QoD and a Netflix show

[rose_griffes]

questionoftheday asks: Have you ever broken the law before? Was is a major or minor infraction? Did you get away with it?

My answer: I mean... there's the constant driving over the speed limit. I honestly can't think of anything other than similar 'small' things, like sometimes procrastinating getting my car inspection tag updated. (Not a good life choice, but not exactly arrest warrant material. As a white woman in the US, my chances of suffering any major consequence during that month or two when I've neglected to get the tag updated are small.)

I accidentally started a new show, even though I have plenty of other things I'm planning to start / continue watching. The Umbrella Academy is one of Netflix's newest offerings. The cast is pretty stellar. Ellen Page is onscreen a lot! Mary J. Blige has a minor role!

There are two things that detract a bit from the fun: first, Luther's physical appearance. I know he's supposed to be super strong, apparently in a muscly freakshow sort of way, but the fakeness of the extra muscles is just... eh. My brain can't get past it. Fortunately this is a show with a whole lot of leads, so it's not like my iZombie situation.

(The iZombie problem is this: the lead character's zombie makeup is so distracting that I just can't watch. Well, that and the "eating brains" thing, because I'm squeamish. But I think the makeup is a bigger deterrent, and not one I can move beyond, since the show is so focused on the leading character.)

Anyway! The other thing about The Umbrella Academy is that it's definitely darker than I expected, given how whimsically offbeat some elements are. The torture of an innocent man for information, for example. Some other scenes were more violent than I expected, too. But it's still within "I can handle it" bounds, with lots of covering my eyes. Still not as bad as Jessica Jones or Luke Cage in their first seasons.

Not a drawback, just an observation: the soundtrack is strewn with 80s music--an unexpected choice, given that the main characters were born in 1989, so you'd think we'd be playing 90s grunge instead. I'm not complaining, I just find it surprising.

Comments

[fleurviolette]

I watched Umbrella Academy for Ellen Page. She played a very complex character well.

I felt bad for the Hargreeves tho. They deserved a relatively stable life.

[rose_griffes]

I'm curious to see where things are going with the show. I like it so far, and it's nice to see Ellen Page again. I haven't kept track of her work, but I liked her a lot in Inception, and was hoping she would get work that included more women.

[fleurviolette]

Agreed! She's great as Ariadne in Inception. I've watched a few of her films, including Juno, Xmen, and Hard Candy. (The last one was her breakout role. She was terrifyingly awesome.)