SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Umbrella Academy (July 31, Netflix)

From left, Aidan Gallagher, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Tom Hopper, David Castaneda
and Ellen Page in Season 2 of “The Umbrella Academy.” PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Netflix

As fun as the first season of “The Umbrella Academy” was, it could be a little bleak too, given the hostility between the adopted Hargreeves siblings.

In Season 2, the superpowered sibs still have some trust and daddy issues (who wouldn’t, being raised by an icy-hearted taskmaster like Reginald Hargreeves?), but there’s a little more light at the end of the dysfunctional tunnel.

We catch up with the six of them, plus deceased brother Ben (Justin H. Min), in Dallas, Texas, in the early 1960s. That’s where they all ended up after Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) used time travel to save them from the apocalypse caused by Vanya (Ellen Page) shooting a hole in the moon. But each landed on a different day, beginning with Klaus (Robert Sheehan) and Ben in February 1960, culminating with Number Five on Nov. 25, 1963.

Yes, that’s three days after the assassination in Dallas of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, a historical event that intersects with the academy’s attempts to prevent another apocalypse, which Five sees unfolding the day he lands.

Each sibling has a life of sorts in the new time period. Klaus has become the leader of a cult; Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is married and part of the civil rights movement; Luther (Tom Hopper) is a nightclub bouncer and bare-knuckle fighter; Diego (David Castaneda) ends up in a mental hospital, although not for long; Vanya is a nanny for a farm family and she has amnesia, which means she’s no longer trying to kill everyone.

The new connections they form allow for some character growth and introduce new cast members, including Ritu Arya (“Humans”) as Diego’s new sidekick from the mental hospital, Lila. There’s also a new trio of Commission assassins, the Swedes, led by Canadian actor Kris Holden-Ried (“Lost Girl”).

The siblings also revisit characters who were lost to them in Season 1, including Reginald Hargreeves (Canadian-American actor Colm Feore), who is alive in this timeline and figures into the plot to save the world (again). And a certain scene-stealing Commission bigwig returns (no spoiling the surprise here) to mess with Five’s plans.

Feore isn’t the only one who gets more screen time this season. Canadian Ken Hall, one of two actors who brought talking chimp Pogo to life, is back as Commission analyst Herb. And Ben, despite being dead, gets far more to do, playing a key role in one of the most dramatic developments as well as the season’s most heartbreaking scene.

Don’t puzzle too hard over timelines and paradoxes and the like. The series maintains its entertaining blend of kick-ass action, comedy, pathos, relationship drama and great music (there’s a scene in a hair salon with Allison, Klaus and Vanya that may put you in mind of Season 1’s “I Think We’re Alone Now”) — and it gets a boost from the change of time and place.

The Go-Go’s (July 31, 9 p.m., Crave)

From left, Belinda Carlisle, Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin and Gina Schock
on the cover of Rolling Stone in a scene from “The Go-Go’s.” CREDIT: Showtime

If you think of the Go-Go’s as mere MTV-spawned 1980s pop stars, then consider this documentary by Alison Ellwood essential viewing. It makes a persuasive case for why it’s way past time for this group of five women to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (like seriously, WTF?). 

Did you know the Go-Go’s got their start in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk scene? And  their first tour was opening for Madness and the Specials in England, getting spit on and verbally abused by angry skinheads night after night? Neither did I.

With a couple of changes of membership, they eventually became the pop darlings we all remember, with hits like “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels.” They battled rock ‘n’ roll demons like drug addiction, mental illness, competing egos, burnout and breakups – along with music industry sexism. They made history in 1982 as the first all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to have a No. 1 album, a record that still stands.

Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine have reunited. Their new single, “Club Zero,” will be released the same day as the film. 

Black Is King (July 31, Disney Plus)

Beyonce in the trailer for the visual album “Black Is King.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Disney Plus/YouTube

The biggest release of the week is also the one I haven’t seen, other than the trailer. I doubt anyone has. It’s the Beyonce film/visual album based on her 2019 record “The Lion King: The Gift.”

It’s described as “a celebratory memoir for the world on the Black experience,” and features a wide range of Black talent beyond Queen Bey herself, on the creative team, behind the camera and on the screen as actors and dancers. It was shot in South and West Africa as well as New York, Los Angeles, London and Belgium, and will be available to audiences on much of the African continent, the news release says. 

Certainly, it looks sumptuous and epic and very expensive. It has apparently already stirred up controversy for romanticizing Africa, cultural appropriation and “Wakandafication” among some in the Black community. But there’s no question a film by one of the world’s most powerful Black artists celebrating Blackness is a powerful statement to make as the U.S. still roils with anti-racism protests after the police killing of George Floyd.

Odds and Ends

Sascha Zacharias stars in Season 2 of “Rebecka Martinsson.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Acorn TV

If you like your crime drama a little broody, a little rainy and grounded in natural beauty, check out “Rebecka Martinsson” (July 27), which returns to Acorn with a new actor in the lead role. Rebecka (Sascha Zacharias) has decided to stay in her hometown of Ziruna in northern Sweden, where she’s getting up to speed as a public prosecutor and tackling local crime, starting off with a violent feud among Sami neighbours.

“Red Dwarf: The Promised Land,” a special episode of the sci-fi cult hit that reunites the original cast, debuted on BritBox on July 26. BritBox also has Season 1 of the excellent Irish crime drama “The Fall” (July 28), starring the sublime Gillian Anderson and a pre-“50 Shades of Grey” Jamie Dornan.

If you’re a Muppets fan, you’ll want to check out “Muppets Now” (July 31) on Disney Plus, which is basically the Muppets being the Muppets, but with the conceit of the characters vlogging and social media branding and so on.