Television series

The Umbrella Academy

A death in the family reunites six adopted siblings who were raised as a superhero strike force by a cold, distant billionaire — and who've all grown into gorgeous disasters. It's part apocalypse-averting time-travel puzzle, part sibling group-therapy session, scored like a mixtape and shot through with genuine heartbreak under the wig and the monkey mask. For anyone who wants their superheroes messy, human, and slightly unhinged.

TVMaze rating7.9

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Doom Patrol2019

The other superhero-family-as-support-group show, and arguably even weirder and sadder — a sentient street, a man made of gas, a woman with 64 personalities each with their own power. Trauma and absurdity in equal, generous measure.

But It leans harder into body horror and genuine grief than Umbrella Academy does, and the tone swings can be jarring.

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The Boys2019

If you liked the idea of superheroes as damaged celebrities rather than paragons, this takes that premise and turns it savage — corporate, violent, and viciously funny about fame and power.

But It's considerably more graphic and cynical; the satire can tip into nihilism if that's not your mood.

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Legion2017

A mutant with reality-warping powers and a fractured mind, told with the same needle-drop confidence and formal daring — this is what happens when a superhero show is directed like an art film.

But Deliberately disorienting and unreliable; some viewers find it style over substance by season two.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Three Identical Strangers2018

Same engine as Umbrella Academy's premise, minus the fiction: siblings raised apart by a secretive father figure running an experiment, reunited as adults to discover exactly what was done to them.

A true story about triplets separated at birth who find each other as adults and uncover the disturbing reason they were split up — a documentary that plays like a thriller and lands like a gut-punch.

But No powers, no time travel, and no rescue — this is real, and the ending offers no comfort.

Three Identical Strangers poster
More like this (8)

Watchmen2019

Superheroes as an inherited, unresolved American trauma rather than a costume party — a masked-vigilante mystery with real historical teeth and one of the best single seasons of TV this decade.

But Denser and angrier than Umbrella Academy, with a slower burn and heavier subject matter.

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Misfits2009

Scrappy British community-service kids get freak superpowers and mostly use them to make their lives worse — the same DNA of ordinary people saddled with extraordinary, inconvenient abilities.

But Low budget, foul-mouthed, and the cast changes significantly after the first couple of seasons.

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Sense82015

A found family scattered across the globe, psychically bonded and hunted for what they are — huge emotional swings, gorgeous globe-trotting visuals, and the same belief that connection beats power.

But Two seasons and a finale film is all it got; it ends on a note of unresolved ambition.

Sense8 poster

Stranger Things2016

Retro soundtrack, kids and outcasts up against cosmic-scale stakes, and the same instinct that nostalgia and dread pair beautifully — comfort horror with real heart underneath the neon.

But Gentler and more wholesome overall; less interested in the sibling dysfunction Umbrella Academy digs into.

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Kick-Ass2010

A gleefully violent, funny deconstruction of what it'd actually mean to put on a costume and fight crime with no powers — the same irreverence toward the superhero genre, compressed into two hours.

But Much bloodier and more juvenile in its humour, with none of the family-drama undercurrent.

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Deadpool2016

For the jokes-during-carnage tone and the sense that a superhero movie can be genuinely funny rather than just self-serious — a good palate-cleanser if you loved Klaus's energy specifically.

But It's a solo action-comedy with none of the ensemble sibling texture that makes Umbrella Academy tick.

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La Jetée1962

Umbrella Academy's whole time-travel apparatus — the loops, the fixation on preventing a remembered catastrophe — traces back to this film's DNA; it did the emotional math first, decades before it was fashionable.

A 28-minute French sci-fi film told almost entirely in still photographs, about a man sent back through time obsessed with a single memory — one of the most influential time-travel stories ever made.

But Silent-film pacing, no dialogue-driven scenes, and a runtime that's over before you've settled in — this is not a binge.

La Jetée poster

Six Feet Under2001

Strip away every superpower and you're left with this show's exact opening move: a dead father, a funeral, and siblings who thought they'd escaped each other discovering they hadn't.

Estranged siblings are pulled back together by their father's sudden death and forced to run the family business while unearthing decades of buried resentment and secrets — no capes required.

But It's a slow, unflinching drama about mortality and grief with zero genre elements — a very different kind of intense.

Six Feet Under poster

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