A Series of Unfortunate Events (Season 1)

So the first book in the series, A Series of Unfortunate Events came out in 1999, two years after the Harry Potter books started. Now I would say that ASUE (that's how I'm going to abbreviate it or else this is going to be a really long review if I have to spell it out every time) was trying to ride off the success of Harry Potter, and in part that is true with the creative creatures and orphan characters. In a way A Series of Unfortunate Events reminded me of what the Harry Potter books had been like if Harry had just stayed at the Dursleys and never gone to Hogwarts. But I will give ASUE some credit because while it might have been going towards the same audience as Harry Potter, it's not like it was totally ripping off Harry Potter like Young Adult novels in the future like Divergent and The Maze Runner would try and rip off The Hunger Games.

I read the first book back in Elementary school and it really wasn't my style of book. I didn't think it was awful I just wasn't really interested in it. I never read any more of the series after that and for a long time it kind of left my mind. Even when there was a movie starring Jim Carrey, I saw it but didn't really think much of it, in fact I barely remember it. That apathy towards the series really continued when I heard they were doing a TV series on Netflix. I perhaps became a little bit interested when I heard that Neil Patrick Harris was playing Count Olaf but nothing about it really sparked my interest. Well I turned on Netflix this weekend and of course I see A Series of Unfortunate Events is now available and I thought, "Why not? I like Neil Patrick Harris".

From that point on, the show only continued to impress me, so much that I finished it in a matter of two days and only because I had made plans on Friday night. If I hadn't, I probably would have finished it in one day. There are a lot of things to discuss so let's begin.

A Series of Unfortunate Events follows the story of three children by the name of Violet (played by Malina Weissman), Claus (played by Louis Heynes), and Sunny (played by in a weird creepy CGI manner by Presley Smith) Baudelaire. The Baudelaire children are defined by their interests mostly. Violet is into inventing things and has a mind for the machines and the way things work. Claus is a bookworm and very intelligent. And Sunny likes to bite things. I'll talk more about the children in a little bit but in the beginning their mansion burns down and they are told that their parents perished in the fire.

They are left with a huge fortune from their parents but they cannot access that fortune until Violet becomes 18. Because of this they are set to be put under the care of a guardian and the bank overseeing their case, especially by an inefficient banker by the name of Mr. Poe (played by K. Todd Freeman), they are put in the care of an actor by the name of Count Olaf (played by Neil Patrick Harris).

And oh boy did Harris have fun with this role!

Count Olaf is a greedy failing actor who from the very get go is trying to get his hands on the Baudelaire's fortune by any means necessary. As the story goes on, Count Olaf needs to hide his identity and he has a vast collection of costumes that he wears. And while it's very obvious that it is Count Olaf under all the costumes, that just becomes funnier when you're watching it with the children who also are the only ones who can see through an obvious costume. Like I said, Harris is having fun with this role because he's changing characters and just hamming it up the entire time.

The overall premise of the entire story is these three children trying to outwit and survive against the evil plots of Count Olaf and keep his hands away from their fortune. The season spans over multiple creative Tim Burton-esc locations (but in my opinion more creative than Tim Burton has been for a long time) and introduced the children to a whole cast of characters, some of them acquaintances and colleges of their parents. As the entire show goes on the children discover more and more information about their parent's true identities and the connection that they actually have to Count Olaf.

All the while the show is being narrated by the book's author, Lemony Snicket (played by Patrick Warburton). Snicket is both an all knowing narrator as well as a mysterious participant in the events of the show and it's done absolutely perfectly.

The entire story has a mystery behind it and the activities and organizations that the Baudelaire's parents and respective guardians were apart of and the presence of Lemony Snicket just keeps on pointing out the mystery and I was actually very interested in finding out the backstory here. It goes beyond just the plight of the children and it makes me very excited for the next season.

But Snicket also ties into the stylistic choices being made by the show and the overall feel. What I do remember of the books is that they always start with a warning to the reader, or in this case the audience, this is a sad tale, there's no happy endings here, and if you're looking for that, your best plan of action is to close the book or turn off the TV. The series does a really great job at setting a balance of creating a sorrowful and dire environment while pointing out the humorousness of that statement. Because things are so dire, it does make it funny.

The show can be very self aware at times and while it's dire situations, the environment and sets are all really creative and almost Dr. Seuss-like to create a very whimsical environment.

The first thing I thought of when I first saw this show was it had a flavor of both Dr. Seuss and a Roald Dahl story and it's obvious everyone had fun with this show despite how dark and dire the situation is supposed to be.

While I never read the whole series, I very quickly picked up on the format of the show and I found it very interesting how they did it. Every two episodes tells the story set in one book. For example: the first two episodes are called, The Bad Beginning Part 1 and 2, named for the title of the first book. I found it intriguing that they basically devoted two hours or the same run time of a movie to one book and it worked perfect. It also kind of makes me wonder how this series didn't work as a film franchise, but we'll get to that when I review the movie.

Because they are mini movies of each book set in a series, the episodes are very digestable. While the series was very short with 8 episodes, I felt like even if they had added two more episodes or one more book, I still would have blown through this season in the same short time that I did.

The one problem with this format however is that every story has a very similar formula. The children are sent off to a new location with a new quirky guardian and Count Olaf appears in a new quirky costume that of course nobody can recognize him in. Some adventures ensue, but in the end Count Olaf's plot is foiled.

I don't think that's any kind of spoiler but that was the one issue I had was that after the second set of episodes, I thought things got a little bit repetitive.

The season has a number of pretty good guest stars and good actors to play a lot of the fun roles in the show. Joan Cusack, Aasif Mandvi, Catherine O'Hara, Will Arnett, and Colbie Smulders have a lot of fun parts throughout.

The other problem I had with it is that the show really picks up when Neil Patrick Harris is on screen. But the majority of the show focuses on these children and they are... okay.

These kids are not bad. Especially since I started writing this review I have gone back and watched the 2004 movie and in comparison they're leaps and bounds better than those kids, but that doesn't really help the fact that the pacing of the show slows down quite a bit when it's just focusing on the kids doing some problem solving or when the show is helped by the antics of Harris.

I think Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes are decent but they're still child actors. They're going to have pretty wooden moments and it's hard to really nail a role like this because in comparison with Harris's performance, they seem pretty milk toast at times and boring. I guess that's one downside of the show is that Harris really outshines the kids who the show is actually supposed to be about.

On top of that, I could never be sure when that baby was CGI and when it wasn't and the effects on that baby were really not that well done. It was a little creepy at times.

I do have to realize though that while I enjoyed this series, it wasn't made totally for me. And this does turn the performances of the children into a kind of plus when you're looking at the big picture.

While the children are a little bit dull, they are good protagonists for a quality family friendly show that A Series of Unfortunate Events is. Netflix has made their profit from producing shows that are entirely aimed at adults and have done a good job at it because they don't have as many rules they need to follow. That means they can show more adult things and there are less restrictions. This has been great for adults but Netflix has had a pretty lacking family programming.

And you might say that Fuller House is a good programming, but let's just be honest with ourselves, Fuller House is garbage.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a quirky adventure that feels more family friendly and on top of it all, it's written very, very well. Whether it's the jokes of Neil Patrick Harris, or just these kids going on an adventure, it's something that everyone is going to enjoy no matter your age.

When I read the books, there was something about the artwork and just the style of the book that didn't appeal to me because it didn't seem to be directing it at me. It seemed more like the kind of books someone who was really into Tim Burton and Hot Topic would read. But the series opens up that accessibility and I feel like anybody could watch this and have a good time just because of the decent performance by the children, the humor throughout, and the overall style.

Now I do have to talk about Neil Patrick Harris just a little bit more because let's be honest, this is his show.

Now while I was pretty apathetic to the 2004 movie, I did think that at the very least, Jim Carey looked the role of Count Olaf better than I thought Neil Patrick Harris did in the initial photos and trailers I saw of the show. I'm not talking about the performance of Carey... I'll get to that in another review, but based on looks, Carey I think pulled off the look of Count Olaf and what you would expect when you originally saw it.

But after watching the first season of the show, I of course fell under the spell of NPH as he is both diabolical but also just charming and the most entertaining. He had a wide range of impressions and performances that made his character dynamic, interesting, and overall hilarious.

And of course, this wouldn't be a Neil Patrick Harris show if he wasn't singing at times. While Harri's smooth and upbeat voice doesn't always match with how I imagine Count Olaf would sound like, when Neil Patrick Harris sings, it's just charming and you really kind of forget any issues you have.

Overall, A Series of Unfortunate Events is a really fun show and I definitely recommend checking it out. Like I said it's pretty short because I would imagine that they wanted more episodes in later seasons, but that also makes it incredibly digestable and fun. Neil Patrick Harris of course shines in the role of Count Olaf and the entire show has a sort of whimsical nature of it that is very attainable for many audiences.

I'm looking forward to the next season and how they're going to continue this story. I definitely recommend checking A Series of Unfortunate Events out on Netflix.

But what did you think? Have you checked out A Series of Unfortunate Events? Who do you prefer Neil Patrick Harris or Jim Carrey in the role of Count Olaf? Let me know your thoughts and Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films or TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and review coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. In case you didn't pick it up, the next thing I'm going to be reviewing is the 2004 film... and man is there a lot to unpack with that movie... Here's the trailer. Enjoy!