TV Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events
Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Warburton, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes, K. Todd Freeman and Presley Smith
Available on Netflix

After 13 cryptic Lemony Snicket novels and one miserable film adaptation, Netflix’s decision to air a new series based on A Series of Unfortunate Events left fans with high expectations. The first season, which covers the series from the first book, The Bad Beginning to the fourth, The Miserable Mill, captures the heart of the novels perfectly, but leaves lots to be desired.

The series’ set design and costumes capture the quirky timelessness of the original novels exactly as a child would imagine them. With each setting becoming more and more spectacular, the show balances bright, fantastic colours with dismal, dreary situations. The children, dressed smartly in era-less, tidy clothing, could be from the 1950s or the early 2000s.

Patrick Warburton, as the novels’ author and show’s narrator, is the other perfect element of this adaptation. His dry delivery, often word-for-word, of the novel’s mysterious narration, is simultaneously threatening, compelling, and funny. The decision to cast Lemony Snicket as a character was a brilliant move, because it preserves the originality that drew so many fans to the original series.

Although the series captures the offbeat humour and fantastic weirdness of the novels beautifully onscreen, Neil Patrick Harris and the three children, Sunny, Violet, and Klaus, are more disappointing. Watching Neil Patrick Harris, particularly in the first two episodes, feels like watching a future Barney-Stinson-gone-bad. The CGI-baby is far from convincing, and looks cartoonish beyond the aesthetic of the rest of the special effects.

Actually, the children feel far less like heroes in this adaptation than in the original series or even the film. Instead, it’s like things just happen… to them. They’re overly defined by their individual “abilities” and don’t seem like the brilliant children from the novels. Hopefully this will improve in later seasons, as the characters in the novels develop. Despite its flaws, A Series of Unfortunate Events gets enough right that it has serious potential as an adaptation.