The End

I'm not just happy with the whole show, I'm especially happy with the ending of this final episode.

To be honest, I never liked the last book of the series - too many loose ends, too many unanswered questions and too dark in tone. Here, Daniel Handler (the author of the original books), with the help of writer Joe Tracz, managed to put things right and walked the fine line between staying true to the initial ending and a much more satisfying one by adding a few tiny scenes. Not very much, but they make a huge diffence.

Thank you for puting things finally right, Mr. Handler, Mr. Tracz, Netflix & Co.

None of the previous twelve adaptations, all in two parts, were less than decent. All in fact from personal view were decent ("The Slippery Slope", a bit conflicted on this one) to brilliant ("The Penultimate Peril"). Making for a thoroughly enjoyable and brave though not completely consistent book to television adaptation of a book series that were better from a younger standpoint but generally the books are still an entertaining read now.

Having said that, the last book "The End" has never done much for me for reasons that have been summed up already very well, ending too much on an abrupt note, leaving too much unanswered, pretty dull at times and pretty heavy-going even for a book series centred around unfortunate events that were constantly reiterated that they wouldn't get better and get worse instead. For me though, this book to television adaptation of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' version of "The End" is an example in a relatively minor group is a big improvement and the only one of the series' thirteen adaptations to be better than the source material.

The added bits actually helped provide more answers (though "The Penultimate Peril" in my mind did better at this aspect and "The End" is somewhat of an epilogue to the events), rather than feeling like superfluous padding and without complicating the story. Found the episode's events to be more interesting to the book, there is more of a sense of urgency and tension and the emotional moments, like Kit's role, resonated more and were quite poignant. The different side to Olaf rang true more, it was not easy to completely swallow in the book considering how truly evil he was in the previous books yet in the series the (to me) foreshadowing in "The Penultimate Peril" when Count Olaf talks of his perception of honesty and desire helped make it more plausible here.

It was a wise move leaving it as one episode, "The Penultimate Peril" actually felt more of a last book and episode due to doing better at tying things up. Wheras "The End" is more of a coda to show what became of the Baudelaires and has a slighter narrative than the previous books. There is much more of a sense of hope, after seeing glimmers of it in "The Penultimate Peril" not seen very much at all in the previous episodes (what was there being very short-lived). We also see the Baudelaires' maturity as characters and the moral dilemmas are thought-provoking and affecting.

Personally thought "The End" looked great, the lighter look being a refreshing contrast to the near-constant doom and gloom seen before. There was more atmosphere before, but the lighter look emphasised the hopeful aspect of the story. Ishmael is suitably enigmatic and Peter MacNicol and Neil Patrick Harris give particularly great performances, Patrick Warburton shining too.

Like the book, except not quite as badly, "The End" ends on too much of an abrupt note and what is there to try and solve that problem feels tacked on.

Other than that, this was truly impressive. 9/10

On January 13th 2017, the Journey of the Baudelaire orphans started with a caution ...

"Look away, look away ... This show will wreck your evening , your whole life, and your day ... Every single episode is nothing but dismay ... So, look away ... Look away, look away ... Just look away, ... There's nothing but horror and inconvenience on the way ... Ask any stable person, "Should I watch?" and they will say: ... Look away. ... "

And they didn't lie, but thank goodness we didn't listen and we looked instead, stared and glared .. followed each and every moment of the story not matter what type of tragedy they face.

"A daring life of impulsive passion leads only to tragedy".

Since day one , the show have proved to be not only a Netflix hit but a TV phenomena ,, with the passion presented by the writers and amazing work by the directors ,, the makeup , the visual effects, and the music ,, it all made us the viewers be more and more entangled into this web of unfortunate events .. what makes me agitated that in the TV business this show, over the last three years, has never been properly recognized !!! i mean even the Emmy nominations were for things like "Costumes" and "Outstanding Children's Program" ,,, Neil Patrick Harris performance alone should have collected 2 Emmy's ,, but again who knows how the business works... I mean "Jim Carrey" himself wasn't recognized for his amazing performance of the same role back 2004 .. so .!!!

The whole crew from Actors to Directors, Writers, to Composers "especially Jim Dooley", film editors , Production team , Costumes , a long list of Makeup department, visual and special effects, they all have made this project possible ,, An of course to Netflix for being "statistically" by a mile the best streaming service network ever.

As for the finale, it was as satisfying as ever,, ended the journey perfectly , and gave conclusion to literally each and every character in the show ... so, Farewell Baudelaires and everyone who tried to help them but failed and Farewell Count Olaf and all his henchpeople.😁😁