by Haley Mitchell, managing editor
“The management regrets to inform you that the shampoo is not tear-free. If anything, it encourages tears.”
Over a decade after The End was published to conclude Lemony Snicket’s bestselling series, Netflix has finally delivered fans of Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events in eight tidy little under-an-hour-long episodes.
Boasting a laundry list of A-listers in large roles such as Neil Patrick Harris (Barney, How I Met Your Mother) as Count Olaf, Patrick Warburton (Jeff, Rules of Engagement) as Lemony Snicket, Joan Cusack (the 90s in general) as Justice Strauss, Aasif Mandvi (Chetty, The Internship) as Uncle Monty and Cathrine O’Hara (neglectful mother, Home Alone) as Dr. Georgina Orwell, fans were promised the moon and received quite a few stars instead.
For fans of the books like myself who read them a long time ago, the story will feel familiar but still exciting. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are having a wonderful day of inventing and sharing knowledge and biting at the beach when their parents’ ever-coughing estate manager Mr. Poe appears to inform them that there has been a terrible fire in the thirty-some-odd minutes they’ve been away from home and all of their belongings are destroyed and their parents dead. What follows is infuriatingly entertaining—Mr. Poe entrusts the Baudelaires to an inordinately distant relative who is obviously not fit to care for them. So what if he’s only providing one bed for three children and his house would make the Property Brothers want to keel over?
Harris’ Count Olaf is every bit as loathsome and irritatingly persistent as his novel counterpart, with most of his lines taken directly from the books. Part of the entertainment comes from watching Harris, a famous actor, portray someone who is very bad at acting. Count Olaf forgets the names of his fake identities, can’t keep up a fake accent without slipping into another one and can barely pretend not to be after the Baudelaire’s fortune.
All of this is in tune with the books, as well as pretty much every other quirk possessed by every character that’s appeared so far. Watching the series is like watching the books. Nostalgically, I’m pleased with its perfection, but I know that those who are unfamiliar with the novels will be confused and most likely irritated with how the story progresses.
If a viewer is unfamiliar with the premise of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I’d encourage you to watch with the knowledge that the series was written to appeal to children and by an author under a pen name just to make it seem even more mysterious and cool (hence the Beatrice references, which are abundant and make my cold heart happy).
It’s sinister and intricate and aesthetically stunning—computer generated backgrounds are not uncommon, but usually the foreground is so visually interesting and important that it becomes less and less noticeable.
Watching this show was not only a pleasant reawakening, but a welcome reminder that as I near the end of my time in high school it’s probably time to revisit my childhood indulgences. If only I could read the series for my senior thesis.
