“Look away! Loooook away!” croons Neil Patrick Harris in character as Count Olaf, as the opening credits for new Netflix original series, A Series of Unfortunate Events begin to roll. Based on the book series of the same name by Lemony Snicket (author Daniel Handler’s pen name), and revamping the live action representation after the Jim Carrey-led movie did worse than expected, the streaming service is here hoping to showcase the misery and terrible nature that the 13 novels delivered. Fortunately for the masochists amongst us, that’s something they manage to do here.
Neil Patrick Harris replaces Carrey as the villainous Olaf; a man who’s clearly behind the fire which burned down the Baudelaire mansion and left Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire as orphans. Whilst the viewer quickly finds out that more is at play than the simple and tragic death of two parents, that doesn’t mean the three incredibly smart children are aware of that fact right away.
Harris is a master in the camp, dark and gloomy role. At times he’s dressing up as an Egyptian prince for a terribly-written play, at others he’s in drag and doing his best to cash in on the Baudelaire fortune. Every move he makes is to further progress him towards a life of riches, but Violet’s inventing skills, Klaus’ quick-thinking and intelligence and Sunny’s wit and extremely sharp tooth are there to scupper him at every opportunity.
Every two episodes of the show adapt one of the 13 novels on offer from Handler’s series, meaning that there is more than enough space for each ‘chapter’ of the story to breathe and transpire. At times, this means that there are a couple of beats too many, but when this happens it’s so subtle that it doesn’t manage to effect the overall product.
So, whilst A Series of Unfortunate Events may be the worst Netflix original series we’ve seen to-date, it’s for all the right reasons. It ticks all the boxes that Handler laid out with his original book series and does a much better job than the movie adaptation ever did when cramming three books worth of content into an almost two-hour flick.
Designed to attract both a young audience and those a little older than the people who may have read the book series, this is a show which looks set to enjoy a lengthy future and high viewership on Netflix moving forward. A triumph for all involved and yet another example of why the big screen isn’t always the best place for a book adaptation. As much as you’re encouraged to, don’t look away.
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is available on Netflix now in all territories where the streaming service is available.