Dear Reader,
Are you an inventor, a bibliophile, or a biter? You might even identify yourself as the terrible villain himself. Maybe even, one of his horrendous henchman. Whoever you are, you watched at least one episode [maybe you made it through without running away, no matter how many times the line is sung for an opening theme] of the long anticipated (4,411 days or 13 years to be exact) arrival of a popular (1) book series transformed into a Netflix original series. With a calendorical choice to release the series on the first Friday the 13th of the year sets the remainder of our lives in a state of doom, peril, and despair (2).
As a true understatement, I have been a fan of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events since I received the first four books in the series for Christmas of my tenth year, which by all personal accounts is 13 years ago in case dear reader, you are faintly interested in how many years I have been here on this earth. As any true fan does in the in-between moments of not rereading the entire series and their additional addendums, they make a commonplace book (3) and in that commonplace book they place all their notes worth noting about the Netflix version of the series in its own separate and specialized section.
In these notes, I have meticulously compiled while watching this unfortunate series on an account to the streaming world of television, movies, and the occasional fabricated fire simulation for a calming ambiance for those unable to afford their own functional fireplace. While discussing these notes and the revealing of aforementioned notes, I am aware that any future correspondence will be done in code.
The items of note below will spoil (4) any chance of you seeing this series the same way you originally intended so any members of a secret organization or any particular and singular person interested in watching the series without these spoilings should scream and run away. If you have never in your entire life heard of ASOUE prior to the Netflix original series and only wish to watch the series on the screen; instead, of through the act of flipping cream colored pages then you should run away because I am going to scream.
As the introduction rings with a certain catchy and forewarning tone/tune, we follow the red yarn to a series of photographs of cast members set to take part in this series. When the minute long intro concludes, the audience is left with an automatic message typed in a serif font of a dedication to a mysterious woman named Beatrice. It is worth noting the exact quote is the same quote to start the book series in The Bad Beginning. These short love passages become a way for the audience to differentiate between books, but it also serves as a genuine connection to the littlest of details in the books that the author (also the executive producer of the show) did not want fans to miss.
The first person to have a speaking role in the series comes from a man named Lemony Snicket. His dark humor interjects between scenes as a way of playing the role of narrator and the culprit for breaking the fourth wall. He speaks to us, the audience, as if we have a stake in these moments with him. Just like the books, Snicket interjects while one of the Baudelaires are on the verge of uncovering something. The actor playing Mr. Snicket is Patrick Warburton whose voice suits the character quite well, but I would prefer never to see his face (5). Part of the role as the elusive Snicket was that his identity always remained a mystery. Even in The Unauthorized Autobiography, Snicket's own ghostwritten memoir by his representative, contained blurry photographs of his true identity. By revealing his face makes the illusion of the wizard behind the curtain effect that much more a sham (6)to what is being done in revealing his true self.
Three soon-to-be orphans are traveling on a rickety trolley to Briny Beach. Snicket utters, "I've never been through anything like this myself, but I can imagine exactly how you feel..."
By first glance, Violet's pink dress (and white Chuck Taylor All Stars) and motherly embrace towards her younger sister, Sunny, seems to jump off the screen compared to the doom and gloom monochromes throughout their city. Klaus' glasses are a welcoming sight due to their complete absence from the movie version in 2004. At times, he looks like a younger version of Liam Aiken's portrayal of Klaus. This youthfulness of the two actors side by side appear to be siblings, but for some tugging reason, their closeness in age appears too close (7). I think this complaint stems from the eldest children's heights being almost the same despite their age difference. It also might have something to do with how Violet always appeared taller and skinnier in Brett Helquist's illustrations than Klaus because she was in fact fourteen years old, a teenager, compared to her brother who was only twelve when the series began.
The children arrive at Briny Beach on a cloudy and foggy day where they are interrupted by a strange noise in the distance. A cumbersome, congenital cough, which soon reveals itself to be coming from a family friend by the name of Arthur Poe (8). On a small aside, the Baudelaires brief stay with Mr. Poe and his wife, Elenora along with their sons, Edgar and Albert, appears to be simply a waste of valuable (9) time for the audience because they just want to get to quote the good stuff unquote as they say. Especially, since the scene offers no character development for the Baudelaires as well as any members of the Poe household.
Before long, we are introduced to the terrible villain, Count Olaf, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Both men are seasoned actors whose facial expressions are what make them great at their craft. Harris' portrayal of Olaf is unbelievable where he is just as overdramatic and awful as we were all hoping he would be. The costumes, I mean disguises, that he wears throughout each episode is perfectly crafted to get as real to the illustrations and descriptions as possible. The instances where we start noticing the mysterious symbol (sometimes hidden) throughout the episodes provide the audience with little easter eggs to keep us always on the look out for something mysterious always right in front of our eyes or under our noses (10).
I am quite pleased at how Neil Patrick Harris is able to give the audience exactly the right amount of dark humor and cynicism to make us fans hate and love him. The jokes he makes are natural and roll off his tongue effortlessly where sometimes, they seem to be made up on the spot (11). Each voice and/or accent is specific and precise for that character just as an any actor would perfect his role on and off the screen. Each disguise contains just enough obvious clues of his true identity that make the Baudelaires and audience just as angry when others do not see the man behind the mask (12)
Count Olaf's theater troupe is an eclectic mix of oddball characters that help Olaf stay grounded even while they are being walked over like a stretch of sidewalk. These characters may seem minor, but their roles are necessary for Olaf to complete his schemes. Their costumes and disguises fit in each scene they are in by not being completely covered up in unrecognizable robes. They often are alternating between the roles of good cop and bad cop with the children like they are fighting over a moral conflict to help or to harm their leader's enemies.
By the time, the children are placed in the care of their supposedly "fierce and formidable" not related Aunt Josephine, the children have already outsmarted the Count once and will only force them to hide for the rest of their young lives from his horrendous hands and the treachery which their owner possesses. Upon arriving at Aunt Josephine's house, the audience falls in love with her quirky and undiagnosed agoraphobic personality (13) that made us love her eleven books ago. Alfre Woodard like Harris has great range in facial expressions, but her primal fear of anything and everything needed to be for a lack of better word, pumped up more. She was scared of doorknobs shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces, stoves, and real estate agents, but I wish she was just a tad quirkier like her counterpart from The Wide Window.
Uncle Monty's love of herpetology and the movie, Zombies in the Snow, are all evident within moments of the Baudelaires stepping out of Mr. Poe's vehicle. The ride up on his driveway gives a colorful and highly detailed set (14) specific to the prominent amphibian and reptilian expert, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery. Even though, his death is abrupt I wish the director spent less time on the Zombies in the Snow (15) scene to Uncle Monty's untimely yet expected demise.
In The Miserable Mill, we see characters never heard from other than through written dialogue. Sir and Charles, partners (15) of Lucky Smells Lumbermill show more hostility towards one another where they might be slowly in the process of dissolving their business partnership. Phil's optimistic personality in the books came across as this guy that was always happy and positive, but you can see his underlying sadness and his truly kind heart for helping the Baudelaire orphans in any way he can. His near death experience was just the right amount of satire and over dramatics to keep the children the stars of the show. Dr. Georgina Orwell's villainous practice of hypnotizing the lumber mill's employees including Klaus made me have a few more questions than answers. What exactly was her and Count Olaf's relationship?(16) Are they still in love with one another? In case, Dr. Orwell's face looked somewhat familiar to the ASOUE franchise let me just tell you a hint (17).
Before I go, dear reader, let me tell you something as a loyal and lifelong fan of this series. Every small line from a supposedly minor character (i.e. overly excited taxi driver utterly what he prefers to be called: Ishmael or the fisherman selling fish heads instead of promoting his upcoming Netflix original series) to the micro details of the signs in the underground tunnels all have a place here in this aforementioned unfortunate series. And another thing, only ASOUE would have an incredible laugh out loud moment with a musical number with no choreography and no happiness in the tone/tune.
(1) A word that here means of prominent and significant rise to gross about 65 million copies worldwide, which is considered "popular" by any author either on the rise or decline in the literary world, a world which also means the hermit community. As a writer myself, I recognize and adore this community, but they often do recluse themselves until their life's work is complete. In some deeply depressing circumstances, they are pulled out on a stretcher and put inside a hearse to the funeral home before said work is completely concluded.
(2) If you believe in those sorts of things, they will probably lead to a sequential series of unfortunate events.
(3) An object which here means a contained notebook or journal of some kind where notes on codes, possible meanings and source of a secret organization can be found. For some, a place to catalog all the disguises from a certain vile villain simply identified as C.O. for the duration of the journal.
(4) A word that here means a piece or pieces of information about certain plot elements or characters which may include the climax or ending and reveal the piece or pieces of information before a person witnesses the plot or characters for themselves. Thus, ruining the person or watcher's experience before it even begins.
(5) Not that Warburton has a particularly hideous looking face that no amount of plastic surgery could fix, but I just don't want to see it when it comes up on my screen.
(6) A word that here means a person or thing pretending to be someone or something they are not. In no reference or relation to a captain by the same surname.
(7) Though the exact ages of the children are 14 and 12, the actors playing them are opposite ages in real life. This closeness in age has almost nothing to do with the actors' closeness with one another seeing as most of the beds are shared with sometimes all three children on a relatively cramped twin mattress.
(8) Mr. Poe's cough is a major detail left out of the original movie adaptation (2004), but this latest adaptation seems to pick up on this strange behavior quite well. In the book, Poe purposefully coughs whenever something important is about to be revealed or if the Baudelaires stumble upon something of utmost importance.
(9) Valuable like precious there should not be any time wasted because it is worth a great deal. Not in reference to a fortune owned by three recently orphaned children.
(10) The prosthetic nose attached to Neil's face to give a more authentic or close to authentic look to the real Count Olaf is not too distracting or alarming. After a few scenes, we barely notice how it protrudes out.
(11) A word in the theater world known as improv. A word which here means to create or perform in a spontaneous fashion without preparation or with lines from a script.
(12) A phrase which here means, others lack of obvious similarities to the real person. In this case, other people neglect to see the evil man behind the mask even though he is clearly Count Olaf.
(13) Agoraphobic personality relates to her intense fear of going outside for any reason. Other phobias she might be undiagnosed with would be panophobia or the intense fear of everything in the literal and figurative sense of the word.
(14) Each set is masterfully constructed and no detail went unnoticed from the ingredients in pasta puttanesca to the stain glass windows shaped like snakes in Uncle Monty's mansion. Even the menu choices and signs around the Anxious Clown Restaurant. By seeing all these details, it is clear that Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) had input into these touches, in order for fans to feel as though it remains true to the books in almost every single shot.
(15) Though, they repeatedly mention the term "partner" and even Snicket breaking it down for the audience. We still catch glimpses of their tumultuous love affair that may be stated as platonic; may in fact be physical as well. Is business really greater than pleasure?
(16)They clearly had some sort of falling out...
(17) A hint which here means a slight suggestion or indication of something. In this case, Dr. Georgina Orwell is non other than Justice Strauss. Don't believe me, go check the interwebs on the IMDb.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
