*Disclaimer: I have not read the books in years*
As many people know, last Friday Netflix added more shows and movies, including an original show that follows three orphans whose parents are killed in a terrible fire. As a result of the fire they are forced to live with a terrible guardian, who wants to get his hands on their enormous fortune. For many people the popular children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate of Events, might come to mind, and this the exact series that the Netflix show is based off of.
After the A Series of Unfortunate of Events movie did not do very well in theaters when it came out in 2004, many people were very skeptical about the Netflix series. I personally was one of those people because I was not a fan of the movie, but I still decided to give the show a chance and I am glad that I did.
After watching the first episode I can already say that I like it a lot more than I liked the movie. My biggest complaint about the movie was the fact that for the movie plot they split the first book's plot in half and put the first half in the beginning of the movie and the last half at the end of the movie. The movie plot basically went first half of the first book, the second book, the third book, and the second half of the first book. This made it very confusing for people who had never read the books and frustrating for those of us who had. I was very happy to see that the Netflix show was going to go in order of the books, and that each book was going to be given two episodes so everything would not be crammed into one.
The show itself made me very happy because it kept the same creepy/depressing feel from the books. I really like how it started off with Patrick Warburton, who played Lemony Snicket, telling you to basically stop watching because the show was going to be depressing and nobody should watch the terrible misfortunes that the Baudelaire children must go through. That was something that I always liked from the books because it was it was ironic that the back of a book, which should just give a summary of the book, gave you a summary and told you not to read it. If anything it made me want to read it more. I also really liked all the small appearances that Lemony Snicket made throughout the first episode.
Along with the character of Lemony Snicket, I also really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. I was kind of hesitant at first because I really liked Jim Carrey's portrayal of the role in the 2004 movie, but I feel like Neil Patrick Harris does the role justice. He is exactly as theatrical and over the top as I pictured Count Olaf to be while reading the books.
The actors and actresses who play the Baudelaire children have also done their roles justice in my opinion because they are exactly how I pictured them while reading the books. Not only do they look the part, they also act the part really well. Whoever did casting needs to get a raise or something.
As a strict book-to-screen person I can tell you that this is a show that I would recommend to anyone who, like me, was a fan of the books growing up. Granted at this moment I have only seen the first episode so I do not know how the rest of the show is, but the first episode really did impress me. If you are hesitant about watching the show I recommend that you at least watch the first episode in order to get a feel for it, and then form your opinion about it.
