What The Reviews Have To Say About Netflix's 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events'
Sure, Neil Patrick Harris is no stranger to the big franchise spotlight (the man carried two Smurfs movies, after all), but 2004 saw Nickelodeon swing-and-miss at a Series of Unfortunate Events movie series with Jim Carrey in the starring role. Can Harris and company do better with Netflix's support?
A Series of Unfortunate Events, written by Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket, follows the Baudelaire orphans as they avoid the inheritance-thieving schemes of their murderous uncle Count Olaf (Harris). Patrick Warburton plays the mysterious Lemony Snicket, while Handler himself is writing and co-executive producing the series, which is available on Netflix today. Do the reviews have good news in store for the Baudelaire children?
The Show's Two-Parter Pacing Works Well For Each Story
Each book takes up two episodes, so this inaugural season of eight installments covers the first four tales ("The Bad Beginning," "The Reptile Room," "The Wide Window" and "The Miserable Mill"). This better allows us to bask in the visually topsy-turvy and verbally dextrous world (where a running gag might revolve around elucidating the differences between "literally" and "figuratively") occupied by the tragedy-prone Baudelaire orphans.
The scripts leave intact some of the most charming elements of the book's verbal eccentricities, including Snicket's macabre letters to his now dead lover Beatrice at the outset of each episode, as well as plenty of sly dictionary talk from narrator Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton).
[Collider]
It Preserves The Charm, Darkness, And Meta-Jokes Of The Books
The most difficult element of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is also the essence of its charm — its straightforward, unadorned recounting of the terrible things children are vulnerable to, precisely because they are young, innocent, and supposed to mind their elders. The Baudelaire children spend the entire series trying to get adults to take their well-founded fears seriously, as they are knocked about, tricked, stolen from, and sent to live in squalor. But even the best-intentioned adults around them are frail creatures, too — blinded by ambition, neuroses, or simple selfishness.
[Variety]
Warburton's guiding figure often interjects himself into the show, physically appearing in scenes unbeknownst to the Baudelaires, offering an opportunity for fun visual transitions to new locations, and simply bringing more levity to the proceedings, despite his insistence that the series is anything but.
[IGN]
Neil Patrick Harris And Patrick Warburton Totally Kill It
Harris preens and menaces as Count Olaf masterfully, turning from ridiculous to threatening and back in eyeblinks. He's equally at home brandishing a knife or performing elaborately choreographed musical numbers. Olaf's acting troupe-cum-henchpeople walk the same tightrope, but a special mention goes to the hook-handed Usman Ally for teeing up some of the best gags in the show.
[CNET]
In a further improvement over 2004's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, the Snicket of this version is not quite narrator yet not quite active participant, popping on and off screen (often in scenically appropriate wardrobe) to advance the story or tee up one of the series' faux-illuminating asides. He's a connection to the material's literary roots in addition to a playful televisual device, and Warburton's dry delivery is an ideal fit for the role. In perpetual deadpan, he underscores Snicket's characteristic warnings that A Series Of Unfortunate Events will bring viewers only pain and misery, an in-joke echoed in an ever-mutating theme song sung by Harris.
[AV Club]
It's Stylish Like The Book Illustrations — Save For The Baby CGI
Meanwhile, ace production designer Bo Welch, who also directed the two-part season finale, has an imaginative, eye-popping field day with the sets — a nice mix of practical and CG elements that bring to life everything from a creaky shack perched perilously atop a cliff to an evil optometrist's office located in an ocular-shaped metal tower.
The youngest Baudelaire, the baby Sunny (Presley Smith), is largely a source of amusing cutaway gags and an amusing basis for Count Olaf's hatred. She is also, unfortunately, one of the series' few visual missteps. Though not in every scene, Smith is clearly a partial or full CGI insert, often when she has to be on screen with other characters in intense sequences. The obvious production issue of having a baby in such precarious positions aside, it's still disappointing if only for how distractingly it stands out in comparison to the otherwise visually stunning show.
[IGN]
TL;DR
Quibbles aside, Unfortunate Events' first season is more than a passable adaptation. The writing, sets and performances all possess the witty glee and gloom of Handler's books — if the trajectory of the originals are any indication, the show stands to get better as it goes. Give it a try!
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