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The Umbrella Academy season four

The Umbrella Academy season four | Show review

First arriving on Netflix in 2019, The Umbrella Academy has finally come to its end with its fourth and final season. After having saved the world from an apocalypse three times, the misfit family of superheroes once again find themselves fighting to save the world from annihilation. This time, it involves a strange organisation known as The Keepers and an ominous-sounding event known as The Cleanse.

Whether it was the iconic scene where the recently reunited heroes danced to Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now, the bombastic Footloose dance battle or the collection of stylishly gory fight scenes, the show has always been driven by its joyous sense of fun and charismatic personality. It comes as a disappointment, then, that the Hargreeves family’s final outing feels like it’s going through the motions in their all-too-short six-episode send-off.

Some years after the heroes found themselves in a new timeline without their powers, this series’ events are set in motion when the family are tasked with finding a man’s missing daughter (Victoria Marie Sawal). From here, the gang run into excentric cult leaders named Gene and Jean (Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally) and discover yet another world-ending catastrophe they must avert. With the family splitting up to get entangled in their own subplots, it’s all very familiar territory for fans. Whereas the previous seasons had no shortage of standout moments and memorable set-pieces to keep the formula feeling fresh, there aren’t any sequences here which rival the memorable moments from the show’s past.

Although this season doesn’t quite reach the wonderfully weird heights of past outings, the last episodes do a remarkable job at capturing the heartfelt camaraderie that’s kept this dysfunctional family united. Despite there being plenty of light-hearted bickering between the characters, it’s a greater focus on the relationships between them this time around that cements the final episodes together. Each one of the stars gets their moment to shine, with Robert Sheehan and Aidan Gallagher being particular standouts.

Though The Umbrella Academy’s fourth season doesn’t match the same high energy of previous seasons, an emotionally charged final episode concludes this show with a bittersweet farewell to the family of heroes.

Andrew Murray

The Umbrella Academy season four is released on Netflix on 8th August 2024.

Watch the trailer for Umbrella Academy season four here:

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