Netflix’s 4-Part ‘Stranger Things Meets The Boys’ Is One Of Its Best Fantasy Shows

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Netflix offers a huge selection of fantasy TV shows, and one of their strongest blends the exciting qualities of shows like Stranger Things and The Boys. Beyond offering popular licensed shows, Netflix has become known for its original series, with hits like Squid Game and Adolescence now considered some of the greatest TV shows ever made. Fantasy is a particularly successful genre for Netflix, as they’ve experimented with diverse stories, settings, and themes.

Netflix offers a variety of fantasy shows, including original series like Stranger Things and adaptations of popular media. The Witcher and Arcane are examples of these adaptations, and The Umbrella Academy – based on the comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá – also falls into this category. While the final season of The Umbrella Academy, which ran for four seasons, received mixed reactions, it remains one of Netflix’s top fantasy offerings.

The Umbrella Academy blends fantasy, science fiction, and the superhero genre, but with a distinctive twist. It shares similarities with shows like The Boys, offering a dark take on superheroes with flawed and complicated characters, and with Stranger Things due to its sci-fi themes and occasional supernatural elements. However, the show carves out its own space by uniquely combining both superhero action and science fiction concepts, setting it apart from others in the genre.

The Umbrella Academy Is Unlike Most Recent Superhero TV Shows

The Umbrella Academy centers around the Hargreeves, seven adopted siblings with extraordinary abilities. They were part of a group of 37 children born simultaneously around the world to mothers who hadn’t been pregnant that morning. Eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) adopted these seven and trained them to harness their individual superpowers.

Reginald Hargreeves brought together a team of superheroes called The Umbrella Academy. However, he wasn’t a nurturing parent to them—more of a trainer—and the team eventually drifted apart. Each member struggles with personal problems stemming from past trauma, but they’re compelled to reunite after Reginald dies and a looming apocalypse is revealed.

When The Umbrella Academy first came out, superhero shows and movies were largely focused on traditional heroes fighting for good, especially during the height of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Umbrella Academy was different. It offered a more complex and gritty take on the genre, exploring the emotional struggles, fears, and flaws of its characters, and reminding viewers that even with superpowers, they are still fundamentally human.

Since The Umbrella Academy debuted, several other dark superhero shows like The Boys and Invincible have emerged. These shows offer a different, more human look at superheroes, moving away from the traditional portrayal of them as flawless and always doing the right thing. The Umbrella Academy was a unique and welcome addition to the superhero genre in the late 2010s, and it’s influenced many shows that followed.

The Umbrella Academy Made Time Travel Comprehensible & Interesting

Throughout its run, The Umbrella Academy has frequently used time travel as a central plot device. Thanks to Five’s abilities, the Hargreeves family jumped back in time in season two, ended up in an altered reality in season three, and found themselves in a timeline created by their father in season four. While time travel is a common theme in science fiction, it’s notoriously tricky to pull off effectively.

Time travel stories often have complicated rules that vary from one story to another. However, The Umbrella Academy presented time travel in a way that was easy to understand and engaging. The show established clear rules, using the idea of a multiverse to explain how different timelines could exist. Unfortunately, the final season of the show didn’t maintain this consistency.

Despite some weaknesses and a somewhat underwhelming ending, The Umbrella Academy remains one of the best fantasy shows Netflix has produced, and a standout superhero series overall. While the TV show has concluded, the original comic book series is still ongoing, with the latest installment, The Umbrella Academy: Plan B, released in June 2025, meaning fans can still follow the Hargreeves family in the comics.

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2026-05-18 22:49