Dear reader, if you’re looking for a feel-good review I urge you to put the newspaper down right now. What awaits you in this review is nothing but the utmost unpleasantness, and includes opinions on casting, words like despair, ominous and CGI. I urge you to stop reading this review and instead pick an article in which the content is much more upbeat. Perhaps the story about a nazi being punched in the face, or the arts and sciences uniting against alternative fascism would be more your taste.
If you do however wish to embark with me in this appraisal of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, be advised that as the title says, the world we’re about to enter will be less than pleasant.
Any reader worth their salt in middle school knew about Lemony Snicket, and will, therefore recognize the throwback. Snicket’s best-known books, A Series of Unfortunate Events was recently made into a T.V. series. The series was announced last year and since then fans have waited with bated breath for what may be one of the few Fortunate Events to grace 2017.
In regards to casting, there is very little left to be desired. Malina Weissman and Louis Hyne do an incredible job of bringing Violet and Klaus Baudelaire to life and while Jim Carrey set the bar pretty high for count Olaf, Neal Patrick Harrison brings an inherent Barneyism to the character. For the uninformed, Barney Stinson is one of Harrison’s best-known characters from the t.v. series How I Met Your Mother. Looking at Harrison’s rendition of Count Olaf, mannerisms from Barney weaved into Olaf’s characterizations will be recognizable by HIMYM fans. In my humble opinion, however, rather than detract from characterization, this instead adds to it. It certainly helps that Barney’s character isn’t all that different from Olaf, at least on the surface. They both share the same wit and a rather big superiority complex. Olaf’s troupe also deserves honorable mention for being portrayed both accurately and magnificently. Lemony snicket is also portrayed in a superb manner, albeit for once we are privy to his face. If you’ve read the books you understand just why that feels kind of weird.
Perhaps the best part of the series, however, is how true to the book it stays. It’s been long since said that book series would better be adapted for t.v. series rather than movies, in which books are often butchered for the sake of time and mainstream biases. This certainly holds true with Lemony Snicket. With every book spaced out into two episodes, more details and clues from the books are left intact. This helps it’s series maintain it’s original genre of gothic and absurdist fiction, as well as allows fans of the series the same thrills and suspense that the books gave them as kids. The cast is also diverse, with aunt Josephine being portrayed by African-American actress Alfre Woodard, and Mr. Poe being portrayed by Kenneth Todd Freeman. Both actors deliver the roles incredibly and are a fresh reprieve from the lack of diversity in the movie and Hollywood in general. Despite staying constantly true to the book, the series still manages to surprise us, with one of the very first subplots having connections with the infamous and famous V.F.D.
While there are some drawbacks, including the goofy humor, and the overuse of CGI. The scenery strays from the gothic theme that was present both in the book and the first movie, and long-term fans might be a bit put off by that. I know I was.
Overall, the series stands as one of Netflix’s highest achievements and keeps within itself the very important message than reading and knowledge are the best way to combat ignorance and the evils of the world. According to Symphony, over 3.755 million viewers were watching the series upon it’s release. Rotten tomatoes gave it an approval rating of 93% and said the series -was- “Enjoyably dark, A Series of Unfortunate Events matches the source material’s narrative as well as its tone, leaving viewers with a wonderfully weird, dry, gothic comedy.” the series has also been praised as a better adaptation than the movie of the same name.
The series has not been cleared for a second season yet but Netflix has announced that should it happen, it will be covered in ten episodes. The second season would be starting off with book five, The Austere Academy and, supposedly, keep it’s format of two episodes per book, ending with The Carnivorous Carnival.