Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
In the most newsworthy aspect of "The Umbrella Academy's" third season, the Netflix series incorporates Elliot Page's transitioning into the story, a moment that's addressed sensitively and relatively early.
Beyond that, the show descends from its second-season cliffhanger into an ever-more-convoluted world of shifting timelines, battling super-teams and existential dangers, presented with plenty of goofy humor and irreverence but as the strange new elements pile up, increasingly aimed at what feels like a hardy band of loyalists with the patience to keep pace.
Page is reintroduced as Vanya before taking the name Viktor, and the reaction from siblings is woven into that subplot. It's nicely handled but understandably a rather small part of the show given all the moving and elaborate parts that have to be juggled, particularly with the addition of the Sparrow Academy, another group of very special babies also assembled by the Umbrella gang's "father," Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), after their season-two adventures in the 1960s.
The disoriented members of the original team essentially engage in a season-long dance with their alternate-timeline brothers and sisters on a variety of fronts, including an actual dance sequence that underscores the show's playful tone. The interactions range from hostility and fights to a relationship involving Luther (Tom Hopper) and a Sparrow (Genesis Rodriguez), who one of his siblings derisively refers to as "gravity Barbie."
Yet once the latest blueprint is established, the assorted subplots yield diminishing returns, indulging in strange detours while building toward the inevitable faceoff with the amorphous threat. Adding a whole new band of characters is a challenge, and the show wrestles with the pitfalls frequently associated with jumping around in time and tinkering with those outcomes and eventualities.
Like almost any genre show, "Umbrella Academy" will continue to have its avid fans, which is a powerful asset in streaming. Yet by way of comparison this batch of episodes pales next to the recent third season of Amazon's "The Boys," which demonstrates that it's possible to adapt edgy graphic-novel material and sustain narrative momentum in a more focused way.
Without spoiling anything, the finish to the third season leaves plenty of room for a fourth, which reinforces a sense that it's time to begin planning for an appropriate conclusion. Because when an ambitious show like "Umbrella Academy" starts looking as if its best days are behind it, well, when it rains, it pours.
"The Umbrella Academy's" third season premieres June 22 on Netflix.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
The trial of a man who admits he killed four women in Winnipeg is set to begin Wednesday, and a law professor says lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki have multiple hurdles to clear for a defence of mental illness.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.