What I’m watching: I’m mining new releases from Netflix.

The Umbrella Academy

Adopted from Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s series of graphic novels, the new superhero series on Netflix is considerably funkier than their Marvel adaptations, which for the most part were superbly entertaining.

This story is set in a United States that doesn’t have cell phones or the Internet. In fact not one computer is seen.

The series is set around the premise that on Oct. 1, 1989 43 women give birth – women who were not pregnant until labor started. An eccentric billionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves sought out these babies and adopted seven of them.

Hargreeves seems to know something: these children have some sort of powers and he intends to train them to become a sort of Justice League group of heroes.

He doesn’t name them, but gives them numbers – they apparently give themselves names. Klaus can talk to the dead. Luther is the leader and very strong. Allison can make people do anything. Diego can throw a knife and hit anything. Ben can summon up a creature from another dimension. Number Five can jump through time and space. Vanya apparently has no powers. She was raised as an outsider and never went on missions with her sister and brothers.

Dubbed The Umbrella Academy, the youthful group made quite a splash as crime fighters. They inspired merchandising and were celebrities.

Hargreeves’ vision proved to be faulty. Growing up, the team disperses to follow their own path. Ben dies. Number Five disappears. It is only when the old man dies that the team comes together again, very reluctantly and very dysfunctional.

The death of their father coincides with the reappearance of Number Five from the future. He tells his siblings the world has been destroyed and only they can stop it.

Someone is intent on stopping the team from achieving this goal.

“The Umbrella Academy” has all of the superhero trappings pop culture fans could want, but offers a different, funkier take on the superhero tropes.

I liked it a lot. It has an impressive look and several good plot twists and turns. The ensemble cast is also effective.

The production is quite binge-worthy.

Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy

Larry Charles knows comedy. He directed the feature film “Borat,” among others and has written for shows such as “Seinfeld.”

Perhaps one of the most least satisfying things in life is trying to explain humor, but in this series Charles doesn’t try to analyze jokes. Instead he discusses how humor can exist in situations so dark and dire that one couldn’t imagine how anything or anyone could be considered funny.

To this end, he travels to parts of the world, such as Iraq, Liberia – still recovering from a devastating civil war – Saudi Arabia and Nigeria where comedy amazingly exists. He also looks at comics, whose humor springs from unexpected experiences such as combat, being an illegal alien and Native American heritage.

The result is a fascinating but at times grueling experience. This series presents imagery, language and concepts that might be offensive, but it also effectively addresses the role of humor to try to cope with terrible situations and heal from those situations.

This series was often revelatory, sometimes cringe-worthy but always on its point of seeing the role of humor in the human experience.

Again, this is a series intended for adults.