All 4 seasons of The Umbrella Academy ranked from worst to best

Can you believe that The Umbrella Academy has come to an end after four seasons. Netflix gave this series a chance to wrap up its storylines, and it did not disappoint.

Admittedly, the fourth season was a little rushed with only six episodes to it. However, the ending brought growth, emotion, and closure for many individuals in the series.

It’s now time to rank the seasons from worst to best. Could the first season be beaten? Did the fourth season end the series on a high? Here is my ranking of all four seasons.

4. The Umbrella Academy season 3

I liked the idea of introducing The Sparrow Academy, but things didn’t quite work out for me. Things were too rushed with the members of the Sparrows, and too many were killed off too quickly. The individual members, except for Ben and Sloan, didn’t get the development they deserved for us to really care that they were being killed off. The one thing I did love though was seeing how Ben could have been around a different group of siblings.

The character arc for the Umbrella siblings also took a back step from the development in the second season. By the end of season 2, the six (and seven, if you include ghost Ben) had come to a level of acceptance and togetherness. That was immediately flipped in the first episode of season 3, making it seem like everyone had forgotten about the development.

3. The Umbrella Academy season 4

The final season was certainly a good way to end the series, personally. We got to see the development of the Hargreeves siblings once more. After all the backstabbing and arguing at the end of season 3, the fourth season showed that they were still family. Viktor has a great moment where he tells Reginald that this is what family is like.

My complaint about season 4 is how rushed it was. We were supposed to care that Reginald’s wife was the one behind the destruction of all the timelines; that she was the one to create the marigold and she wanted to right her wrong to protect the entire universe. We just didn’t know her well enough to care about her, and it’s not like Reginald had any redeeming qualities.

This series did win when it came to Lila’s character development, though. I know there are complaints about THAT storyline with Five—and I have my own problems—but Lila’s development was one of the best as it looked like she would be selfish and then she realized she had to do what was right for all the universes. And it was a realistic development, which made for some good writing for the end.

2. The Umbrella Academy season 1

While I do adore the first season, the second actually just pips it to being the best. I’ll get into that in a bit, though. Season 1 was the start, and it introduced us to these siblings with superpowers. One of the best things about the show was that it gave us these siblings who didn’t even like each other. They pushed each other away, and they were only brought together because of their father’s death. It was something different to so many other shows that involve siblings with powers.

We had a chance to see the Hargreeves clan grows. It wasn’t an unrealistic growth, either. They spent time getting to know who each other were, and we saw them gradually accept each other as they realized the strengths each other had.

The season went from strength to strength with the twists and turns. It brought storylines that we couldn’t see coming, and certainly set the tone for the rest of the series. Sadly, the last two seasons didn’t match the energy or the quality, but that doesn’t take away from the first season.

1. The Umbrella Academy season 2

The Umbrella Academy season 2 had a lot to live up to after the success of the first season. The second season beat it. Just.

I actually do put these two seasons on par with each other. The writing for season 2 wasn’t as good, but the action was far better. I also adored the Marvel-like moment with the siblings coming together to fight off the big villain that they were going to be up against during the season.

Putting the show in the 1960s for this season also worked well. We saw how the siblings had to figure things out alone as they landed in slightly different time periods, and then we saw them figure out how to accept each other back into their lives as they came across each other again. Watching Allison realize the time period she was in and how she had to adapt without her powers since she couldn’t speak at first spoke volumes. It rooted us in reality as all the superhero and magic happened around us.

My favorite moment was seeing Luther turn to Reginald for help and him just let Luther down. All this boy has ever wanted was to be accepted and loved, and he realized the type of man his father was. Yet, he still didn’t really want to believe it, which gave us such a human moment for the series.