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Super hero programming is either Amazon’s “The Boys” where everyone takes super-steroids and accidentally kills civilians by running through them, or it’s “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” where “with our powers combined” they can do better and cooler stuff (see: make flying silver dude with green hair appear). Except there’s a twist that led me to binge watch all of Season 1 in two days: none of their superpowers are frankly that super (or they’re too messed up emotionally or psychologically to use them), and even crazier, they don’t complement one another in a way that makes them more powerful.
WOULD YOU RATHER NETFLIX MOVIE
“Umbrella Academy” uses a tried and true super hero formula (a professor who’s either bald or has a handlebar mustache starts a school for kids with superpowers - hi, X-Men!), adds the prerequisite action movie tropes (THE WORLD IS ENDING YOU GUYS) and then leaves this said school of superkids to save said world.
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WOULD YOU RATHER NETFLIX SERIES
Which makes it impossible for me to think about Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy” in any other terms, because it’s a super hero series that leads you to the most classic of would-you-rathers: which of their superpowers would you rather have? Because sometimes, your trip ends before the in-flight movie does, and you really don’t want to ask the pilot to circle the airport just so you can catch the finale.(For the record: quarters and super speed.).Because sometimes, you fall asleep watching a mediocre rental, and would rather return it on time than pay two more bucks just to see the end.Because sometimes, your TiVo timer didn’t get it quite right, and cut off the crucial final minutes of something that won’t get shown again for six months.
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