nmagnolnia Review of A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017–2019)

Reminded Me Why I Loved the Books

[8/10 · 13 January 2017]

This was more than I could hope for in an adaptation of the series. I know some people were satisfied with the 2004 movie, but while I found it an entertaining watch i thought that it ultimately didn't have the same heart as the original series-- I grew up reading the books and part of what really stuck with me was that I felt it was the first series I read to treat the reader with respect (it didn't hurt that the narrative was directed immediately at the reader, but-- and this may not make much sense, so apologies-- it made me feel like I could have expectations of a writer, and hold the author to a standard of quality). I think we lost something in the movie when there was an exceedingly limited presence of the narrator, when my favorite parts of the books were the quotes where you're addressed directly.  Warburton was fine as Snicket-- I don't know how someone could have messed up a role like that, but he had a good presence on screen.  The music pieces with lyrics were cringe-worthy, though I found the final song entertaining.  The added subplots were extraordinary. They were entertaining, worked exceedingly well towards world building, and provided satisfying context for the Baudelaire's experiences that were, in the books, provided more vaguely through Snicket's non- diegetic  interactions with the reader. The twist in the seventh episode killed me-- I had jumped to the expected assumption about the two adventurer characters, and was dreading their reunion with their family to be a massive wipe of character development, but when the reveal was made I never knew how badly I wanted to know their story. Masterfully done.  Handler writes complex and interesting narratives and I couldn't be more pleased that he was included in this adaptation-- I think a lot of what made the series what it is comes directly from him, and his being shut out of the nickelodeon movie led to it feeling like a poor photocopy of the original work. With his aid, the added events or details that weren't in the source material feel like a perfectly natural extension of the story, to the point where I've had to go back and forth because I hadn't read the books in ages and couldn't tell what had happened and what was new. I thought the tone was lovely, and that it's washed-out but less Gothic (compared to 2004 especially) added to the piece, in that it added an extra layer of irony by contrasting the visual tone with the content of the story in a way that still held together and was visual pleasing. I found it a little worrying that the only major black characters were the Poes and Aunt Josephine, aside from a few background characters of color. While it's certainly a step up from 2004's only having memorable non-white actor, Cedric the Entertainer, it's worrying how the only black characters are generally incompetent (Mr. Poe, Josephine) or dismissive and almost cruel (Mrs. Poe, Edgar and Arthur) to the protagonists. While I can see the argument to be made that an upper-middle class family that, in my opinion, was written to be obnoxiously white, being cast as a black family turns the trope on its head, I think it would be a more effective choice if there were other black characters that weren't self-serving the entire time they were on screen (excepting Josephine's final soliloquy, but that ended in her dying and honestly felt like its only purpose was to erase criticism like this by going "Look! Here! A Strong Character!"....... but then pushing her off the ship, so.). Monty and Gustav were both brown men, but were both killed... I understand that this series deals with a great deal of murder, of course, but note how all of the members of the VFD who die (aside from the parents, who are white (because the kids are white)) are people of color, while Jacquelyn and the other interspersed operatives are white, and lived.  Although, I will give them kudos for populating the crowds realistically. I can't recall much about Damocles Dock being particularly one way or the other, and there weren't really crowds in the Reptile Room episodes, but the background characters in the Bad Beginning and Miserable Mill episodes specifically had an even mix of people, which is refreshing because stories with noir or Gothic-reminiscent themes like this series have a track record of being excessively white for useless aesthetics.  I also enjoyed that every character was Jewish. Stepping a little outside of the piece itself and looking at the mainstream media it's being released into, Judaism needs all of the support it can get (especially with neo-nazism on the rise), and while Handler has explicitly stated that the Baudelaires are Jewish, drawing the rest of the world into that was done well.  Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever see an adaptation of Olaf that I'll wholeheartedly enjoy, but NPH's was easier to slip into than Jim Carrey's, and I found myself buying into his villainy and existence in the series more so than I did in the 2004 movie (Where Carrey seems to be stuck in a comedy while the rest of the cast plays drama-- and he has to, as the only entertaining role in the film. I loved his performance, but it didn't make for a tonally coherent film, whereas NPH isn't always on 101% melodrama, and it flows much more easily). All in all, I enjoyed myself immensely while watching, and it made me feel like I was reading the books again. I can't wait to see how they tackle the next third of the series (already being written), which I personally think is my favorite section, or (fingers crossed) the final four books. I have high, high hopes.