Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Nexflix Review

Star Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

Storyline - 

 "After the Baudelaire parents die in a terrible fire, the Baudelaire orphans search for their families secrets and get them and their fortune away from the terrible grasp of the sinister Count Olaf as he moves with them between different guardians in disguise." - imdb.com

Review -

For those of who remain unaware, Netflix has release their very own Web series based of the very woeful book series by Lemony Snicket, is one of the most highly anticipated adaptions of 2017.

For those of you who have been lucky enough to have not read the books, this story follows the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire through a series of unfortunate events following their parents death in a tragic house fire.

Firstly, I'd like to bring up the structure of the show, originally I was under the impression that this series would have a total of 13 episodes, giving one episode to each book. That, surprisingly, is not how it turned out, with two episodes per book, eight episodes per season, we're looking at 26 episodes and possibly 3 seasons. Giving to show a lengthy time frame for each of the first books, possible too lengthy.

The episodes seemed to have a lot of unnecessary time fillers which involved a lot of crap that never occurred in the books. However, this additional plot did add several layers to the story, including the false hope that is prominent later on in the books.

The final episode ends us with the forth book 'The Miserable Mill', but don't be disheartened. The 8th episode actually finishes at the start of the 5th book 'The Austere Academy'. On a very misplaced musical number. I say misplaced, because there are no other musical bits outside of the title sequence.

Now, here is where I am going to annoy plenty of other fans, by constantly comparing the web series to the movie.  A LOT. As the movie is what I was first exposed too, and inspired me to actually read the books.

My biggest issue is with how they presented Lemony Snicket and his morose monologues. Primarily due to the fact that Patrick Warburton plays Snicket. As soon as he appeared on screen, I literally screamed. My dislike of Warburton can only be compared to the figurative need to drown myself in a pond. Snicket was always a mysterious entity, a phantom,  a bystander to events long since past. This is one detail the movie trumps the web series in. 

Netflix have also attempted to make the monologues quirky and interesting, rather than solemn and morose. But as far as I'm concerned quirky is the wrong theme for this series. I was disappointed at the lack of gothic themes that are ever-present in the books.

Next up, Count Olaf.

Jim Carrey (Movie)               Neil Patrick Harris (Show)

Personally, I found Neil Patrick Harris to be underwhelming, whilst he definitely came across as awful, atrocious, and evil. He certainly wasn't frightening, mostly came across as a bit of dick actually. Jim Carrey had this magically way of bringing Count Olaf to life, using his own brand of insanity made the character more believable than Harris ever did. 

And why was his forehead so huge?! I get the receding hairline and all, but seriously? The thing could be used as a road block!

Another thing that bothered me is that the Baudelaire children seemed to similar to their movie counterparts, at some points I was actually convinced I was watching the movie. Malina Wiessman looked pretty much indentical to Emily Browning at that age, the same goes for Louis Hynes and Liam Aiken. 

I feel like Netflix actually allowed the movie to sway them in their casting of these roles.Which is understandably difficult since the books have illustration of exactly what everything is meant to look like. I'm also under the impression the Netflix is trying to avoid the label "White-washing", by adding people of various ethic backgrounds, which they did well.

Mr. Poe and his wife definitely added something a little extra to the plot, especially his wife who has made a seemingly permanent role in the show that does not exists, at all, in books. But honestly, is one of the more interesting characters in the show, probably my favorite.

Uncle Monty was also more interesting, due to the more in depth development of his character that was just not possible within the movie. Aasif Mandvi certainly used Billy Connolly as inspiration for his role. Which makes me wish Alfre Woodard,who plays Aunt Josephine, had taken inspiration from Meryl Streep. Woodard seemed quite spacey for most of her short role,  leaving me with the impression that she can't act (She can! She did amazingly in Marvel's Luke Cage), or didn't actually understand the role she was to play.

I also feel like an honorable mention should go to Catherine O'Hara who was in both the film, as Justice Strauss, and the show, as  Dr. Georgina Orwell.

Another thing I really enjoyed were the opening credits. They changed with every two episode, so they had a new one for each book, and if you actually paid attention, they would tell you what was happening in the episode using clever rhymes.

And finally, the conclusion.

I am actually really excited for the next season, as I won't be able to compare it to the movie like the first six episodes of this one. The monologues were well executed, even if done by Warburton. I certainly hope NPH, will pick up his game and show me that he can play something other than a shallow womanizer. Cast is great, but they need to be cautious since expectations have been set by the books illustrations.

💜Metalandteacups

Infomation -

Release Date: 13 Jan 2017
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 8
Time: Per Episode 45 mins approx.
Cast: 

	Malina Weissman	...	Violet Baudelaire
	Louis Hynes	...	Klaus Baudelaire
	Presley Smith	...	Sunny Baudelaire
	Neil Patrick Harris	...	Count Olaf
	Patrick Warburton	...	Lemony Snicket
	K. Todd Freeman	...	Mr. Poe