Series of Unfortunate Events (The End)

There's a bitter sweet feeling that comes over me whenever I reach the end of something that I've thoroughly enjoyed, be it a book or a movie or a television series. That is the case with the Netflix adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I even waited a few days before hitting play on the adaptation of thirteenth novel, aptly titled "The End," because I didn't really want it to end, yet I desperately wanted to know what happened. And that folks, is how great storytelling works.

While we had been told over and over not to expect happy endings by the "author/narrator", we discover that he doesn't actually know the ending, because knowledge ended before the actual end. 

As I've mentioned in previous posts, one of the amazing things about this epic is that despite what we know as spectators, we can't help but hope for better things to happen even as every chapter ends in tragedy. This is because we learn to trust and believe in the resourcefulness of the three doomed orphans and as refuse to believe that good won't triumph over evil.

Naturally, the saga does not have a traditionally happy ending, but it certainly isn't tragic. We do see some redemption for the arch villain who we loved to hate, and that was rewarding. As for the orphans, much of what happens to them is wisely left up to our imagination...allowing us all to give them our own happy ending depending on our imaginations. 

Truly one of the most rewarding television shows I've ever seen.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Penultimate Peril)

I'm nearing the end of A Series of Unfortunate Events, literally, as the last episode is called The End. I'm finding myself not wanting it to end, yet desperately wanting to know how it all concludes. As I mentioned early in my watching of the Netflix show, I devoured these books as they were released, but somewhere along the way, I had to stop because they seemed just too depressing even for me. The show knows how to show the lighter side of the books, the side that my brain refused to see as I was reading them, because my mind tends to go straight to dark.

As the series nears the conclusion, everything is starting to come together, as one would expect in a piece of master storytelling, which I do believe this series to be. Many of the mysteries that have lingered throughout the horrible lives of the Baudelaire orphans are explained in this episode where Count Olaf is put on trial and manages to turn the tables on the children once again. 

The biggest discovery in this episode, and shocking twist, is that we learn the Baudelaire children are not so different from Olaf in some ways...though far less evil. It's a discovery that shakes them, and leaves them to make a choice. In the end, they realize that escaping with Olaf is the best choice they have at the moment. 

Surely, it can't end well...nothing ever does for them. But that doesn't keep me from watching.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Grim Grotto)

The plot continues to thicken for the Baudelaire orphans in the adaptation of the eleventh book in the series. As the story gets nearer and nearer to the conclusion, we learn more about the events that led up to the ordeal that effects not only Sunny, Violet, and Klaus, but dozens of children in the fantastical world created in Lemony Snicket's books.

After escaping the clutches of Count Olaf for the millionth time in the last episode, the orphans are rescued by a young girl, who is also an orphan of a VFD parent, not to mention, the captain of her own submarine. However, their relationship gets off to a rocky start. While Klaus trusts their new friend, Violet feels as though she is hiding something. 

Perhaps my favorite episode of the series so far, this is a Wes Anderson Life Aquatic inspired delight featuring 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea sets and amazingly quirky performances. It also expertly reveals big secrets in a way that only make you want to keep going.

The episode ends with the orphans back where they started in the very first episode. Perhaps a new beginning is in store, but we know better...more misery is sure to come and I can't wait.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Slippery Slope)

After a hiatus to catch up on some other watchings, mostly movies, I've finally returned to Netflix's adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I picked up with the Season 3 debut, the two-part interpretation of Book the Tenth, The Slippery Slope. When last I left the Baudelaire orphans, it was a cliffhanger...literally...as Violet and Klaus were racing toward a cliff in a runaway caravan and Sunny the lone prisoner of Count Olaf.

The orphans have never found themselves is such direct peril as they do in this episode. However, there is still hope. The VFD's secret headquarters is within their sights and there they hope to find answers and help in saving their sister and ultimately themselves. However, they soon discover that there are threats far more dangerous than Count Olaf at work.

This episode continues to peel away layers, exposing more secrets to develop the larger plot contained in the overall series. And while many horrible things happen to many other children in the story, the episode ends with a bit of hope for the Baudelaire orphans. But as we all know by now, that hope is likely to be short lived.

Series of Unfortuante Events (Carnivorous Carnival)

The ninth book in Lemony Snickett's children's book series makes up the plot of the two second season finale of the Netflix adaptation. After fleeing the fire that consumed the Heimlich hospital in the previous episode in the trunk of Count Olaf's car, the Baudelaire orphans find themselves transported to a dying carnival deep in the Hinterlands where Count Olaf hopes to find answers to the question of a surviving Baudelaire parent raised in the last episode.

The carnival is populated by three "freaks" and a familiar fortune teller. In this episode, the good guys borrow a trick from Olaf by disguising themselves and pretending to be who they are not. This includes the orphans who pretend to be freaks in order to stay at the carnival and learn the secrets the fortune teller shares with Count Olaf.  (My personal favorite is Sunny as a feral half-wolf child).

Seemingly one step ahead of Count Olaf this time around, everything appears to be on course for a breakthrough that will end the series of unfortunate events...but alas, that is not to be. When a pack of starving lions are recruited for the show, things take a deadly turn that ends with another V.F.D. volunteer's demise, once again leaving the orphans without a friend to help them. It also ends with another fire setting the carnival ablaze as the motif of starting fires and putting fires out (both literally and figuratively) continues to weave through this epically miserable tale that ends with a cliffhanger...literally and figuratively.

Series of Unfortunate Events (Hostile Hospital)

After a brief break to avert my eyes from the tragedy of the Baudelaire orphans, I returned to watching the Netflix adaptation for the eighth book in the series. This is perhaps the bleakest setting in the series, a grimy hospital of horrors. After escaping the V.F.D. village in the fire truck, the orphans end up at Heimlich hospital in the middle of the Hinterlands.

Now I've always been of the persuasion that hospitals are terrifying places. This is probably why so many horror movies take place in them. Aware of this fact, the show does a great job of playing with this troupe. There are many references to famous horror films in this story and they are done wonderfully.

The orphans find themselves trapped in the hospital once again with the Count and his band of evil actors. Their one hope is that the hospital's Library will hold the answers to secrets that seem to surround them...and it does. Only, as is always their luck, they are never able to discover the whole truth, but do gain yet more pieces in the mystery that has become their lives. 

The dramatic concluding scene in the Operating Theater of this episode is probably the best scene of the show to date. It is truly a horrible and hostile predicament that the Baudelaire siblings find themselves in, seemingly with no way out. Yet their resourcefulness shines through once again, helping them long enough to continue on to the next terrible series of unfortunate events.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Vile Village)

I've now completed watching the adaptation of the sixth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, "The Vile Village." As this episode begins, the Baudelairs are being taken to the town of V.F.D. and assume that they will get all the answers they seek about the secret organization of the same initials. Against all better judgement, they are hopeful that this will be a good place and that the town's slogan of "It Takes a Village" will mean they are entering a place where kind people will care for them. Of course, they're wrong.

The village is truly vile, run by a council of elders who see the children as free labor to do all the town's chores. And feeling momentum on his side, Count Olaf wastes no time in arriving at this new local. He and Esme literally followed them into town and unleashed their new plan immediately. 

Violet and Klaus know that means their friends, the Quagmires are nearby and set in motion a plan to locate and rescue them. All seems to be going well when Jacque Snickett shows up and quickly arrests Olaf. But as we've learned over the course of a season and a half, the Count isn't as clueless as he once seemed. He's actually a very capable foe whose plans are coming closer and closer to dooming the orphans.

Thankfully, the children are smart and capable as well. They manage to save their friends, but are unable to flee with them. The episode closes with them running away once again. Let's hope it works out better than the last time...though, I surely doubt it.

Series of Unfortuante Events (The Ersatz Elevator)

The most recent episode in my binge watching covers the sixth book in the children's literature series, The Ersatz Elevator. Just as the Wide Window did in the first season, this second installment of the second season brings some light to the darkness of the previous episode. Not exactly joy, or hope, but lightness. It seems appropriate to mention the word play of the phrase "red herring" that runs throughout this story because it functions as one, giving the viewer optimism throughout. Optimism that they will save their friends, that they have found an adult who finally isn't clueless, and that they will be saved from Count Olaf's clutches. Of course, none of that happens.

This episode takes us to a new world of sorts, that of the upper class city folk. The sets are elaborate, stylish, and as always, mesmerizing. As a result, the characters in this one are a different breed and extremely interesting. Gunther is perhaps my favorite Count Olaf disguise and Neil Patrick Harris pulls it off brilliantly.

The children have fully embraced their heritage by now and are basically operating as rouge agents of the V.F.D. to defeat Count Olaf. They've seen enough of his schemes to figure out his plan, but they are still learning of the vast extent of this conspiracy. The shocking twist that takes place in the middle of the second part of this episode is amazing.

Series of Unfortunate Evens (The Austere Academy)

Despite all warnings to the contrary, I continue to subject myself to the misery of the Baudelaire orphans. The second season of the Netflix series picks up with Book 5, The Austere Academy. After the running away to the Mill, Mr. Poe decides that it is best for the orphans to go to a boarding school, the dreary and depressing Prufrock Preparatory School. As it turns out, this horrible place is the alma mater of several characters in the show, including Count Olaf.

No surprise, the school is run by yet another incompetent adult, Vice Principal Nero. He is more concerned with his violin skills, or lack thereof, than in the well-being of the students. Besides the first episode, this is possibly the worst and most abusive situation the orphans have encountered, because, like Count Olaf in that episode, the other characters take such glee in their misery and to subjecting them to more. 

The only bright side for the twins in this episode is the friendship they strike up with the Quagmire triplets (though only two have survived a mysterious fire). It turns out, their parents were part of the same secret organization as the Baudelaires. Finally, they have partners to help them them...though, it doesn't last long as they are kidnapped once Count Olaf is exposed.

This was a natural start to a second season as it answers some questions, while raising so many new ones.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Miserable Mill)

Last night, I continued my binge watching with the concluding episodes of the first season of the Netflix adaption of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The two-part conclusion covers material from the fourth book, The Miserable Mill. Along with the The Wide Window, this was my favorite adaptation of the first season. It got everything right. Balancing the mood between utterly hopeless despair and joy found in the children's resourcefulness is the biggest challenge of this story, something that isn't always accomplished even in the books. Those two episodes manage that challenge wonderfully.

Having once again escaped Mr. Poe's incompetence and the clutches of Count Olaf by running away to the Lucky Smells lumber mill at the end of the last episode, the Bauldelaire orphans are content to work at the ghastly mill if it means they can live there, safe from Olaf. Of course, the eye shaped building that overlooks the mill should assure them that they are never safe from the dastardly plans of the Count.

The wealth of secrets revealed in this episode make it an extremely satisfying way to end the season. We also see the siblings beginning to move past their tragic circumstances and develop into very capable foes to the menace facing them, which we now know is far greater than simply Count Olaf and his evil theater troupe. 

Don Johnson's guest appearance is spectacular, as is Rhys Darby. The casting for this program has been so amazing, always picking the perfect person to capture the absurdness that comes with the character. It's not a coincidence that Samuel Beckett is mentioned in this episode as the absurd abounds.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Wide Window)

Avoiding the advice of Lemony Snicket and the words of the theme song, I did not look away. I continue to view the miserable circumstances of the Baudelaire orphans and the endless pursuit of the ruthless Count Olaf as he seeks to dispose of them and get his hands on the fortune they are set to inherit. Last night, I watched the two part adaptation of the third book, The Wide Window.

Admittedly, this was my least favorite episode so far, but I still really enjoyed. The sets in this one were spectacular and reminded me of The City of Lost Children. The sailor themed costumes also nodded back to that film, which is one of my favorites. 

Aunt Josephine was never my favorite caregiver as I find her more frustrating than some of the others. She was played a bit over dramatically, but somehow it still worked. It was also at this point in the book series where Mr. Poe started to get on my nerves. WHY CAN'T ANYONE DO RIGHT BY THESE CHILDREN! But therein lies the joy for child audiences. They are the superior characters.

The Baudelaire siblings however really grew up in this episode, become far more active, brave, and confident. Neil Patrick Harris was brilliant once again as Captain Sham. All in all, it was another great episode and lays the groundwork for some of the action that is to come.

Series of Unfortunate Events (The Reptiel Room)

As I wrote yesterday, I'm continuing to make my way through the Netflix adaptation of Series of Unfortunate Events. Yesterday, I finished the two-part episode of the second book, The Reptile Room. This episode was fantastic, and even more Wes Anderson inspired than the previous one.

The Baudelaires, having escaped the care of the evil Count Olaf are placed in the care of Uncle Monty, as their parents had requested in their will. Naturally on guard, the siblings are reluctant to accept this eccentric new caregiver but find that he's as warm and kind as he seems. 

It doesn't take long for a poorly disguised Count Olaf to find them and begin to work a new elaborate evil plot to secure their fortune. One of the things that I love about this series, both the books and the show, is how the adults are basically clueless to things that should be so obvious, which is one of the facts of childhood from the perspective of children. This really comes through in these episodes.

Another great part of this episode is the elaboration on the bigger story of the secret organization, V.F.D.  The weaving of this aspect of the books into the show is so wonderfully done.

The acting continues to be a strength. Aasif Mandvi is brilliant as Monty, and Neil Patrick Harris shows his range as he takes on the first of Olaf's many disguises.

Series of Unfortunate Event (A Bad Beginning)

With some free time this week, I decided to dive into the Netflix interpretation of the great Lemony Snickett books. When these books came out, I devoured the first six or seven before abandoning it because it got even a little too depressing for me, someone who loves depressing art. I did watch the movie when it came out fourteen years ago, and while I found it entertaining, it was disappointing, as would be expected when you try to cram so much material into one film. So I was intrigued to see how it would play out in longer serial television format.

The first two episodes cover the first novel. I will admit that I nearly gave up on it after the first episode, because it was so horribly dark. The Baudelaire siblings live through the most abusive situation in this book and it's a little difficult to adjust to the twisted humor of the story. But thankfully, by the second episode, they were able to figure out how to portray the lighter, loving aspects of the story in a way that made it much more enjoyable to watch. 

The cast of this show is phenomenal. Neil Patrick Harris is practically mesmerizing and the kids are perfect. The look of the show is like something out of a Wes Anderson film and very effectively captures the mood of the stories. 

I love how the show has the meta element of being aware of itself. Along these lines, the addition of Lemony Snickett as a character and a framer of the story is brilliantly done. This show once again proves that television is currently the better format to capture the complexities and breadth of series publishing.