Perhaps it’s that back-tingling sensation that we’ve only just managed to evade one imminent version of the end of the world, only to be forced with facing down the next, but 2020 has been a year in which many popular pieces of media feel less distant and more relevant than ever. From Final Fantasy 7′s Remake to Mr. Robot and even Death Stranding, many once-imagined scenarios that felt possible but distant don’t feel nearly as distant anymore. With a series like The Umbrella Academy, we can at least feel more of that fiction in our science fiction, and yet we’ve collectively dealt with things that might make us relate more with a time-travelling pack of super-powered surrogate siblings than we’d have thought back in January.
First off, time itself has not felt the same this year. Number Five’s timey-wimey plight became one his siblings shared with him in a way, and for many of us this year, a week feels like a month, and yet entire seasons seem to pass by before we even realize they were here to begin with.
Tied with this is the fact that the Hargreeves family spends a lot of time physically separated, as well. Split apart from those they love, there’s often a sense of resignation as they try to live their ‘new’ lives in isolation. This is certainly a struggle a lot of us are coping with for the time being, buckling down for ‘life at home’ in the long term. There’s also the tension of missing out on family gatherings, which will be hitting many hard in the weeks to come – even if we don’t get along with some of our family (and the Hargreeves are more dysfunctional than many), it physically not being safe to gather with them during that ‘once-a-year’ setting might be tough. Or, well, for those who do see their family this holiday, there’s a decent chance of it being an argumentative and stressful get-together, much as it is for the Hargreeves.
We might not have situations as fantastical or dire looming right over us as literal planet-wide destruction in the next week…but there’s still a lot more stress to go around than many of us have experienced in our lifetimes. What can be all the more frustrating is the feeling of powerless, while those who do possess the power to fix these problems continue, business as usual, squabbling for their petty power control while many are struggling. The Temps Commission, who oversee the time-space continuum, feel startlingly realistic when compared to the real-life corporations and politicians who have done very little to change things in a year as chaotic as this.
There’s a growing concern for the physical state of the world we live in as the health of the climate feels increasingly at risk, so even when we overcome this global pandemic, we have bigger problems to approach next – quite similar to how The Umbrella Academy students dodge one possible apocalypse in Season 1, only to be faced with another on the horizon in Season 2. Like their plight, those of us living outside the realm of comic pages and TV screens might feel like we’re getting through one world-wide state of danger, only to have our attention directed to another one.
There’s a multitude of other ways we can connect dots from this year to the cast of Umbrella Academy. Allison Hargreeves finds herself confronting the dirty history of American racism, which, as it turns out, might not be as dead and buried as many thought. Klaus fosters a cult, and there’s been a surprising amount of cultism to go around this year, too! Ben is tethered to his irresponsible sibling all the while, kind of stuck with dealing with Klaus’ questionable decisions and can only do so much about it (if only we could literally possess some of our own loved ones temporarily to stop them from putting themselves at risk, mm?). Diego tries to convince himself he’ll be the one who save America from itself. Luther resigns himself to just doing what he does best and keeping a low profile, feeling like he has little choice in the matter. Reginald (Five) remains as cynical and determined as ever to spite the universe and those who have power over it. And Vanya just wants to be gay and live in peace, and even that feels impossible for many these days.
But, if there’s one positive takeaway we can gleam from this doom-mongering, it’s that, like the Hargreeves family, if we’re capable of collectively getting our act together and working toward the same goal, we can at least redirect the end of the world for another week, maybe more, if we really put our weight into it.
The Umbrella Academy can be streamed on Netflix.
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