Cha-Cha — Mary J. Blige as a Villain in The Umbrella Academy (2019)

Cha-Cha — Mary J. Blige as a Villain in The Umbrella Academy (2019)

Show: The Umbrella Academy  |  Network: Netflix  |  Season: 1  |  Year: 2019  |  Role: Cha-Cha, recurring

Okay so two years after playing Florence Jackson, the warmest and most human character imaginable, Mary J. Blige goes and plays a cold-blooded time-traveling assassin in a mask who kills people without blinking. The range of this woman. THE RANGE.

About The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy is a Netflix superhero drama based on the comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. It follows the dysfunctional Hargreeves family, a group of seven siblings with superpowers who were adopted and raised by an eccentric billionaire to save the world. The show is funny, dark, emotionally complex, and completely addictive.

Who Is Cha-Cha?

Cha-Cha is a time-traveling assassin hired to hunt down Number Five, one of the Hargreeves siblings who has been trapped in the future. She wears a cartoon bunny mask when on missions. She is ruthless, efficient, and completely lethal. She is also, in the hands of Mary J. Blige, somehow deeply compelling and occasionally almost funny.

Cha-Cha is paired with Hazel, her partner in the assassination business played by Cameron Britton. Their odd couple dynamic is one of the most entertaining things in the entire season. He is soft-hearted and conflicted. She is ice cold and decisive. Together they are perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6zrIAR8qo

What Mary Brings to Cha-Cha

Playing a villain with no moral complexity is easy. Playing a villain who feels completely real and specific and human, even while doing terrible things, is hard. Mary makes Cha-Cha feel like a full person. She has a history. She has a worldview. She has chosen this life and she is committed to it without apology. Mary plays that commitment with complete conviction and it is chilling.

Florence Jackson to Cha-Cha in two years. Maximum warmth to maximum cold. If there was any remaining doubt about Mary's range as an actress, The Umbrella Academy ended it permanently.

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