Warning, this episode contains mild spoilers, probably for the Umbrella Academy TV show and some other series that we will be recommending, including spoiler alert, Legion, Misfits, Magicians, A Death Note, and Shadow and Bone, So if you haven't watched those shows, go in with that in mind. But we probably won't be delving too deep into any really bad spoilers, and they're all great shows, so you should go and watch them.
Hello, my name is Rosie Knight, and don't all a nique oh wow, And.
Welcome back to xtra Vision, the podcast where we dive deep, deep, deep, deep deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Where we are at iHeartRadio, bringing you two episodes every week, every Tuesday and Thursday, and sometimes you even get more episodes because you're so lucky.
You are really lucky.
In today's episode, in the previously on, Rosie and I are gonna chat about the impact of Umbrella Academy.
Then we've got a.
Great interview with Umbrella Academy's David Kestenada, and finally we'll be in the back matter recommending some shows you should watch if you enjoyed Umbrella Academy.
But first previously on.
I kind of can't believe Umbrella Academy is over. It's one of those shows. I know it hasn't been on as long as Stranger Things, but we've had it for so long and it's had such a journey. Like I remember when they announced their like Driidway's comic book, a smash Hit is gonna be a Netflix TV show. I said, how are they gonna do this? You need a lot of young actors who are super talented. It's so like edgy and kind of goth. I wonder if that'll hit
on a larger scale audience. And man, but that first season hit, it hit big. People were instantly obsessed.
Yeah. I think this was one of those ones where Netflix said it was like forty five million households had watched it in the first month of release, which back in twenty nineteen was actually a lot. Now we're getting
these even crazier numbers. But yeah, I mean, I think part of the reason The Umbrella Academy feels like it's been on for so long is because it did hit in February twenty nineteen, and five years later, you know, we're getting the finale and we've lived through many, many unprecedented experiences since then, We've lived through like ten years of history in that five years, so I think it feels like it's been around with us for such a
long time. I mean, Anklet got six Emmy nominations along the way too, Like it really did become a big hit, And yeah, it was great that they adapted something so fantastical by Jared Way the artist Gabriel Barr, who I just absolutely adore, And basically, in case you haven't watched it, I'm going to tell you should probably have watched it if you're listening to this, but in case you haven't, it's about a kind of old universe where on a
certain day, children are born all around the world with superpowers, and a shady man goes around and find these children. His name is Sir Reginald Hargreaves, goes around October first, nineteen eighty nine, and basically like buys the children from their families. He manages to get hold of seven of them, and then he creates this superhero team known as the Umbrella Academy. But what's different about this is this is
a dysfunctional family. This is what if the X Men was real, Like how would it actually impact you to be raised like someone like Charles Xavier. So yeah, it's really just like a really impactful, interesting kind of love letter to comics and superheroes and strangeness by Gerard Way and then adapted for Netflix. And yeah, it's very interesting and it has recently come to a close in what
was quite a divisive season. But Juelle, what was like your biggest takeaway from Umbrella Academy and its impact?
Oh?
Man, they Okay, first, it gave us Robert Sheehan, who I will follow off a cliff. I hope that they find many many more parts for Robert over the years where he can.
Be I'm gonna bless you with Misfits.
Okay, yes, yes, I'm very excited to get into Misfits and the joys of that. I really like this actor. I love Klaus and like very class obsessed, so that was really delightful. I also really appreciate the way this show evolved with Elliott Page, like when he was publicly transitioning, which I can't even imagine. You know, He's had such a long career in the spotlight to transition public like
that has to be a very daunting experience. Given our current cultures approach to trans folks, it's really you know, it's a lot and the shows like just embraced him with open arms. They went back and they changed all of the early credits so that his name was accurately portrayed, his character was allowed to transition in a very natural way. They didn't make that a plot point, thank goodness. They were all like he all the siblings feel the exact
same way they did before, and we're moving forward. And it was really nice as a fan and as a viewer to have that experience and to know that that's sort of a blueprint out there for other shows in the future.
You don't have to get.
Rid of a character or put them through some kind of trauma or change who they are as a being. You can just adjust the agenda and move forward. And I thought that was really beautiful. So Legacy the show he's behind.
That definitely was a really radical moment. I also think that this is a great show when you talk about a show that learned and moved forward as it went. They listened to kind of audience critiques, but not in a way that was to do with fans. But I think a lot about Ben played by you know, Justin h Minn, who's so fantastic, and Ben died and a lot of people talked about how he wasn't necessarily very well developed character, how they'd kind of pushed him to
the side as an Asian American character. So they just bought Ben back, and they have multiple different versions of Ben, and they recognized that Justin h Minn was like a vital part of this cast, and I thought that was a really cool way that they did that. I also love Reto Aya as Leli. I think she's like one of my favorite characters. Yeah introduced in the show. I thought she was so fantastic. I mean, I just I'm a sucker. We've talked about this recently on the Alien
Romulus podcast. We'll be talking about more in our back mouth. But I just love a show with like kids trying their best, especially if they're like fucked up kids. So every time I would watch The Umbrella Academy or I would get asked to cover it, I would just end up feeling like a lot of love for these characters,
and I think that will be the ultimate takeaway. And I also think that people love the characters so much that I think That's why with the ending of the season and the choice that they made of how to end it, I think that's why people were so affected by it and why it became such a conversation start, because people do love these characters.
Yeah, listen, the show knew how to bring the drama. It balanced for the most part really well, both traveling across different dimensions and time and space, which is really a challenge to do. I think another highlight of the show that doesn't get talked about enough is their ability to cast like secondary characters, Like if you think about the secondary Megan Moll, Lally, Nick Offerman, Kate Walsh, Genesis Rodriguez, David Cross, Mary and Ireland.
The list is it's long. Mary j.
Blige was in season one.
That's what I was gonna say. Also, like this season, when you know they did the Sparrows, I thought they
did so Yeah, good stuff. Also, one of my favorite actors who I discovered during the American remake of this weird British show called Utopia, which came out a very bad time, during the most badly time, during the pandemics, So most people didn't watch it because it was about how vaccines were evil, but Javonne Woner Walton was in that show and he's so unbelievable And they brought him on in season three basically as a kid like posing as Diego and Leela's son, and he is so good,
Like I will watch him in anything. I think people most know him now. He was in Euphoria. Yes he played Ashtray, but he is like just so unbelievably fantastic. And that was another time where like when he popped up, I was just like, oh, like they know what they're doing, like they they are whoever is casting this show. The casting director is legit, like so unbelievably powerful, and I think is a large part of why the show has been so popular.
Yeah, you know, I'm gonna miss it.
I really enjoyed it while we had it, but I'm looking forward to seeing you know, Netflix is a space that's very near and dear to Netflix's heart, this sort of nerd youth space. They've done a lot of whores, think about your sabrinas, your Wednesdays. So it's a space right for new inventions. So while we will miss Umbrella Academy, it's still on Netflix. You can go back and enjoy it and all of it's glory. Stick around after this break, we're going to have a conversation.
With David Castanada. We're very excited.
He was so generous with his time, so yeah, stick out, we'll hear at that.
Hey, David, how's it going. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Well, thanks for having me, Rosie. It's going great.
Yeah, it's an absolutely, it's a delight. I'm so excited to talk to you. We're huge fans of Umbrella Academy here, so just really delighted to dig into the final season. When we usually interview people here, we kind of asked them, like, what's your origin story? Like if you were a comic book character, what's your origin story, Like, what was the thing that drove you to acting? What was the thing that made you who you are?
I mean, I think what drove me was I think there was a lot of shifting when I was growing up. There was a lot of a lot of moving around. I got to live in many, many households before I moved to Mexico when I was seven yees seven years old, and so I think the origin was more so about trying to fit in, you know, trying to understand what my surroundings were, and that's sort of becoming sort of a superpower where I could show up to room and sort of digest it and very quickly sort of understand
the rules of the room. And that was something that I very much was very acute too, especially you know, even when I came back to move to live in the US in two thousand and four, two thousand and three, and and you know, in terms of acting, that's sort of what acting is.
Yeah, that's why I was going to say, Yeah, it sounds like it would be a very useful skill as you kind of embarked on your career.
Yeah. I mean, it's sort of if you show up to a set, you know, you take in the set, you take in the scene, you take in your scene partners, and then you sort of just go from there and you start you start realizing, Okay, what's my role in this in the entire space that I'm that I'm in right now. And I don't know if that's a true superhero origin story, but it definitely was a power that I was able to sort of nurture as I as I got older.
Yeah, I mean that sounds really unique. And also as well, I could imagine it's very useful on a show like Umbrella Academy where you're building relationships that go on for you know, seasons. Yeah, and trying to So what's it been like going on that journey, you know, getting cast as Diego, filming the first season and kind of growing in this space of a found family show to actually continue that journey with those actors as a family for you know, four seasons.
Well, it sort of feels like you're going to school, you know, you start off freshman year, no one really knows each other. You're you know, you're kind of trying to you know, test the waters. You want to relate
to them. But also you understand that everyone is from all over the world, you know, from different cultures and backgrounds, and so as as I can't relate to certain cultures like, for example, like Robert Sheehan's culture, you know, but as the years go by, there is a relatability because now we have the show to sort of fall back on, and being able to form friendships was something that you know, it took, it became more organic because when we first
came into the first season, because no one knew who you know, we had never met there was this sort of awkward pace within all of us and we were trying to get to know each other. But it works so well with the show. And as the show progressed to the second season the third season, you sort of started seeing everyone sort of jail and that was instinctually what we were doing as actors within our own dynamics outside of the scenes.
Yeah, and what does it feel like now to kind of the show was returning after two years and it's the final season, Like, how does it feel as an actor to have crafted a character like Diego and taken him from that awkward first season to this kind of final part of his story.
I mean, it's better sweet. It's better sweet because once you sort of get the groove of the whole of the of the character. I've been very lucky that the writers and the creator, Steve Blackman, has sort of allowed me to to sort of or it just sort of seems things inside of me to feel like, oh, you know, actually, Diego isn't He's more likable than not, so let's let's
add these things. And also there's a there's a comedy within his seriousness that let's let's let's dive into that and and so the changes in Diego's personality through the seasons has been such a wonderful surprise that it didn't it wasn't just stale playing the same thing over and
over again. And I don't know if I'll ever get that opportunity to do something like that, but I do feel very proud that that this character and the story and also the all of these characters exists now on Netflix that people can go and watch and can enjoy with like the entire family. Because that's I think that's the biggest compliment that I've gotten with people, is like adults will come up to me and say, you know, this is the only show I watch with my kids.
You know, we all have our own separate shows. I don't watch their shows, they don't watch my shows. But this is the only show that we all get together and we binge. And that's a massive compliment because I'm you know, it's obviously because it's all about the dysfunction of the family. Yeah that I don't know. I mean, you know, I'm a big family guy, so I you know, yeah.
It brings people together. That's you know, We're lucky, like with this show, doing this show with comic books and comic book TV and stuff. I get a lot of moms who message me and they go, oh my god, we listened to this, you know, with my I listened to this with my kid. And that's and then we like read the comic books together and we watch the shows. So it is like a very special feeling, right to know that you're making something that kind of bridges that gap.
Yeah for sure. Yeah.
I was just going to say, like, so that's a part of this that I guess is again different from other TV shows, is this is a there's a very active fandom with Umbrella Academy, with the comics, you know, it's that kind of comic con show. What's it been like to get those responses, to get people kind of telling you about what the show means to them.
Well, I think of in sort of like, you know, when you get a compliment, you know, we're so we're so easy to like take in a criticism over a compliment, and and that's that's been able. I've been able to try to sort of you know, rewire my brain and trying to take in when someone really appreciates the show and take it for what they mean, it for what they mean by it because when the show first came out, I didn't I mean, I don't think many of us thought that it was going to be what it was
going to be. We sort of were just kind of just I mean, at least for me, I just needed a job. And then as as the seasons progress, and you know, obviously as the season progressed, and like you know, second season, we were in lockdown. So there wasn't like a lot of interaction with live interaction with people saying, oh I love the show. It was more so just online that I got to see, like oh man, like this is wow. People are really being affected by this
in a positive way. I did get one experience where like someone did ask me to write my signature on their body because they said they were going to get a tattooed on that and I said no, I was like, I'm not doing that. And then and then they showed me, which is so funny. They showed me Robert she Han's signature on their forearm and they said, look, Renal Klaus did it too, And I was like, well, if Klaus did it, will give me that pen and I signed.
My You're like, of course I have to.
Yeah. When he did it. I was like, I guess I have to do it now. I was like, yeah, sure, I don't want. I don't want just Robert she Hen's name. I didn't put David in there too. There you go, you know, but that was Yeah, that was a pretty wild one. Yeah.
People willing to kind of have that on their body forever because of how much they love the show is kind of the ultimate compliment.
Yeah, as much as they enjoyed it. I mean, this show did change everything in my life and I'm very grateful for so, I know I can relate to their uh, you know, gratitude towards it.
Yeah, and how you kind of touched on this, but like especially in the new season, and this will drop when the new season is out, so we can kind of talk a little bit about it. But that comedic element of Diego is really there, and you kind of get to explore this other side of him. Six years later, he's this dad. He's listening to Baby Shock and the Van like he loves the mini van. Could you talk a little bit about getting to play with that and kind of craft this different side.
Well, Rosie, it tells me that you've seen a few episodes. I'm guessing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, good Yeah, I'm lucky. I've seen it. I've seen I loved I've seen six. Yeah, I thought it was like perfect. Oh really, I'm a huge fan. Yeah, I adored it. I thought it was I mean, it might actually be the best season honestly. Oh man, there's something about it that just seeing everyone back together and kind of the journeys everyone gets to go on is really special.
Well that's really nice, Rosie. I appreciate I've only seen three, so you're way ahead of me on this.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, which is so funny. Obviously, you know, I got to read other scripts and do the whole thing. But I feel like Diego's realization, or at least what he I mean, I think a lot of the effort that was put into this was like, you know, the grass is never greener on the other side, And I think I think Diego's sort of idea because it's you know, he's missing his powers, you know, and he's sort of in the space of resentment and and and he's trying his best to be the best dad and the best husband,
but he's failing miserably, especially being a spouse, and so he obviously believes it's you know, so much care goes into his ability to be a dad that he's forgetting himself. You know, he's forgetting really he's sort of stuck at this idea, I have to be a superhero. If not, I'm not defined, but I'm sort of worthless. But his journey, it's not so much of like, oh, you look how amazing your family is and your wife and all these things.
But I think his biggest thing was like he just forgot to honor himself and to really discover who he is aside from the powers. And I think that's sort of the I guess underneath all the comedy, you know, that sort of what drives him in the season of like just he's trying to find himself, you know, with the FBI thing and the whole I mean to me, that was probably one of the funnest things, you know, working with Tom Hopper and doing those little gags between
Luther and Diego. I never I never get old, I know, I never get tired of doing anything with that.
Guy, you know, mm hmmm, yeah. I Mean the relationships that you guys kind of craft on the screen feel so organic and it feels you know, as soon as you said, oh, Robert Sheehan, you know had done the tatto, Klaus had done it. I was like, well, of course you have to do it. You know, that comes across that kind of friendship. And obviously with a lot of
that you're doing it's Diego and Laila. Yeah, this season and kind of building this kind of really complex I think as well for a lot of viewers, I mean, because of Lockdown, because of the way TV how long
it takes to get made. The show has been going on for a while, and I think there's probably gonna be a lot of people who when they watched that first season, they were more of that awkward young adult and now they probably do have kids, you know, and you're getting to see that reality of like Diego and Leila together and what does it really mean? And she's running around in the leggings and the ug boots and
you're trying to get the birthday cake. Could you talk a little bit about playing that kind of side of it.
Well, I mean one thing that I will say when you talk about, you know, people growing with the show, I have I have seen like comments or messages of like people saying like I was a freshman in high school and now I'm I'm.
A junior in college, and I'm like, it blows my mind. And the and the sort of the length that it takes for us to finish the show, from the moment we you know, come into production to the moment and actually premieres. It is like almost like a two year things. It's such a long and just stating a sort of process. But you know, working with with you know, Ritch to
ritu Aria, you know, it was a gem. You know, it was it was lovely to sort of because you know, she was game for anything, you know, when we were working and so and obviously I'm open to anything that she would throw on me because she's super talented. And so when we got to that state of okay, we're going to be these disgruntled parents that are sort of, you know, never really liking each other, you know, we're like, okay, we'll lists lean into that. You know, what is that?
How do you find that? And I think the more you lean into it, the funnier it gets. And and I mean, I'm not here to speak about anyone's relationship or anyone's marriage, but I think there's a lot of qualities in there that a lot of people can see in themselves of how they you know, the dynamics within them, and you know, and the humor in it also.
Yeah, Yeah, I think it's that there is a lot of humor in like the mundanity of just like trying to live your life, you know, and obviously in a superhero show you don't always get to explore that, but here we kind of do. Whether it's you know, Alison doing trying to just audition audition, or there's actually like a normality we get in those first couple of episodes before of course, everything kind of blows back.
I mean the second the second episode to me is my I mean, it's obviously it starts with a bank.
Yeah, okay. So what I'll ask you then, is, seeing as it's the we're coming to the end, you know, of the show, what are your next plans? Like what are you most excited to do, like leaving Diego behind? What is David?
Oh? I mean I want to direct, you know, I want to direct. Obviously, there's there's there's some projects in terms of acting that I'm I'm you know, very excited to start and some that I've already finished and are going to come out next year. But in terms of just like for my own selfish journey, yeah, I'm like, I'm I'm really I'm really close to finishing my first feature in terms of my my wow and so you know, getting that off the ground and you know, getting cameras
up and cameras rolling. I feel like that's going to be, you know, coming very very soon.
Well, thank you so much for joining us. Congrats on Umbrella Academy, and good luck with everything that comes next.
Thank you, Rosie, I appreciate. Hopefully I'll talk to you soon.
We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back, and we are back.
Thanks David. That was a great interview.
We really liked Social Love you a warm human being. Now we're headed into the back matter to make some recommendations. So we were thinking, you know now that there is this gap in our young people try their hardest in a school or found family situation.
We decided specific niche listen. It's specific but strong. There's a lot of content here, so we.
Decided to take a look back at some shows we liked in the genre and mix some recommendations. If you need to fill this space while on Netflix is cooking. So Rosie, you you had oh, you were popping off with ideas.
Where do you want to set it?
I love this I'm going to start with Misfits because it is where Robert Sheehan got his start. I absolutely love this show. It's an old British TV show, and I can say it's old now, fine, two thousand and nine.
That's not I was just started in college.
I'm no baby, baby that was fifteen years ago. Sixteen years ago, my pal. So basically, it's a show about a group of young offenders who are sentenced to do community service where and while they're doing it there is a strange storm and they gain superpowers. Right now, this is like literally comes out one year after The Dark Night, one year after Iron Man, so it was in production kind of before them, so you get a pre emcu vision. It is exceptionally working class. It has an unbelievable cast.
It has Nathan Stewart Jarrett who's an absolutely fantastic actor. He plays Curtis. It has Iwan Rian who plays Simon Bell and Me who would go on to Game of Thrones. It has Lauren Sosha as Kelly Bailey, Antonia Thomas as Alisha Daniels, Robert she and is Nathan Young and as we get later into the season, they are it's another show with brilliant casting. We get to see Joseph Gilgan,
who people know from Preacher. He's in here. And basically the thing that's really cool about this is powers that they get are all kind of directly related to who they are. So there is when it comes to somebody like Alisha, she's very beautiful, so her power is an awful power, which is anytime anyone touches her, they just become obsessed with her and they want to fuck her now.
And it's like this kind of horrific existential power. And hilariously, Robert's character, Nathan, he kind of doesn't have a power, or he does, but he doesn't know it. And I will say I was. Me and my friend Bianca have both been rewatching this, and Bianca to point out a good thing that I think is worthwhile to bring up here. This is definitely dated in that it has a casual use of like certain like slus, not like terrible slus, but that kind of like don't teens use slus? Like
isn't that what they do? Isn't that edgy, and this was from an era of like Skins. It's from the same TV Shows channel as Skins, so it definitely is a little bit dated in that way. But generally I do still think it's one of the best superhero shows ever made. There are some truly horrific, weird episodes. There's an episode with a character who can control the lactose in people's bodies that to this day is one of the most scary episodes of TV I've ever seen. There
are fantastic long term arcs here. The kids are also It's rare that you get to see a bunch of working class kids trying to make their way. They have to contend against the parole officer and also kind of
the shenanigans of other people who've gotten these powers. I will also say that Elisha Simon arc is still one of my favorite arcs in any series for a pair of characters, and it was very hard for me when I went on to play you know, Ramsey Bolton one of the worst villains of all time and that would obviously define him forever, when Simon is just such a fantastic character in my opinion. But yeah, I love Misfits.
I would definitely recommend it. I believe there may have been an American remake or talks of an American remake.
I believe.
My recommendtion. Okay, fantastic news. When I used to write about Misfits, it was never streaming anywhere. It was impossible to find. But now, thanks to the joys of streaming, you can watch it free on Peacock, you can watch it free on Amazon, you can watch it free on Pluto TV. You watch it on Disney Plus, which seems exceptionally strange because it is so out there, a lot
of sex, a lot of swearing. But yeah, I think if you are a Robert Sheham fan like us, if you are a fan of kids with superpowers, if you want to watch a show that's gonna feel totally different to anything else that you've seen, Misfits is that show. So that's my first recommendation.
Okay, I'm going to pick it up with one of my favorite shows of all time.
It's The Magicians.
If you are no longer allowing yourself to participate in the horror show that is JK.
Rowling, but you miss your magical world of.
Uh chass, Yes, yes, your magical schools of chaos and hope. Uh do I have a show for you? It requires you to be an adult to view it, not four children. Yes, but what if your magical beings were American and they were in grad school.
Suddenly everything's on the table.
It's super sexy, it's murdery, it's got so much trauma. But because your showrunners are Sarah Gamble and John McNamara, you're in good hands. You probably know Sarah Gamble's work more from you. If you missed The Magicians, you was her next big project. You see how she handles a sabby, stabby murder. Some of you are in love with him. That's not Sarah's fault. She's trying to tell you that's a bad person.
I'm just saying. I'm just saying that. It has a lot to do with pem Bagley. He's a good at playing like a a.
Wed murderer and he's fine as hell. Listen, she casts well, she casts beautiful people.
Okay.
So namara wrote Trumbo if you're a person who really likes old school Hollywood cinema and the political dramas, he nailed that. But then he also wrote on Super the Lowest and Clark the Avengers of Superman.
So he's oh my god, I have read.
I watched that show quite religiously. It's now streaming. Deankane sucks. But I ignore that because to me, that is where a lot of my format of Superman feelings came from. But I think you've got a great recommendation here. I really love the Magicians. I got to visit the Magicians set a couple of times, early days of TV writing, and this is a great what if you know Hogwarts was grad school. There's sex, there's queerness, there's murder. And also,
don't be dismayed. We know people who listen to this show. You love an inclusive cast, you love a diverse class. The main in character of this show is essentially a trick. You're not sees to like him. That is not really your main in character, and the people around him are what make the show special, as well as the inner workings and politics of this secondary world of magic. Who are the hedge witches? Who are the people who can't get a school? Yeah, it's a system. What is the
class system in a world where magic exists? And how do we define who's allowed to use it? I do think this is such a fantastic cool recommendation and also has a lot of fun metatext about like what if a book that you read as a kid was actually real life.
Yes, it really engages with the fandom, and I think the show looked out by cast. The main group of people you follow around the school and through this universe are so connected with the fandom.
They were really.
Engaging at all of your comic con conventions on the socials, like they cared about this show.
They loved it.
And there are many musical episodes if you're a musically inclined person, as I am so much singing, and it's all delightful and fun. A great rewatch too. If you haven't seen it in a couple of years, maybe you're like, let me revisit the It's fabulous, an underly perfect show. Shout out to every summar Tella mave icons Argent Gupta such a sweetheart of me too, She's really wonderful and like Hale Applebomb, I'm sorry, Hal Appleman as Elliott easily one of my favorite.
Episode character of the show.
I feel like agreed agreed, yeah, that everyone was sort of an Elliott stand for reasons that become immediately apparent as soon as you've been watching the show. Oh and then of course Jay Taylor let me not forget the great she is so lovely as well.
So yeah, check out the magicians. What's our next wreck?
Next wreck is going to be We're going to go for an anime because I feel like we're always trying to get more people to listen who listen to the show to watch anime, I'm gonna go for Death Note. Yes, if you're a fan of the darker aspects of Umbrella Academy, if you're a fan of the strangeness, the weird, magical aspects of powers, how do they work? Who gets them? Are they evil? Are they good? Death Note is definitely a fantastic show for you. It's also a great starter
anime because it's super engaging. It's based on the manga which was also a smash hit by Oh I Can Remember Oh by Sugomi Ahoba and Takashi Abata, and it is about a student called Light Yagami. He's a genius. He discovers a mysterious notebook which is called the Death Note, and it once belonged to a demon called Riuk. And if you write somebody's name in the death note. Then they die, and while it might sound slightly different to Umbrella Academy vibes, wise, you quickly learn that there are
other death notes, there are other people using them. We also get an iconic detective character in the form of El, who's a student who wants to stop the murders that Light is committing. It's a great cat and mouse story. It's a fantastic murder mystery entry point for anime, and it's got very similar kind of dark goffy emo vibes to Umbrella.
There are school uniforms involved.
You can check it out good schools.
Check out death Note. It's amazing.
What's our next pick?
Joelle? Legion? Okay.
Because of the controversial ending of Umbrella Academy and because of the time travel space woo wu kind of vibes, Legion's a good select. If you're missing Umbrella Academy, you can debate and ending all over again. It is one of the most beautiful TV.
Shows of all time.
Like from a production standpoint, yes, from a cinematography standpoint, From a special and visual effects standpoint like, this show really firing on all cylinders. It gives you your superhero aspects this is the son of Charles Xavier slight spoiler alert, but this is a very old comic, So here we go. Basically, you start with him in mental institute. You're trying to figure out why he's there. Mysteries abound, found families occur, there are betrayals, so much drama.
It's extremely surreal and strange and abstract. Also very interesting historical document because this was made when Fox was still its own separate company and when Disney had been vying to get the rights back to The X Men. But there was an interesting period where this and The Gifted got made, which were two ex memb related TV shows that Fox had never been able to make before. So Legion exists in this very interesting place. There also incredible cost Aubreyor.
Is here, Gene Smart is.
Here, Jermaine Clement, and obviously our main character is played by legendary weirdo character player Dan Stevens, who we just absolutely adore, and yeah, like what this is a total ride. I will also say, if you are someone who has followed Umbrella Academy and you were maybe dismayed with the bleakness of the ending, but you were intrigued by it, how did that make you feel. Then I will say Legion is another show for you. It's a show that was not afraid of upsetting its audience or changing the
perspective through which we've looked at the show. So definitely worth checking out.
Yes, and finally we have Shadow and Bone another.
Netflixha oh baby.
Netflix has really been killing it with Okay, you know what, I'm going to do a duo. You're actually gonna get two here because I do love Shadow and Bone. I love Shadow and Bone. It's fantastic. It has Archie Renault, who has recently seen in the wonderful Alien Romulus that we really enjoyed. He played Tyler. It is a fantastic
adaptation of Lee Bardigo's books. It melds her Shadow and Bone series with her Six of Crows series, which were tangentially connected, but here you get them at the same time. The Six of Crows series is widely seen as the more superior series. It's I love both, but it's a fantastic heist. It's about criminals, it's about kids trying to survive, and she don't. Bonus set in a world where magic exists and there are essentially magical armies and if you
are able to do magic. You end up in a special army that's led by a magical, hunky, sexy, mysterious man.
Sign me up.
Yeah.
And our main character Alena, Oh my god, why I like read these books like.
Fifty millis I understand it.
We are getting old. Okay, So Alena. Yes, our main character, Elena Starkoff, she is She discovers that she has this massive magical power that could help them rid the world of this villain called the Darkling, and she has pulled along into this magical fantasy world where people have powers and they're a magical creature and there is essentially a wizard war occurring. It's absolutely delightful. I think the show is fantastic. It got canceled off to two seasons, which
is heartbreaking. The cast is brilliant, it's diverse, it's interesting, and I think it is a great pick if you are looking for that found family, magical aspect. But as I was saying, as we were talking about Netflix and that you're getting a two fire, I was thinking about my brilliant friend Abby White, who is a fantastic writer, critic,
advocate for disabled writers. They're just generally fantastic and They pointed out that, you know, Netflix is so great at doing these ya stories right, and that reminded me as you brought that up that actually, I think if you love the Umbrella Academy, definitely watch Shadow and Bone because I love it and I love fantasy. But if you're really looking for the Umbrella Academy vibes and you've got a Netflix account, you got to watch their Boy Detectives.
That is so queer, so strange, so funny, so magical. It's about two boys who are dead and they are detectives. Gay has this one of them is gay, and it has this fantastic camaraderie at the center, and it is about a found family and it is about the mysteries of your past and overcoming your trauma. And it shares a lot in both esthetic and vibes with Umbrella Academy.
So both of those are on Netflix. If you are on Netflix Viewer and you are missing Umbrella Academy, once you've done your rewatch of your favorite episodes, I would say both of those are great picks.
That's so great.
Dead Boy Detectives also has strong witchy vibes, which is great. They have an anime girly who's like really weird and fun. She's so Then and then it highlights one of my favorite things, which is like your adolescent besties who essentially become your family in the same way like if you're a person who habitually watches friends for the comfy vibes. This has elements of that, where you're like, they're best friends and they'll never betray each other. Look at how
look at their love. It's so real. Oh my god, it's adorable. I really hope we get more seasons of it. And unlike some shows we got, this year has a great mystery at its core, really fun to watch it unfold throughout the season. Delightful, delightful series, great call. I cannot believe we almost left off Dead Boy Detectives. I'm really proud of you, Rosie.
Those are our recommendations.
So check out The Magician's Shadow and Bone, Legion, Death Note, Misfits, and of course Dead Boy Detectives Defectives.
That's our show. Thanks so much for joining us.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, August twenty seventh, we've got The Rings of Power season one recap dropping than this Thursday.
Come on back and join us.
We've got the Mark Bernard and sitting down with us to recap his episode of Batman The Caped Crusader. Then Rosie and Jason are going to go through the back half of Caped Crusader, and then finally we're gonna get a reaction to the Crow, which I know you've all been waiting for, so stay tuned for that.
Don't laugh by the seat of their pants, are just really hit on. Guess who can.
Guess how I felt about the Crow. Go to the discord to make your bets on my opinions of the Crow.
Thanks for joining us on a Monday, guys, We'll see you tomorrow, okay.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Gisumsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi our discord moderator