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A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 1 Review

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a black comedy streaming series that ran from 2017 to 2019 on Netflix. It is based on Lemony Snicket’s titular series and it’s an amazing adaptation.

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“You know, they say holding a baby can make all these deep,

primal parenting instincts kick in. I don’t see it“

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The three seasons adapt all thirteen of the series’ novels with every book getting two episodes that are around forty five minutes long. I loved this format and I found it perfect for this source material that was always more suited for television than for a film treatment. The first season adapts the first four books and it’s for the most part superb.

Let’s first talk about the characters and the technical aspects and then I will circle back to each storyline. First off, Count Olaf. I have mixed feelings about this villain’s portrayal here. There is definitely a point to be made about Jim Carrey doing a better job in the movie than Neil Patrick Harris did on the show, but I simply did not find the characterization all that good to begin with. Harris does a nice job in the comedy department and he’s actually quite funny, but he is never at all menacing, and the show rarely portrayed Olaf as dangerous, which was problematic, at least for now.

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As for the Baudelaires, I actually really liked them. Sunny is certainly the weakest so far. The cutting jokes to her smiling face with her kid talk being translated on screen was a fun choice, but otherwise the character is utterly underutilized for now, which is odd given that her presence in the books is huge.

Violet fares much better. At first, I did not care for Malina Weissman’s performance, but eventually she grew on me, and now I find her quite good. Violet is as smart as she was in the books while also being empathetic and sweet. Klaus himself is actually the best of the trio, at least in this adaptation. Louis Hynes’ performance is easily the best of the three and some of the characters’ dry remarks and pointed questions were quite funny. He’s excellent for sure.

There are a couple of character choices that the series makes that feel quite different from the source material. One is the role of Lemony Snicket. Patrick Warburton is game and actually perfectly cast with his suave, calm voice being a superb fit for narration. However, it felt excessive to include him in almost every sequence of the show.

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The other choice I liked more. Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders play the Quagmires’ parents, and the creators included them in the first couple of stories to make us falsely believe that these two are the protagonists’ parents, then pulling the rug beneath us in the greatest of fashions. Poe himself is as incompetent as in the books, but I’ve continued questioning the decision to race-bend all of these book characters, and choose the most problematic ones. It was pointless.

In terms of technicalities, A Series of Unfortunate Events looks stellar. I personally never got the impression that it was too small and TV-like as it has its cinematic moments and the cinematography is excellent. The production design, the costumes and the make-up are the highlights while the pacing and the structure also mostly worked. The music is solid, but the standout is that opening song, which is absolutely brilliant in lyrics that fit the dark theme of the source material beautifully. The ambiguous-era world building was also greatly portrayed.

‘The Bad Beginning’ is one of the better developed of the four books here. Justice Strauss is phenomenal. Joan Cusack was so well cast and she delivered in spades. She’s flawed, but quite endearing as she is supposed to be. I liked everything about this particular adaptation – the plot points are faithfully translated to the screen, the darker elements are definitely there and the whole marriage scam was stupendously executed and so much fun. I just wish that Olaf’s henchmen weren’t so heavily used throughout this entire show. They are suitably goofy, but not as scary, and their roles needn’t have been extended as much.

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‘The Reptile Room’ to me was the weakest of the four, which is so unfortunate as the novel is wonderful, but I simply found it quite messy. The pacing is totally off this time around, the darker elements were subdued and the humor was overly abundant. Sunny is great here and the snakes are wonderfully realized along with the whole house. And the whole maze sequence worked splendidly as the introduction of the Jacquelyn character really spiced things up positively. However, Monty was a mixed bag for me. His signature charm and positivity are there, but for the most part the actor was miscast and he couldn’t quite deliver, leading to the death of his not feeling as tragic as it felt in the novel.

‘The Wide Window’ actually fared much better, though this my second least favorite adaptation. The first part was concerned way too much with goofy characters and situational humor, but it did set things up well for that grandiose second part on the lake that was very dark as expected and quite tragic. I loved the cave, the lake and the leeches, and Olaf here is at his scariest with Harris delivering solidly in that area, but Alfre Woodard was simply not good as Josephine. I still felt the tragedy of her death as the character was faithfully translated from the book, but the problem was the acting. It was simply overly childish and theatrical.

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I do not want to sound anti-PC by bashing on all of these race-bent roles, but simply the casting needed to have been better on this show. Also, that house destruction sequence was accompanied by such ridiculous, joyous music that felt out of place for that scene that should have been scary. It may sound as if I am nitpicking, but these little moments really do matter and I hope the show won’t make the same tonal mistakes in the future.

If there was ever any doubt in my mind that this won’t be that great of a show, it was squashed with the adaptation of ‘The Miserable Mill’, easily the highlight of this first season. I adored every single thing here, whether it being a faithful rendition or the few changes that were actually done for the better. Rhys Darby as Charles and Don Johnson as Sir were both terrific and the decision to make them partners in life, not just business was unnecessary, but it surprisingly mostly worked as the dynamic was still left intact.

But Catherine O’Hara as Dr. Orwell?! Oh my god, was I happy to see this casting. She fitted the role like a glove and she was very menacing throughout. The playful dynamic between her and Olaf worked splendidly and his female disguise here was expectedly gross and campy. I did not care for that song at the end in the slightest, but other than that, both of these episodes worked splendidly. The whole hypnotized trance subplot was brilliantly executed and even darker than in the book. This is what I’m asking from this show, and hopefully this tone will be present in the next installments as well.

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