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With the full release of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, we here at BNP want to take time to reflect on our feelings about the show. Kenny comes back to give you his final thoughts after having early access to the first five episodes, and Aisha gives her take after binge-watching. Check out our feelings and then hit us up with yours.
Get Your Umbrellas, because spoilers are falling like rain.
Kenny’s Final Five Feelings
First off, I must say that I stand by the things that I said in the earlier review: the sisters bring the drama, the brothers (Luther, Diego, and Number Five) aren’t the best, and there needed to be more Klaus and Ben.
Allison and Vanya have a great big (successful) sister vs. little (needy and unsuccessful) sister vibe that is part of the central drama. (Think Marsha vs. Jan.) This dynamic leads to Vanya, who has an absolutely devastating power, to almost kill Allison, slicing through her throat, and rendering Allison unable to use her voice ability. That was in the first episodes.
When I got to the end of episode 5 of the early access, I wasn’t really feeling the show, but episode 5 is when we first see Vanya’s power emerge. Going into the episode 6, that was the turning point. The back half of the season were full of action. Everything came to life. It wasn’t as brooding, nor focused on Diego, Number Five, and Luther, who for me really dragged in their personalities. That said, I have a few additions to my initial reactions.
Diego, and especially Number Five, show some true moving beyond their one-note angry daddy/mommy issues and better than you know-it-all-ness respectively, however,….LUTHER STILL AIN’T SHIT! Luther was boring as paint drying in the first five episodes. In the last five, he makes one dumb decision after another. And in all honesty he is the cause of the apocalypse. He is so busy thinking he knows what’s best because he is blinded by his love of Allison, but he doesn’t heed literally everyone’s warnings to not lock up Vanya. This drives Vanya into madness and releases “The White Violin” inside of her, something that I basically liken to Phoenix’s appearance and destructive force in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Long story short, FUCK LUTHER!
Klaus and Ben remain the two I want to see more from. The final episode gave me so much hope for season 2 in seeing them (especially Ben) be more active. During Vanya’s “Concerto in Apocalypse Major,” Klaus’ powers level up. He is able to summon Ben not only for his brothers and sister to see, but so that Ben can use his “nightmare” powers to take out some unknown henchmen (who are probably just part of the Commission that works behind the scenes to make sure that the apocalypse happens as planned). Klaus not only surprises himself, but it proves to his brothers and sister that he is now sober and able to conjure the dead in a reliable way.
I wasn’t originally looking forward to finishing this season, let alone excited for a season 2. This still isn’t the best of shows, but it is definitely not bad. I am looking forward to seeing what happens now that they have pulled a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers “Rangers Back in Time” arc when Lord Zedd made them kids again. I was debating with a friend if this would be one of those times where either, 1) they will meet their younger selves, 2) they will somehow merge consciousness with their younger selves, or 3) they will just be young them but with their adult memories like Number Five was when he came back from the future to the present. Either way, we’ll see what happens when season 2 comes around. I’ll keep watching.
Aisha’s Fresh Eyed Look
I don’t care what anyone says The Umbrella Academy is a mutant treasure — did I say mutant…whoops. After surviving Glass in the movie theater (yea I stayed through the end), I came to the conclusion that The Umbrella Academy is the work of art Shyamalan wishes he could’ve written.
The Umbrella Academy is winning on levels we don’t yet realize (time travel reference). The intrigue and mystery of it all had me fiending as soon as I heard those two tones and watched that Netflix N draw across my screen.
The premise of 43 young women all being struck with immaculate conception and simultaneously giving birth in one day is a saga in itself. Only 7 of these babies are known to us…I kept asking myself, where are the other 36 powerful MthrFing kids! The world that is presented to us gives more than enough to fulfill my Virgo need to explain, categorize, and solve. I was constantly trying to figure out the answers: How does the future come to pass? Who is responsible? Why is Luther so huge? When and why did Pogo get made? Why is the family such a jackass to him? Why do Luther and Allison like each other, were they not raised as brother and sister like the others??
I was able to figure out early on that Number Seven aka Vanya (Ellen Paige) was suffering from Phoenix affliction, and the end of the world was in her hands, but how we get there was the real fun. This was The Haunting of Hill House ignoring family trauma while trying to understand their true power and place in the grand scheme of things — superpower Avengers version.
All of these questions can overwhelm someone I am sure, but it is the questions that help this show thrive. We are given a story with holes because the holes are the ins and outs of where these characters fit. How they fit in the future can change everything. Everything works in tandem. The relationships between the siblings and the father, mother, and uncle Pogo affect the use of their powers. This in turn impacts their interactions with each other and the world. This creates the course of the future which results in their one true mission: to prevent the end of the world.
Now, I generally have an issue with shows and movies that attempt time travel, they are always trying to close a loop or create a loop that just doesn’t make any sense. Time travel alone is a complicated topic to tackle. Umbrella Academy made it fun, practical and displayed its inevitably so well. The Commission that has found a way to exist outside of time, embedded in a specific time — it is so convoluted and clear — the perfect personification of time itself. Magnifique! And Number Five’s obsession with manipulating it mirroring our relationship with time as humans, as if we can manipulate it.
At the center of all of this for me is Klaus. He is the boy who cried wolf that we need, and the angel that The Commission needs as well. If you pay enough attention the decisions Klaus makes in the story simultaneously maintain the inevitability of the future and pivot the timeline as well. He is responsible for Harold Jenkins and his drug problem, which renders his power unpredictable so he can’t communicate with his father at the opportune times. But at the same time Klaus’ ability is one of the most powerful as a link not through time, but through temporal planes! He can bring forth the dead — not like oh look at that person who died — he can bring them to the physical realm. Aside from him being a pivotal character, Robert Sheehan is a god-like talent. He was my favorite in the British series Misfits and when he left, I left that show. Seeing him work in this wild, hilarious tortured way again was phenomenal and a real treat.
Speaking of treats, I want to shake the hand of Aidan Gallagher who played Five, being an arrogant 58-year-old in a 13-year-old’s body was never done better. His tact and drive brought the gravitas to the show and added to its playful side. Dolores wins for best supporting of course. I cannot rave enough about these two performances.
In the end, Mary J didn’t give a award winning performance, but did her thing. It wasn’t distracting.
The show brought a small element of incest so Game of Thrones level accolades could be a thing. It gave me all the X-Men Phoenix saga I won’t get with Dark Phoenix. One could find issues with the show, but the issues are important to the plot, to the forward, backwards, sideways motion of the story. I was worried it was going to close everything up tight and we wouldn’t get a season 2 but no, I am pleasantly surprised that they will find a way to exist outside of time as well.
Summary
Our feelings on The Umbrella Academy run from tentative enjoyment to all out hype. We think that we took the rain like we Supa Dupa Fly….Missy Elliott anyone? Anyway, no word on a renewal by Netflix just yet, but with all the positive reviews and buzz it’s been getting, we’re pretty sure season 2 will be on the way eventually. And when it does, we’ll have our umbrella ready for the rain.
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The post The Rain has Fallen: BNP’s Review of Season 1 of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
With the full release of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, we here at BNP want to take time to reflect on our feelings about the show. Kenny comes back to give you his final thoughts after having early access to the first five episodes, and Aisha gives her take after binge-watching. Check out our feelings and then hit us up with yours.
Get Your Umbrellas, because spoilers are falling like rain.
Kenny’s Final Five Feelings
First off, I must say that I stand by the things that I said in the earlier review: the sisters bring the drama, the brothers (Luther, Diego, and Number Five) aren’t the best, and there needed to be more Klaus and Ben.
Allison and Vanya have a great big (successful) sister vs. little (needy and unsuccessful) sister vibe that is part of the central drama. (Think Marsha vs. Jan.) This dynamic leads to Vanya, who has an absolutely devastating power, to almost kill Allison, slicing through her throat, and rendering Allison unable to use her voice ability. That was in the first episodes.
When I got to the end of episode 5 of the early access, I wasn’t really feeling the show, but episode 5 is when we first see Vanya’s power emerge. Going into the episode 6, that was the turning point. The back half of the season were full of action. Everything came to life. It wasn’t as brooding, nor focused on Diego, Number Five, and Luther, who for me really dragged in their personalities. That said, I have a few additions to my initial reactions.
Diego, and especially Number Five, show some true moving beyond their one-note angry daddy/mommy issues and better than you know-it-all-ness respectively, however,….LUTHER STILL AIN’T SHIT! Luther was boring as paint drying in the first five episodes. In the last five, he makes one dumb decision after another. And in all honesty he is the cause of the apocalypse. He is so busy thinking he knows what’s best because he is blinded by his love of Allison, but he doesn’t heed literally everyone’s warnings to not lock up Vanya. This drives Vanya into madness and releases “The White Violin” inside of her, something that I basically liken to Phoenix’s appearance and destructive force in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Long story short, FUCK LUTHER!
Klaus and Ben remain the two I want to see more from. The final episode gave me so much hope for season 2 in seeing them (especially Ben) be more active. During Vanya’s “Concerto in Apocalypse Major,” Klaus’ powers level up. He is able to summon Ben not only for his brothers and sister to see, but so that Ben can use his “nightmare” powers to take out some unknown henchmen (who are probably just part of the Commission that works behind the scenes to make sure that the apocalypse happens as planned). Klaus not only surprises himself, but it proves to his brothers and sister that he is now sober and able to conjure the dead in a reliable way.
I wasn’t originally looking forward to finishing this season, let alone excited for a season 2. This still isn’t the best of shows, but it is definitely not bad. I am looking forward to seeing what happens now that they have pulled a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers “Rangers Back in Time” arc when Lord Zedd made them kids again. I was debating with a friend if this would be one of those times where either, 1) they will meet their younger selves, 2) they will somehow merge consciousness with their younger selves, or 3) they will just be young them but with their adult memories like Number Five was when he came back from the future to the present. Either way, we’ll see what happens when season 2 comes around. I’ll keep watching.
Aisha’s Fresh Eyed Look
I don’t care what anyone says The Umbrella Academy is a mutant treasure — did I say mutant…whoops. After surviving Glass in the movie theater (yea I stayed through the end), I came to the conclusion that The Umbrella Academy is the work of art Shyamalan wishes he could’ve written.
The Umbrella Academy is winning on levels we don’t yet realize (time travel reference). The intrigue and mystery of it all had me fiending as soon as I heard those two tones and watched that Netflix N draw across my screen.
The premise of 43 young women all being struck with immaculate conception and simultaneously giving birth in one day is a saga in itself. Only 7 of these babies are known to us…I kept asking myself, where are the other 36 powerful MthrFing kids! The world that is presented to us gives more than enough to fulfill my Virgo need to explain, categorize, and solve. I was constantly trying to figure out the answers: How does the future come to pass? Who is responsible? Why is Luther so huge? When and why did Pogo get made? Why is the family such a jackass to him? Why do Luther and Allison like each other, were they not raised as brother and sister like the others??
I was able to figure out early on that Number Seven aka Vanya (Ellen Paige) was suffering from Phoenix affliction, and the end of the world was in her hands, but how we get there was the real fun. This was The Haunting of Hill House ignoring family trauma while trying to understand their true power and place in the grand scheme of things — superpower Avengers version.
All of these questions can overwhelm someone I am sure, but it is the questions that help this show thrive. We are given a story with holes because the holes are the ins and outs of where these characters fit. How they fit in the future can change everything. Everything works in tandem. The relationships between the siblings and the father, mother, and uncle Pogo affect the use of their powers. This in turn impacts their interactions with each other and the world. This creates the course of the future which results in their one true mission: to prevent the end of the world.
Now, I generally have an issue with shows and movies that attempt time travel, they are always trying to close a loop or create a loop that just doesn’t make any sense. Time travel alone is a complicated topic to tackle. Umbrella Academy made it fun, practical and displayed its inevitably so well. The Commission that has found a way to exist outside of time, embedded in a specific time — it is so convoluted and clear — the perfect personification of time itself. Magnifique! And Number Five’s obsession with manipulating it mirroring our relationship with time as humans, as if we can manipulate it.
At the center of all of this for me is Klaus. He is the boy who cried wolf that we need, and the angel that The Commission needs as well. If you pay enough attention the decisions Klaus makes in the story simultaneously maintain the inevitability of the future and pivot the timeline as well. He is responsible for Harold Jenkins and his drug problem, which renders his power unpredictable so he can’t communicate with his father at the opportune times. But at the same time Klaus’ ability is one of the most powerful as a link not through time, but through temporal planes! He can bring forth the dead — not like oh look at that person who died — he can bring them to the physical realm. Aside from him being a pivotal character, Robert Sheehan is a god-like talent. He was my favorite in the British series Misfits and when he left, I left that show. Seeing him work in this wild, hilarious tortured way again was phenomenal and a real treat.
Speaking of treats, I want to shake the hand of Aidan Gallagher who played Five, being an arrogant 58-year-old in a 13-year-old’s body was never done better. His tact and drive brought the gravitas to the show and added to its playful side. Dolores wins for best supporting of course. I cannot rave enough about these two performances.
In the end, Mary J didn’t give a award winning performance, but did her thing. It wasn’t distracting.
The show brought a small element of incest so Game of Thrones level accolades could be a thing. It gave me all the X-Men Phoenix saga I won’t get with Dark Phoenix. One could find issues with the show, but the issues are important to the plot, to the forward, backwards, sideways motion of the story. I was worried it was going to close everything up tight and we wouldn’t get a season 2 but no, I am pleasantly surprised that they will find a way to exist outside of time as well.
Summary
Our feelings on The Umbrella Academy run from tentative enjoyment to all out hype. We think that we took the rain like we Supa Dupa Fly….Missy Elliott anyone? Anyway, no word on a renewal by Netflix just yet, but with all the positive reviews and buzz it’s been getting, we’re pretty sure season 2 will be on the way eventually. And when it does, we’ll have our umbrella ready for the rain.
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here!
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
The post The Rain has Fallen: BNP’s Review of Season 1 of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
A deep dive into the employees who moderate content for Facebook is eye-opening and scary as hell.
The Verge’s Casey Newton has published “The Trauma Floor: The Secret Lives of America’s Facebook Moderators,” and the article—which should be required reading for all social media users—delves into some disturbing territory. It opens with one moderator’s panic attack after she watches a man being murdered in a video as part of her training, and goes from there to the broader experiences of the people working for Cognizant, a vendor that moderates content for Facebook.
It’s a place where, in stark contrast to the perks lavished on Facebook employees, team leaders micromanage content moderators’ every bathroom and prayer break; where employees, desperate for a dopamine rush amid the misery, have been found having sex inside stairwells and a room reserved for lactating mothers; where people develop severe anxiety while still in training, and continue to struggle with trauma symptoms long after they leave; and where the counseling that Cognizant offers them ends the moment they quit — or are simply let go.
The moderators told me it’s a place where the conspiracy videos and memes that they see each day gradually lead them to embrace fringe views. One auditor walks the floor promoting the idea that the Earth is flat. A former employee told me he has begun to question certain aspects of the Holocaust. Another former employee, who told me he has mapped every escape route out of his house and sleeps with a gun at his side, said: “I no longer believe 9/11 was a terrorist attack.”
The article is a fascinating and harrowing read. To me it feels personal: years ago, I spent more than a year in a similar role. I’ve seen more things that I will never be able to unsee than I care to recount. Our training was insufficient, any counseling or support nonexistent. Yet we weren’t even the front line—a similar contract company, like Cognizant, made the first pass at the worst of the material. While there are crimes and cruelties etched into my brain from what I saw, the contracted workers had to bear the brunt of it. My own days of moderation were a walk in the park in comparison. It’s terrifying for me to see what these huge regimented armies of moderators are being made to face on a daily basis.
What does a shift in the life of a Cognizant employee look like?
Miguel works the posts in his queue. They arrive in no particular order at all.
Here is a racist joke. Here is a man having sex with a farm animal. Here is a graphic video of murder recorded by a drug cartel. Some of the posts Miguel reviews are on Facebook, where he says bullying and hate speech are more common; others are on Instagram, where users can post under pseudonyms, and tend to share more violence, nudity, and sexual activity.
My team never had to deal with conditions like the employees of Cognizant are subject to—crowded facilities, locked-away phones, denied pen and paper because of privacy concerns, personal items like hand lotion kept in clear plastic bags under management’s watchful eye. The bureaucratic nightmare here is worse than anything our dystopias of bureaucracy imagined. (“Miguel is also allotted nine minutes per day of ‘wellness time,’ which he is supposed to use if he feels traumatized and needs to step away from his desk.”)
The degree to which these moderators’ work lives are micromanaged, coupled with the difficult content that they must consume on a daily basis, creates a traumatic environment most people will never think about when they log in to their favorite site.
It’s worth your while to read Newton’s article in its entirety. Then pour one out for our online moderators—or rather, consider buying them a much-needed drink.
(via The Verge, image: Unsplash/Glen Carrie)
- Wow. Wow.
here’s the email I received about Green Book from one of the producers. I censored the name of the editor he cc’d, which I guess was supposed to be a power move? anyone who has received something similar, feel free to reach out. pic.twitter.com/LIiV4CEp3Z
— Jenni Miller (@msjennimiller) February 25, 2019
- We’re still not over Green Book winning Best Picture, sorry/not sorry.
Remember how BLACKKKLANSMAN ends with, “oh yeah nothing has changed and we haven’t learned anything?” And people were like, “that’s really on the nose.”
Anyway, GREEN BOOK won.
— Mattle Angel: Guringo (@EmperorOTN) February 25, 2019
- Gorgeous new character portraits of Captain Marvel’s principals. (via Comicbookmovie)
- Speaking of: this might be the most wonderful picture I’ve ever laid eyes upon. If you’re out there talking about how representation doesn’t matter, never speak to me or my superhero children again.
Y’all seeing this! 😭😭❤#BlackPanther #CaptainMarvel pic.twitter.com/IY6i6Qlfql
— Courts ︽✵︽ (@CourtZ022) February 24, 2019
What did you see out there on the Internets today?
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