A Series of Unfortunate Events

Loved the books when younger, am still fond of them now with only 'The End' not doing much for me ('The Slippery Slope' isn't a favourite either). The books do get criticised for being formulaic, or repetitive (though actually it did become less so from 'The Vile Village' onwards), and for the adult characters' stupidity, but just love the language and the juicy character of Count Olaf. Also think the 2004 film is a lot of fun and very well made and Jim Carrey's performance has fared better since first watching it.

This adaptation of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' adapts all thirteen books, compared to the film that crammed in the first three books, a big undertaking and must have been quite daunting. While it is not a completely perfect version with a few downsides and a few episodes could have been better, it is nonetheless very enjoyable, well made and very brave. As well as adapting all thirteen books, all thirteen adaptations (all but one, the exception being "The End", being in two parts) stick faithfully in tone and essence to the source material while putting enough of its own spin and touches on it. Big props for that.

'A Series of Unfortunate Events' started off very promisingly with the first season, which adapted the first four books 'The Bad Beginning', 'The Reptile Room', 'The Wide Window' and 'The Miserable Mill'. The tone is well established and it is a good mix of entertaining, in an absurdist, darkly humorous and quirky way, and dark. Part 1 of "The Bad Beginning' was understandably a little unsettled but with enough potential to it. "The Reptile Room" is the most consistent quality-wise of the adaptations, but the best overall episode was Part 2 of "The Miserable Mill".

Season 2, adapting the five books from 'The Austere Academy' and 'The Carnivorous Carnival', is an improvement, doing a great job re-establishing the tone and characters and building upon them. Really liked how the characters were fleshed out more and them and their relationships expanded more. It had the adaptation's best season opener (easily) in "The Austere Academy", and "The Hostile Hospital" and "The Carnivorous Carnival" were especially great. Found the season to be of consistent quality, with my least favourite being possibly "The Vile Village".

Less settled was Season 3 (adapting the rest of the books 'The Slippery Slope', 'The Grim Grotto', 'The Penultimate Peril' and 'The End'), with the only outstanding adaptation being the series' high point "The Penultimate Peril". "The End", abrupt and tacked on ending aside, also deserves credit for being an improvement on the source material as it actually does try to answer the loose ends by adding bits that did thankfully the opposite of distracting and the different side to Olaf rings true more. Hook-Handed Man's character development was one of the season's most striking. The weakest episode of the season by quite some way was "The Slippery Slope", particularly Part 1 which was the adaptation's weak link, which started it off shakily. It's above average still, but felt dull and bland and could have done with more tension and less of the (in this adaptation) too overdone humour.

Going onto the individual elements, there are individual elements that could have been done better. There are pacing issues at times, namely in "The Slippery Slope" and in some of "The Bad Beginning", Part 2 of "The Grim Grotto" was slightly rushed too. The narration/interjections did in some episodes fall into the traps of being overused, over-explanatory and not always necessary. We didn't always need to know that things were going to get worse when it was obvious already. It was though on the most part very entertaining, delivered in a wonderfully deadpan way by Patrick Warburton, and was very true to the narrative style of the books.

Most of the characters were great, but the one that didn't do anything for me from the very start and the series never properly did anything to solve it (other than being slightly tolerable in "The Penultimate Peril") was Mr Poe. A very insufferably irritating character (not just the ridiculously over the top coughing which came over as gimmicky), as well as insultingly inept and increasingly pointless as the series went on. K. Todd Freeman played him with no appeal whatsoever and felt out of place. The end of "The End" was as said abrupt and what was done to try and solve it felt tacked on.

There were a few other not so significant flaws, such as the failed attempt to make Mr Poe necessary in "The Vile Village" with his unconvincing chemistry with Eleanora, the sometimes uneven performance of Alfre Woodard as Aunt Josephine (mostly she was fine though), the ending of "The Carnivorous Carnival" not completely coming off, how the adults were continually so easily fooled by Count Olaf's disguises (some of them being blatantly obvious) and the underdeveloped subplot between Klaus and Fiona in "The Grim Grotto".

However, there were many great things. A major plus being the production values. It's beautifully and atmospherically photographed throughout and the settings have brilliant attention to detail and atmosphere. Uncle Monty's reptile room, Lake Lachrymose, the school that lives up to its austere name, the most unique penthouse one will ever see, the claustrophobic hospital corridors, the truly creepy carnival setting and Hotel Denouement being the standouts. Even the lighter look of "The End", symbolising the more hopeful tone and themes, works beautifully. The opening titles sequence is brilliantly designed and clever, while the music is quirky and haunting.

On the most part, the writing is very funny often and has emotional and tense moments (adhering very close to Snicket's prose), the poking fun at how hotels are run, the failures of justice and nature of the legalities in "The Penultimate Peril" being especially clever (particularly in Part 2). It is understandably a little patchy in "The Bad Beginning" and could have been balanced better in "The Slippery Slope" but it's fine otherwise. The storytelling is seldom less than compelling, the jeopardy moments having mostly urgency and tension (for examples Sunny's predicament in "The Grim Grotto" and Violet's in "The Hostile Hospital") and a great job is done making it entertaining and deliciously dark when needed, making even on paper slightly implausible premises like with "The Vile Village" just about work. It also makes a degree of effort trying to clear up any "plot holes" that the books had, like providing an explanation for how Count Olaf came to find them in "The Wide Window".

Well done too are the character writing and relationships. It was great to see characters expanded more in personality, even slighter characters are interesting. Count Olaf is a truly juicy character and the theatrical troupe after being unsure of them at first were both hilarious and creepy. Standouts in these regards, other than Olaf, are the character of Jacques (a scene stealer), the wonderfully strange dynamic between Olaf and Esme and the development for Hook-Handed Man in Season 3. Other than Freeman, had little issue with the performances and felt Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes and Presley Smith (Smith at her best was adorable and amusing) grew in confidence with each episode as the Baudelaires matured. Great to not see them treated like idiots either. Aasif Mandvi, Catherine O'Hara, Tony Hale, Roger Bart, Richard E. Grant, Beth Grant, Kitana Turnball and Sara Rue make a possible impression, and Patrick Warburton, Nathan Fillion, Lucy Punch and Usman Ally steal all their scenes.

Best of all is Neil Patrick Harris, giving the performance of a lifetime and along with the production values the main reason to see the series for. He is clearly having enormous fun without getting too silly or over the top and poses a genuine sinister threat in the later episodes (such as "The Hostile Hospital") without being too scary. This juicy but challenging role also gives Harris a chance to show off his many varied talents and plays to his strengths very well.

Summing up, doesn't completely succeed but is never a failure and great at its best. 7/10