Netflix ’s A Series of Unfortunate Events comes online today . And it ’s got some beautiful figure work and fishy functioning . But , mostly , it ’s bleak as inferno .
ground on Lemony Snicket ’s ( real name : Daniel Handler , who acts as an executive producer on the Netflix show ) 13 - book series , A Series of Unfortunate Events in no way skimps on what ’s promised in the title . And while none of that ’s just a surprisal to people who know the books , it ’s somehow even grimmer to view .
The show follows the three Baudelaire shaver : eldest Violet ( Malina Weissman ) , who has a natural endowment for mechanics ; Klaus ( Louis Hynes ) , the middle minor with a specialty in inquiry and book - noesis ; and real baby Sunny ( Presley Smith ) , with frighteningly discriminating tooth . The unfortunate issue begin with the child being orphaned , continues with them being delivered into the hands of nefarious Count Olaf ( Neil Patrick Harris ) , and does n’t abate once they ’re able to escape his clutches . The three children move from caretaker to caretaker , each prison term run into Olaf in disguise as he continue to plot to steal their fortune — by hook up with the 14 - year - sometime Violet . biography are ruined . Hopes are crush . And every time the child find someone overnice , they are unavoidably murder . The serial ’ title is n’t kidding .
It ’s dear to suppose of the eight Netflix episodes as four 90 - second picture show , rather than a serial . It ’s parcel out as two episodes per book , with the sequence title ( “ The Bad Beginning : Part One , ” “ The Bad get-go : Part Two , ” etc . ) and the theme song reflecting the changes . With each young book plot of ground , Harris sings a new summary of what ’s happened and is going to happen .
And I ’d highly recommend spreading out your viewing into the provided two - episode clod . Otherwise , the incessant misery present by these children would get to be too much .
If you manage not to permit the bleakness get to you , you ’ll see that the show has a portion to commend it . A lot of money go into the sets , costume , and makeup , and it shows . I ’m a particular fan of the beach town of Lachrymose , which looks exactly like an off - time of year hangout town from the ‘ 60s . The Anxious Clown is every chintzy seafood restaurant those Ithiel Town always have , but the host dressed as a clown adds a level of WTF that sing .
Barry Sonnenfeld ’s directed it with every trick he learned on Addams Family and Pushing Daisies . This show owes a lot to Pushing Daisies , in the way it ’s set in a heightened reality that both is , and is n’t , our present day . In how it use a storyteller . In the wordplay and the use of speech communication . A Series of Unfortunate Events marries the TV spoken language of Pushing Daisies with the text edition from the original books in a way that really figure out ; it ’s like the goth full cousin of Pushing Daisies .
The adult mold is clear take a ball . Neil Patrick Harris is credible as Count Olaf , although he ’s more enjoyable when Olaf is in camouflage than he is as an undecorated count . But the back players are where the show really shine . K. Todd Freeman , Joan Cusack , Alfre Woodard , Don Johnson , and Rhys Darby all take smaller component part and fill the screen with how ridiculous they are . particular citation has to go to Aasif Mandvi , however , who add together the most pathos to his quality , the herpetologist Dr. Montgomery Montgomery . I found his two episodes the hardest to watch because he was so likeable that nothing good could be in store for him .
The other sales booth - out is Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket . He has Thomas Nelson Page of idiotic talks to deliver , while also being a part of some of the show ’s most dreamlike tableaus . ( There is a sight gag with him and a mannequin that is subtle and hilarious . ) Not everyone would be so able of delivering soliloquy on everything from how much you should not watch the show , to how screw the Baudelaire children are , to simply running through the definitions of things , to the time he fought with a icebox repairman . And he manages to do it while still giving the narrator an actual character .
All that said , the wordplay might be a bit too clever . Some jokes do n’t set ashore because they ’re buried in a paries of text that probably worked well on the page . And the younger worker try their best , but they are not nearly as silver-tongued with the language as the grownup actors are . Plus , as straight human to all the weirdness , they often end up fading into the background of their own tale .
And there is a tone job . While press Daisies and large voice of the Addams Family do to find the balance between the slop of the setting and the macabre premise , this show drop dead for humor more often than the nerve . And so some of the antic unknowingly make you sense even speculative about all the destruction and pain in the ass and red . It might just be me , but a lot of the unfortunate events left me more downhearted than I was before I see it , making Snicket ’s warnings less amusing and more very substantial .
Ultimately , A Series of Unfortunate Events is witching and has fun actors delivering perfectly craft lines . Just cue up something glad to watch after .
Neil Patrick HarrisNetflixtv review
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