Ty Watches "The Umbrella Academy" Season 2

The past week my wife and I have been watching "Umbrella Academy" season 2. We watched the first season last year on a whim of hers and I thought it was fine. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. The fight scenes were awesome, the story was cool, the animation and CGI work was top notch and the ending was rad. The acting was hit and miss though, it got a little too melodramatic and it felt kind of slow at times. Like I said, it was okay. But, the ending to season one definitely made me want to come back to the show. I was curious to see where they would go with this story in a second season.

The second season came out at the end of July, and we have watched the first five episodes, with plans on finishing it by the weekend, and I have to say, the second season, so far, has been totally awesome. I liked the first season enough, but this second season has totally blown season 1 out of the water. The acting has been shored up. Everyone is good, not just Ellen Page and the kid who plays Number 5. The story, which has shifted to the 60's, and the assassination of JFK was the absolute right move. Each episode has told the backstory of the main characters so far, and what they have done in the two to three years they have traveled back in time to Dallas in the early 60's. The music has been so cool. They play old hits and set them to some of the most kick ass fight scenes I have seen on TV or in a movie. There was a fight scene last night that we saw that was almost, almost as good as anything I have seen in any of the three "John Wick" movies. The bad guys this season are so much more fleshed out, and frankly better, than what they had last season. No offense to Mary J Blige, she is a wonderful singer, but her acting cannot hold a card to the people they got this season as the villains. The Swedes are right up there with the Salamanca brothers from "Breaking Bad" for me. Kate Walsh is back, and she is the ultimate villain. She is so good in this role, her clothes are wild and dope and she is as bad as they come.

I have been so much more into this season of the show. I find myself thinking about what I think will happen next each day. I put my phone down when we watch and the show gets my 100 percent attention. I do not want to miss a thing. I don't want to miss any possible plot points that I am sure will come back in the last five episodes. The show has just been so much better. The writers seem to have really bought into this season's premise, and they have nearly perfectly fleshed out the characters arcs to this point. The way they start each episode, with a very important cold open has been so good in letting me know what to look forward to. The emotional changes from the first season are so much better. Luther, the big ape man, has become this sad sack of a person, and the actor is totally nailing the emotions. He is funny, but you also feel for him. Adding in the JFK stuff has also given us cool characters, including a guy that plays Jack Ruby. It has been so cool.

I'm very excited to see where they go with the ending. My wife has read spoilers, but I have asked her to not tell me anything, I want to be surprised. This might be one of the best sophomore seasons of TV I've seen in quite some time. I have really enjoyed season 2 of "Umbrella Academy", and I am almost certain they will end it with a bang, and it will totally hit. This show is very good, and I definitely recommend it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Rewatches "Super"

During this self isolation/quarantine/social distancing, besides catching up on book and TV shows, spending time with my family, playing games and being a teacher, I am also reconnecting myself with new and old movies. It may be something I saw, and was on the fence about, or it could be something I wanted to see, and now I have more than enough time to watch. One movie I have seen, kind of remember liking, but wanting to revisit was "Super", and luck be it, Showtime, or some movie channel, had it on the other night. I recorded it, and finished it over the weekend.

For those that may not know, "Super" is like the predecessor to a movie like "Kick Ass". It has a down on his luck guy, played excellently by Rainn Wilson I have to say, who decides he wants to be a real life super hero. But, unlike a super hero movie, he doesn't have any powers. He is a regular dude that works in a diner. He is a cook. He has no real fighting prowess or skill. He loses his wife to a drug dealer, and her getting back on drugs, was watching a TV show with a religious super hero, played by Nathan Fillion, has a vision that Jesus is telling him to be a crime fighter, and he pursues it from there.

Now, one of the first things I noticed on this re-watch, the movie wastes no time getting to the origin story, and how Rainn Wilson becomes Crimson Bolt. I liked that. No pomp and circumstance. Just one scene that was about five minutes long then boom, he's a "super hero". Another thing I noticed was how violent, and how real, the violence was in this movie. Since he doesn't have super powers, or much money, he sews together his own suit, and, at first, uses a pipe wrench to ward off criminals. And when he hits someone with the wrench, director James Gunn just lets you see in how violent that act can be. There is one particular scene where the Crimson Bolt decides to punish a guy for cutting in line, and when he whacks him across the face with the wrench, I flinched. I do want to say, I appreciate that though. It is why I like a movie like this, or a movie like "Logan" so much. They show you how much this type of action would really, truly hurt someone.

I also realized that Gunn directed this before he became the guy he is today. This was well before any "Guardians of the Galaxy", or "Brightburn", or when he could put his name on something as a producer, and people jumped. He was still relatively green when he directed this. I feel like "Super" really showed that he had the chops for the movies he is doing now.

As for the performances, Wilson was tremendous. This was during his "The Office" days, and he is still so ingrained in our minds as Dwight Schrute. But, in this movie, I forgot about that, and all I saw was Crimson Bolt. Ellen Page plays his sidekick, and she is wild and spontaneous and crazy and meets a grim end. Kevin Bacon, as the drug lord, was goofy and menacing, and I was pleased at how much I enjoyed him in this the second go round. Even people in smaller roles, like Liv Tyler, the ex wife of Wilson. She was believable in her role, and I thought she did great. Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn were really good as lower level thugs that work for Bacon. They both meet pretty grim demises as well. And Andre Royo, who was barely in it, as Wilson's co worker. He was funny and quippy and memorable.

I do want to point out again, this movie is incredibly violent. I forgot from the first time I saw. But, for this second viewing, it was at the forefront of my mind. I need you to know that going in if you are going to check it out. Gunn holds nothing back. He shows it all. And all the actors are in on it too. It is gruesome.

I definitely think this is a good movie to check out. I wish it hadn't taken a pandemic to get me to rewatch it. But still, silver lining, it did, and I enjoyed it so much more this time around. So, if you want to see Rainn Wilson do something different than Dwight, see James Gunn before he became an uber famous director, see Ellen Page going wild and see some real life seeming violence, I recommend "Super". It is a solid movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.