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From the Page to the Screen – A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children’s dark comedy books written by Lemony Snicket. It is one of my favorite book series with each and every entry being hugely entertaining and very well written. And because it was so popular, it was bound to inspire a film and also a television show.

THE FILM ADAPTATION

The film was released in 2004. It starred Jim Carrey in the villainous role. It only covered the first three books which was a choice done for better and for worse. It received just solid reviews and terrible box office while I myself find it also solid with some great and some not so great aspects to it.

PLOT

The film felt very episodic owing to its three-novel adaptation choice. Yes, it was very faithfully adapted for the most part, and some of the changes were also quite good surprisingly enough, but the structure itself was weaker, and the books were simply much more engaging and much more entertaining.

WINNER – BOOKS

CHARACTERIZATION

I actually loved Sunny here, even more so than the book counterpart. But all of the others are much weaker versions of themselves, especially the guardians of the kids. As for Carrey’s version of Count Olaf, it was admittedly a lot of fun as he’s quite funny here, but the nasty, villainous edge was lost, and that was the case with the entire tone here.

WINNER – BOOKS

EMOTION

I actually found the ending to this movie very strong, and quite moving. But that was the only scene that was very touching whereas all of the endings to the three books, especially the third one, were much more emotional.

WINNER – BOOKS

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THEMES

The book isn’t really all that sophisticated, but it does teach kids some interesting, more different lessons than the other children’s classics. The movie, on the other hand, sacrificed those for more action scenes.

WINNER – BOOKS

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

The writing in the novels is so terrific as it’s both clever and very funny. But the film adaptation itself has some amazing set pieces, a terrific Gothic atmosphere to it, great acting and a powerful atmosphere.

WINNER – TIE

BOOK 5: FILM 1

This was a clear winner in favor of the novels of course. The second novel was poorly adapted, and it was much better in written form. The first one was needlessly spread throughout whereas the third was adapted best. This is a solid flick, but the books remain much superior.

THE SHOW ADAPTATION

The Netflix show premiered in 2017 and it ended in 2019. It consisted of three seasons, each developing around a third of the novels. It starred Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. Unlike the film, this show covered all novels, which was wonderful for all the fans. It was uneven in its treatment, but mostly faithful. It received great reviews overall.

PLOT

I would actually say that the show adapts some of the books, especially the last one, much better than Daniel Handler ever did. The storytelling is very faithful for the most part while most of the changes were done for the better and the world building felt even improved on the show. But some of the books in the second season got very problematic treatment, resulting in a very uneven show.

WINNER – TIE

CHARACTERIZATION

At first, I was troubled by some of the casting choices on this show and most of the villains felt less dangerous due to the heavily comedic tone of the series, but the latter part of this production became significantly better in acting and characterization. The highlights are Olaf and Esme, both superbly acted and highly entertaining.

WINNER – BOOKS

EMOTION

The ending of the final episode truly got me. It was beautiful and even more touching than that particular entry in the book series. The heavy emphasis on humor, though, robbed the show a bit of its emotional investment, but for the most part it was on the same level of the source material.

WINNER – TIE

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THEMES

The books teach kids some valuable lessons, vocabulary and sciences while the show itself struggled with depicting properly the kids’ hobbies. The blurring between good and evil was very well explored, but otherwise the thematic resonance was quite lacking here.

WINNER – BOOKS

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

I would contend that the film was much better in audio-visuals. The show had a big budget obviously as most shows today have, but the problem here was the overly comedic tone that robbed some of the dangerous momentum of more than a couple of major sequences. The score and the effects needed to have been better and more dramatic.

WINNER – BOOKS

BOOK 5: SHOW 2

The books remain better, but for the most part this show was a major improvement upon the movie that we got back in 2004. The overly comedic tone and uneven quality to some of the stories were problematic, but the characterization, acting and some welcome plot changes were all terrific.