Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The funniest show about newly orphaned children you’ll ever watch.
What it is: A television show based on the book series by Lemony Snicket (well, actually by Daniel Handler — it’s a whole thing). Despite being literally a series of unfortunate events, it’s a comedy series! Neil Patrick Harris sings a song and everything.
What I’ve watched: Finished the entire first season last night.
Is it good?: YEPPERS
Quick thoughts: Did you watch Edward Scissorhands as a kid and still feel a little sad that Tim Burton will never make a movie like that again? Are you a little bit of a sucker for stories that include international conspiracies and secret societies? Do you want to watch several hours of horrible things happening to children? Good news! Besides being a visual treat courtesy of Pushing Daisies director Barry Sonnenfeld, every single actor in the show has a ton of fun. Patrick Warburton’s deadpan Lemony Snicket is an unexpected joy — I never knew how sorely I needed to see him wryly explain the meaning of dramatic irony before I watched him do it on this show. Neil Patrick Harris as the evil Count Olaf is right on the edge of chewing scenery at times, but the fantastical nature of the show matches his hammy-ness.
While the three child actors who play Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are charming and capable, the real treat are all the guest stars. From Alfre Woodard playing the perpetually terrified Josephine Anwhistle, to Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders as two parents breaking out of gaol in Peru, there is a new performance full of warmth and humour in every episode.
What did you think of it?
Comments
14 responses to “Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events Will Make You Laugh About Sad Orphans”
I only watched the first episode. Struggling to find the motivation to watch the second, found it really boring. It’s got a certain charm to it, but it feels like it’s trying way too hard in exactly the way that Tim Burton’s best work doesn’t. Most of the humour didn’t really work for me and I felt like the pacing was off.
Definitely did enjoy Warburton’s performance though, and I didn’t hate it overall, just found it a bit dull so far, so I might give episode 2 a shot in the next day or so.
It’s an ok show still watching I cried when I seen the parents Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders or as there better known (lego) batman and Robin (how I met your mother) I hope this is coincidence
That’s a pretty big spoiler for the first episode…. you should really change that.
I do agree with you however this is the internet.
I fail to see the spoiler last time I checked everyone has parents i never stated there story I made a observation that the actors most know roles make up batman and Robin which in turn made me cry from laughter and my wife question her life choices
Their parents are presumed dead after the fire, so seeing two people who are playing the mother and father at the end is quite surprising, and definitely a twist, since it’s also a departure from the books.there are such things as flashbacks for emotional context most if not all shows and movies have them when the parents die also did you even read the article I feel you barking at the wrong person
It’s all good I accept your apology
Dude, I disagree and feel like it’s a spoiler, but you clearly don’t think it does. That’s it. What’s there to apologise for? The fact that you waited 3 days, kept this conversation in your mind and then came back to say this weird thing just goes to show how petty this thing is, when you could just play nice and put a spoiler tag in your original post, JUST in case.
it’s literally in this article yes it’s a spoiler if I posted it on Facebook or something but I didn’t it was a reference to a point in this article you can’t spoil what’s already been spoiled , didn’t wait 3 days that’s just usually my cycle of going on kotaku but I was being petty for you’re arrogance just for a laugh
It’s a weird one. It seems like a show that I should be enjoying far more than I actually am and I’m having trouble deciding why exactly that is.
Yeah didn’t really enjoy it to be honest, don’t think I’ll follow up with watching a second episode
The handling of Lemony Snicket’s voice as it appears in the novel was fantastic, the kids are very well cast and there are a bunch of details and easter eggs for readers of the series that are a lot of fun but I think it has pretty big problems over all.
Neil Patrick Harris is far too over the top as are his whole troupe where in the books there was a much finer balance between the amusing and sinister aspects to his character (his implications of sexual desire towards Violet seemed particularly wrong and in bad taste in the second episode for example), the guest stars all feel removed from the rest of the main cast in a bad way and the (possibly deliberately) bad CGI is really getting on my nerves.
The visuals generally feel pretty faithful to the book which is great and Patrick Warburton is pretty much perfect as Lemony Snicket, so the series has a lot going for it, but the delicate balance between the funny and faintly disturbing aspects of the series is all but lost in this adaption and I personally can’t get past that. It’s OK, but nothing like the books which I thought were utterly brilliant as a childrens book series that didn’t patronize and treated their young audience with a great deal of respect.
Im getting alot of Dr horrible moments from Neil Patrick Harris’s Count Olaf, which is fine by me.