April 2019 Screen Rambles // All the Dysfunctional Fictional Family

Welcome to another edition of Screen Rambles! In case you’re new to this blog or not know what is this series about, Screen Rambles is where I talked about all the shows and movies I’ve watched in the previous month in details. In short, this is where I ramble about them.

The Umbrella Academy

After all the hype, memes, analysis, and jokes I’ve seen about this show, I finally give The Umbrella Academy a go! This show tells the story of 7 adopted siblings with special powers (except for the 7th one). They were trained to be a team of superheroes, but they are pretty dysfunctional as a family. They were reunited with their father’s death and some family secrets come spilling out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the story as much as I expected to. I found the pacing is really weird? It’s suuuuper slow, but at the same time, things were happening. Well, small things that’s enough to keep my interest. But I still almost stop watching around episode 3. I really like the quirky vibe and humor of the show though.

While I enjoyed most of the characters (is it a surprise that I love Klaus to pieces??), I really don’t like Vanya. Initially, I was fine with her as Hargreeves did treated her unfairly. But as the show goes on, she really gets on my nerve. She’s whiny and can’t see past herself. In the last arc of the show, she can’t see the reason why everyone did what they did and harmed others.

The show ended in a cliffhanger, so I’m definitely going to watch the second season. However, if the pacing and some characters have no improvement, I don’t think I can finish the season.

Game of Thrones

Another dysfunctional family on this list! *cough Targaryens* By the time this post is written (and posted), GoT will already finished its final season so I figure I’ll review the whole season here.

Well, well. What a mess. I spent 8 years of my life and 2 years of waiting for this ending.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the first 3 episodes of the season. But the last 3 was an utter mess.

• It used to took a whole season to get to a plot point for a characters, but now there are like, 5 plots that need to be closed. It just felt so rushed.
• This pacing affect the overall characters’ arc in the final season. What I love with GoT is how most of the characters are multifaceted. Except for Joffrey and Ramsay, none of the characters are truly bad. There are none that truly good either. Most of them always straddling the line between good and evil, Daenerys Targaryen is no exception. She has done good and bad things, but the good always overwhelm the bad. And then suddenly she did that with no reason???? Arya Stark always looking for a family and that’s the perfect ending for her? Jon is back to square one? WHAT IS THIS
• I like the ending of who’s ending up on the Iron Throne. It took me while but I think they’re the best choice.
• BUT WHERE IS THE STORYLINE. THE PLOT?? THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT???

Props to the cast who still act the hell of out the script they are given. But the writing sucks. I really don’t get why we don’t get more seasons??? GoT is one of the most popular shows, the viewers have invested so many time for this show that we will watch this through, even if it takes 2 more seasons. And it makes money for HBO, so they would want to fund it. So why don’t we get more season???

Avengers: Endgame

And finally, our favorite dysfunctional found family: The Avengers!

I was initially worried about of how they are going to pull this off because there’s just so much characters involved and there are so many ways the story could go wrong. I watched it twice on the opening day, and I’m happy to say it was so satisfying!

While yes, this book is about defeating Thanos and undoing the snap, it’s obvious that the highlight in this movie is the relationship between the characters. We have the dynamics between OG6, Tony with Rhodey, Pepper, and more, Nebula & Rocket, Bruce & Thor, and more. This book is the perfect send-off movie for the originals, as it focuses a lot on their dynamics and contain lots of callback from the previous movies. Not to mention, their own credit… it was beautiful and definitely made me cry.

I know a lot of people are conflicted about the ending, but I think it was a fitting one for Tony. As for Steve, I’m also unsure. On one side, it was perfect as he can’t seem to move on. But on the other side, it’s pretty selfish (albeit, well deserving) for such a selfless guy. Nat was truly heartbreaking, I cried so bad when I watch it.

The time travelling concept was a mess though, so much confusion and disagreement, let’s just not get into that 😂

Idk how many people already watch the movie so that’s all I can say, but honestly, I’m just grateful at how it was 💜

What did you watch in the month of April? How did you feel on Endgame and Season 8 of GoT?