The super-powered Hargreeves are back, and in the zippy second season of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, they’re better than ever. The first season established the heightened world of the series, the siblings’ personalities and powers, and their complicated relationships with one another, but the focus on their fraught family life and Vanya’s dark story were sometimes at odds with the slick production and quirky sensibility. That changes in Season 2, which arrives on Friday.

The show continues to include serious situations full of genuine emotion, but now that the characters are firmly established and removed from the shadow of the time and place of their upbringing, The Umbrella Academy feels looser and funnier, with heroic moments that are often bigger and more exciting.

The second season picks up right where the first left off: Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) has used his powers to jump across time with his siblings seconds before the fiery apocalypse caused by Vanya would have destroyed them ... and the entire world. Except Five’s powers aren’t completely reliable, so each of the six Hargreeves (well, seven, counting the spirit of Ben) is dropped in a different part of early-1960s Dallas. Five is the last to arrive, only to discover that they brought the apocalypse with them to 1963. Once again, he has a week until the point of no return, and in that time he must reunite his sibling and figure out what triggered the apocalypse decades earlier than expected.

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The Umbrella Academy Season 2

Removing the siblings from the present day and forcing them to adapt to the 1960s on their own brings out new facets of the characters' personalities. Hulking Luther (Tom Hopper) becomes a bodyguard who also helps his boss collect extra money by (easily) winning underground fights, even as he remains as sensitive as ever. Diego (David Castaneda) has made it his mission to stop the Kennedy assassination, but telling people about the future event lands him in an asylum. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) has become a determined civil rights organizer, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) has emerged as a cult leader, with the ghost of Ben (Justin H. Min) along for the ride. Finally, Vanya (Ellen Page) is working as a nanny, but can’t remember anything from before she arrived in Dallas, including her own name.

Just like in the first season, the actors are outstanding in their roles, each creating a highly specific, deeply felt character whose genuine emotional response make them easy to invest in, even when the circumstances are fantastical. Also, now that the siblings have mostly dealt with the baggage that kept them at odds with one another, there’s more room to develop their interpersonal dynamics, which are a lot of fun. While they don’t all come back together at the exact same time, each reunion is full of meaning. Although they still take digs at one another, they now have an all-for-one attitude that pays off in their coming together to fight as a team.

The season introduces several new characters that enhance the story as well, including new love interests for Diego, Allison and Vanya that are very different but well-suited to each sibling.. In addition, we learn more about some key figures from the previous season that we -- and the Hargreeves -- don’t expect to see in the '60s. In an especially silly scenario, Five has to contend with the older (or younger, depending on your perspective) version of himself, leading to the series’ first foray into incongruously conventional fart jokes. It all comes together to create a brisk narrative that, outside of a brief dip or two in the middle of the season, maintains its narrative momentum from beginning to end.

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Like Season 1, some of the series' most memorable moments are the result of perfectly chosen songs on the soundtrack. None of these are as noteworthy as the siblings dancing to Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now,” but there are several instances where covers of recent pop hits create the ideal vibe for a scene.

If you were a fan of the first season of The Umbrella Academy, you won’t be disappointed by the second -- and if you were only lukewarm on it, you might find more to love in the new episodes. Not only does the show maintain its delightfully offbeat approach to its characters and storylines, it also has a surprisingly timely quality due to Allison’s involvement in the civil rights movement, which results in the show dramatizing some of the historical issues that have led to the current cultural reckoning over race and police brutality. Ultimately, it's great to have the Hargreeves siblings back for a second season; an easy binge that will leave fans clamoring for Season 3.

The Umbrella Academy is based on the Dark Horse Comics series created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá and stars Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min. Season 1 is currently available on Netflix and Season 2 will be released on Friday, July 31.

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