecified decisive moments in the history of mankind.

The first cycle of episodes had introduced us to the 6 tormented boys and their late brother Ben.

In the first episodes we had learned to appreciate the dysfunctionality of each of them.

From the fragile and emotional Klaus, able to get in touch and "dominate" the world of the dead;

From the strong but conflicted Allison, endowed with a power that allows her to whisper to others things they will be forced to do;

From the big man Luther, a kind of incredible Hulk constantly searching for a father figure;

From the skillful but fucked-up Diego, a kind of Ninja unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat;

From number 5, a true event engine thanks to his ability to travel through time;

And finally from Vanya, the most silent and shy but also the one destined to hatch within herself the most enormous power.

At the end of the first season, we had the feeling to know better the 7 brothers, to be linked to them, and to be anxious to discover the results of their unfortunate adventures but also, and above all, the results of their stories.

Would Klaus have ever calmed down, perhaps in the arms of his beloved? Would Allison and Luther finally drop the veil and stop chasing each other? Would Number 5 ever take a break from space-time travel? Would Diego ever find a way to quell his fury? Would Vanya ever be able to accept herself and open up to the world?

The planetary success of The Umbrella Academy was due, in short, to its ability to entertain, amuse and engage in dialogue with its protagonists.

A mix, all in all, simple, almost banal, but that Jeremy Slater's TV series had wrapped up very well.

The cliffhanger with which the first cycle of episodes was closed had added that touch of mystery and that abundant hype typical of TV series that let themselves be appreciated by their audience, which saw us all very eager to look forward to the second season.

At the end of season 2, released a few days ago by Netflix, the balance can only be positive.

The Umbrella Academy 2 consolidates its strengths, adding some more interesting pieces to the lives of the 7 brothers and some elements to the general plot.

Exemplary, for example, the work that has been done on the action component and on the many scenes where our darlings have been able to fully unleash their powers. It seemed, on many occasions, to be sitting in the hall of an IMAX cinema enjoying Marvel's latest film.

Equally unequivocal was the judgement on the soundtrack, a real feather in this season's cap,

From Frank Sinatra's "My Way" to "Golden Brown" by "The Stranglers", to masterpieces such as "I was Made for lovin you" by Kiss and "Twisting The Night Away" by Sam Cooke.

Traveling in the 60s, when the entire second season is set, made even more vivid by a collection of sounds and music that made history in those years.

To approach, from this specific point of view, The Umbrella Academy to the James Gunn saga about the Guardians of the Galaxy, would be anything but daring.

A lot of work has been done on the characters as well. Without any particular flashes, there was the feeling of witnessing a greater introspection of each of them, bringing out even more, and better their distinctive features.

Judging from what has emerged so far, the second season of The Umbrella Academy would seem a clear triumph.

It is not, unfortunately.

Despite the parade tones of July 4th that emerge on the net, The Umbrella Academy would seem to have confirmed itself as an excellent TV series, but only if relegated to a very specific slice of the market.

Are you looking for a sliding, entertaining TV series with good characters, action, and an easy to follow storyline?

The Umbrella Academy should be at the top of your list. It's the perfect series to watch while you're shaking instagram sitting on the couch, while you're emptying the dishwasher, or when, at the end of the day, you feel like lying in your armchair and unplugging for an hour or so.

So if that's what you're looking for, The Umbrella Academy could give you exactly what you need.

But if we want to make a comparison with the entire serial panorama and look at the window of "quality", the one that the "critics" always try to research, define and analyze in an artistic product, then the discourse changes.

The second season, as already mentioned, reinforces what was good in the first.

This is a strong point, but it is also the demonstration that we did not have the courage, or the ability, to go further.

In a time not too far away, TV series were built exactly this way. I write a good pilot, keep up the pace for a season, keep the audience loyal and it's done. I play exactly the same thing for an unspecified number of seasons, changing a few things here and there, and I can make a living.

The feeling is that this season of The Umbrella Academy, has lived on the shoulders of the first.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it's fair to say that when you have the ambition to make personal but objective judgments about a serial product.

The risk is to fall into the "Paper House" syndrome and burn one's potential in the name of a schematization of the story, always the same as oneself.

Another big facet that it would be good to highlight is that between the debut of The Umbrella Academy and the airing of its second season, the serial world (and not only the serial one) has totally changed.

Without bothering the covid emergency and the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement (here awkwardly recalled with the protests at the diner in 1963), it would be enough to invoke Watchmen and The Boys to make the Netflix TV series pale.

We've already talked about the latter at the beginning, and about the former, in addition to the 26 nominations for the next Emmy 2020, there's so much to say. It's a product, that of Damon Lindelof, that has changed the history of TV forever and has totally unhinged the vault of the superhero genre.

The Umbrella Academy seems not to have picked up the echo of the Lindelof sirens, continuing along a path that winks more at a young audience, from a serial point of view, than at a mature one. The result is an almost "pre-packaged" product, a victim of himself and at the same time capable of exalting himself, although in the small enclosure in which he has decided to run around freely.

Ultimately, then, The Umbrella Academy is confirmed as a very solid product, which guarantees a light and pleasant entertainment, seasoned with various comic moments and a good construction, although quite stereotyped, of its characters, rejecting the possibility of being something more, far from the quality and historical introspection of products recently landed in Italy as The Plot Against America. The Netflix TV series is a great title to add to your catalog for a satisfying summer binge watching but unsuitable for an audience that would like to watch a TV series able to break the mold and project it towards new shores.