Therapy: Session 2 [Personal]

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Even though nobody asked for it, here are my very long and complicated opinions about A Series of Unfortunate Events.

By the way, I'll definitely be spoiling the series. So watch it on Netflix because it is very good and entertaining even though I'll be criticizing it.

Also this is over 2500 words so if you don't want to read all of it I don't blame you in the slightest.

So here's my backstory with the show: My dad said "Hey I found a fun show we can all watch together as a family" and so me and my mom said "Alright" and thus we watched the first season of ASOUE (A series of unfortunate events) as it was the only one on Netflix at the time.

I LOVED it.

Soon after, I decided to read the series. Over the next few months I read all 13 books. The books are pretty short, but they're sometimes hard to read. The narrator, Lemony Snicket, inserts himself into the narrative and breaks up the plot frequently.

So anyways, after reading the books I rewatched the first season and was very happy with it. It follows the books very well.

Neil Patrick Harris did a good job as Count Olaf. His costume and makeup was very closely aligned with Olaf's description in the books. The one critique I would give is that sometimes the show sacrificed his harsh villainy for comedy. Of course, he was still scary and harsh but sometimes he wasn't as scary as he could have been.

The characters of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are very, very good. The actors are age-appropriate, and they embody their characters well. Plus Sunny (aka Presley Smith) is just about the cutest in all of existence.

All of the other characters were good too. Like Mr Poe was nice and incompetent, Monty Montgomery was helpful and fun, Aunt Josephine was maybe a little bit overdramatic but she was still good, and Olaf's troupe were very good. They served the same purpose in the books and the show. Plus, the henchperson of indeterminate gender is my spirit animal (the show writers did a very good job of portraying them without submitting their gender identity to mockery, as many shows with nb characters do). 

Also the sets are beautiful! That's one very consistent things in the books, is the great sets! The show is quite colorful and quirky but honestly its completely inline with the books.

And lastly, Lemony Snicket. Played by Patrick Warburton, aka Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove. He's fucking FANTASTIC. In most stories, the narrator isn't a character in the story. But Lemony Snicket very much is. He does a very good job of portraying the sad, solemn character that Lemony is. The writers I think also did a very good job of making sure that while he's present in the show, he doesn't interact with any of the characters. They made him as prevalent in the show as he is in the books.

(I will barely be talking about Lemony from here on out because he's so flawless throughout the series)

I also watched the 2004 movie and it was not very good. They tried to fit three books into one movie and that did not go very well. They went way too fast and they pushed everything out of order so that they could fit it all in. The main characters Violet, Klaus, and Sunny weren't age appropriate. Lemony Snicket wasn't a character in the story, he was just a faceless voice typing on a typewriter.

The one thing I do have to say is Jim Carrey's portrayal of Count Olaf is flawless. He's still funny, but is also just as scary. Plus, there's a scene where he acts like a dinosaur and does exactly what I do when I act like a dinosaur and i LOVE it.

So moving on.

I waited so patiently for season 2. It came out March 30th 2018 and my mom and I watched all 10 forty minute episodes in one weekend.