'The Wide Window' is the third, of thirteen, book in Lemony Snicket's popular 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' series. A book series that was adapted twice, the first being the surprisingly good 2004 film that fitted the first three books in one film (or at least the most crucial bits of them) and this series from 2017-2019. 'The Wide Window' is a good instalment, advantaged mainly by the truly eerie setting and that it has one of Count Olaf's most memorable appearances.
'A Series of Unfortunate Events', meaning this series, has been a pleasant surprise. Of the previous episodes "The Bad Beginning" two parter was a far from bad start, the first one didn't quite feel settled but things did pick up in the second when there was more going on in the plot. "The Reptile Room", which for me is a better book in general, was great with both parts on equal with each other rather than one being better than the other. Its adaptation of 'The Wide Window' is not as good as "The Reptile Room" for me, but it still maintains that more settled feel of that than with "The Bad Beginning". It is very good in its own way.
Maybe it could have gotten going quicker, with the storytelling and tone of the series well established it does feel like it takes a touch too long to get to the point.
Did feel too that the roles of the white-faced women were somewhat unnecessary.
But the positives far outweigh those not so good things. "The Wide Window" continues the series' great visual quality. Up to this point of the book series, 'The Wide Window' tonally and in setting in my mind was the darkest, something that this adaptation of "The Wide Window" manages and nails. The Lake Lachrymose setting is genuinely eerie and has a real sense of foreboding matched in the suitably gloomy photography, unlike "The Reptile Room" where there was a degree of hope to begin with there is none really in sight here, other than that the Baudelaires have a guardian of some sort again. Not that that is a bad thing as that is the intent all along. Aunt Josephine's house is as one imagines it and one cannot not mention the beautifully and cleverly designed opening credits sequence. The music has a little jauntiness at times but mostly is quite haunting.
Continuing also from before is the air of tension and mystery, as well as the black humour of which there is actually more of. Lemony Snicket's sarcastic dig at the real estate is likely to make people purposefully uncomfortable. Snicket's narration may interrupt the flow of the storytelling but it did so throughout the book series, maybe it is a little repetitive but to me it didn't over-explain or was featured too much. It was over-used and heavy-handed for my liking in the darker second part though. The story is both entertaining and unsettling as ought, there is a real degree of menace but also one of Count Olaf's most entertaining if also more obvious disguises. There are changes here that are expanded upon and they turned out to not be a detriment, actually liked that the children were not treated like they were idiots anywhere near as much. There is even a fleshed out bit with Olaf where how he knew where the Baudelaires were was explained and made sense, that was great as that was something that raised questions in the book.
Neil Patrick Harris is a perfectly pitched mix of sinister and fun, and this particular disguise allowed him to play to his strengths as a performer, one of the disguises of the series to do that most effectively, without getting silly. Patrick Warburton is suitably dry and mysterious and Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes are growing more confident all the time. Alfre Woodard was slightly more mixed, but mostly fine. She does fierce, kind and tortured mostly very well but there are times in both parts where she overdoes it, then again Aunt Josephine is not an easy character to not overdo.
In conclusion, very well done on the whole. 8/10
'A Series of Unfortunate Events', meaning this series, has been a pleasant surprise. Of the previous episodes "The Bad Beginning" two parter was a far from bad start, the first one didn't quite feel settled but things did pick up in the second when there was more going on in the plot. "The Reptile Room", which for me is a better book in general, was great with both parts on equal with each other rather than one being better than the other. Its adaptation of 'The Wide Window' is not as good as "The Reptile Room" for me, but it still maintains that more settled feel of that than with "The Bad Beginning". It is very good in its own way.
Maybe it could have gotten going quicker, with the storytelling and tone of the series well established it does feel like it takes a touch too long to get to the point.
Did feel too that the roles of the white-faced women were somewhat unnecessary.
But the positives far outweigh those not so good things. "The Wide Window" continues the series' great visual quality. Up to this point of the book series, 'The Wide Window' tonally and in setting in my mind was the darkest, something that this adaptation of "The Wide Window" manages and nails. The Lake Lachrymose setting is genuinely eerie and has a real sense of foreboding matched in the suitably gloomy photography, unlike "The Reptile Room" where there was a degree of hope to begin with there is none really in sight here, other than that the Baudelaires have a guardian of some sort again. Not that that is a bad thing as that is the intent all along. Aunt Josephine's house is as one imagines it and one cannot not mention the beautifully and cleverly designed opening credits sequence. The music has a little jauntiness at times but mostly is quite haunting.
Continuing also from before is the air of tension and mystery, as well as the black humour of which there is actually more of. Lemony Snicket's sarcastic dig at the real estate is likely to make people purposefully uncomfortable. Snicket's narration may interrupt the flow of the storytelling but it did so throughout the book series, maybe it is a little repetitive but to me it didn't over-explain or was featured too much. It was over-used and heavy-handed for my liking in the darker second part though. The story is both entertaining and unsettling as ought, there is a real degree of menace but also one of Count Olaf's most entertaining if also more obvious disguises. There are changes here that are expanded upon and they turned out to not be a detriment, actually liked that the children were not treated like they were idiots anywhere near as much. There is even a fleshed out bit with Olaf where how he knew where the Baudelaires were was explained and made sense, that was great as that was something that raised questions in the book.
Neil Patrick Harris is a perfectly pitched mix of sinister and fun, and this particular disguise allowed him to play to his strengths as a performer, one of the disguises of the series to do that most effectively, without getting silly. Patrick Warburton is suitably dry and mysterious and Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes are growing more confident all the time. Alfre Woodard was slightly more mixed, but mostly fine. She does fierce, kind and tortured mostly very well but there are times in both parts where she overdoes it, then again Aunt Josephine is not an easy character to not overdo.
In conclusion, very well done on the whole. 8/10
