Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix
5Forgive me if this is a duplicate thread. I searched topics before starting this.
Last week Netflix posted season 1 (8 episodes) of the Netflix Original Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
I’ve only watched the first episode, but here’s my early impression… NPH makes a fantastic Olaf, Patrick Warburton is a barely tolerable Lemony Snicket, Malina Weissman does a fine job as Violet, and Louis Hines is a believable Klaus.
Of course it’s the same old tale, but seems well done so far. I’m in for at least a couple more episodes.
Anyone else watching?
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I could not get through the first episode. I really liked the books, but this adaptation is just a bit over the top.
@conandlibrarian Agreed. As was the movie a few years ago. I had to separate the books from this in my mind and proceeded accordingly and found it palatable.
@conandlibrarian I like how over the top it is. It’s very stylized, like a Wes Anderson movie. But I realize that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
@christinerenee I guess I had a different idea of what it would look like. The first book came out when I was working in my very first library, which was an elementary school. It was such a cool time, and even saw Lemony Snicket’s “handler” at a local high school right about the time book two came out. By the time the last book came out, I was working in a middle school, and still loved the series. My idea of the story was super dark, with a bit of humor.
@conandlibrarian I always thought the whole idea of Lemony Snicket was for it to be as over-the-top as you (esp kids & YA) could imagine.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Note: Like Pokémon and Minecraft, this was something NOT experienced ‘personally’, but instead as a parent
Never understood the appeal of the books. Not going to try the show.
I wish we could combine the physicality of Jim Carrey’s Olaf with everything else about NPH’s. That would be perfection. As it is, I am enjoying watching NPH play the strangest combination of Dr. Horrible and Barney Stinson.
The children’s characters have been wonderfully portrayed as well. I think Warburton grows on you as the series moves forward.
I find that reading the stories, you have the chance to imbue more hope into the tale and it’s less depressing. The show is stuck without that option and it’s much more hopeless.
@Thumperchick It’s VERY dark for a children’s show.
I saw the trailer for that, but the terrible CGI made me lose interest. Does it have any redeeming qualities? Does it follow the narrative of the books?
@DVDBZN I think it’s supposed to be terrible CGI, in the style of tilt-shift photos, to make it more fantastical and less “wow this is just really fucking sad”… because it’s really fucking sad if you think about it too much.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS
(Spoilers continued through replies to this comment.)
I watched them all and thoroughly enjoyed them.
However, there was one cruel little plot twist I didn’t see coming that really hurt. Having to do with the parents. I won’t say more than that, but if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about.
I haven’t read the books, and barely remember the movie, so it really took me by surprise.
@christinerenee it was in the books, but you didn’t get the long term lead in like you did in the show. The show was just a hardcore 1-2 punch to the gut, then a kick while you’re down.
I am going to throw a spoiler warning in your post though, since we’re definitely circling that.
I think there should be a “skip Lemony” button in the thing, as David Puddy expounding upon exactly how screwed the Baudelaire children are, gets old quickly and that’s twelve of the first fifteen minutes of episode 1. And that’s how far I got. Really, I only wanted to see NPH as Olaf. Anybody have a time-mark on his appearances?
@PocketBrain Puddy as Lemony… not good. He continues to make cameo appearances throughout the episodes. But his part gets much less pronounced after his initial diatribe.
@ruouttaurmind @PocketBrain I thought he was an odd fit here too. I’ve only read part of the books and don’t remember much. But, his lines are just about how I remember the books reading.
I’m still more weirded out by seeing what’s-his-name from Arrested Development. (no spoilers please since I’m only a couple episodes in)
@luvche21 @ruouttaurmind It’s not the Puddy factor so much, just there is a lot of time spent spelling out just how screwed these kids are. Okay, I get it, finish with the “woe is thee” and get on with the story. Where’s my Olaf? I want Olaf!
@PocketBrain Gotcha, I thought Puddy was the issue. He’s much more involved later if that helps
Own the books, read 5 1/2 of them then stopped.
Now they sit near ASOIAF not being read.
@shruggie
So why stopped? Have read none of these.
@f00l
Not nearly depressing as I hoped.
I was hoping for a depressing series which I would be laughing hysterically at.
Not what happened.
@shruggie
If you haven’t re-read Confederacy of Dunces recently, perhaps that would get you thru a few days?
My wife and I have been enjoying “Trollhunters.” It’s clever and fun. Season 2 of Voltron just came out and I’m looking forward to that. Not as good as the original, but still enjoying it. I started watching “Ajin” but am not sure how deep I’ll get into it.
Nobody has mentioned the music that has been stuck in my head for about a week. “Look away, look away.”
@christinerenee Right? Earworm alert!
@christinerenee My 2 year old doesn’t speak much yet, but “look away” is now in his vocabulary after watching an episode with us.
Very interesting to see the comments here because it seems to come down to “Yay Warburton, NPH is weak” and the opposite.
I thought Patrick Warburton was perfect and NPH was just playing Dr. Horrible for the first two or three episodes (he gets better when he starts playing other characters though).
I had never read the books or watched the movie, but my wife and I watched through the season last weekend; I ended up enjoying the later episodes, but it definitely takes a bit for all the pieces to fall together.
That baby though, yikes. Everything is terrible there.
I just saw NPH today! In person!
I’m at a library conference in Atlanta right now, and he was the closing speaker of the conference. Super cool guy, and hilarious too. He talks in real life kind of like his character in How I Met Your Mother, but threw in some Count Olaf phrasings every now and then too. Very down to earth guy.
In the middle of his talk, he had us watch a video that he recorded of his 2 kids talking about the importance of books and libraryes, even though neither of them read very well. It was super cute and funny. After the video finished he started talking about his magic career and the importance of misdirection. He then said that while we were busy watching the video he was busy stealing things from the audience. Which sounded like a joke. Until he produced a driver’s license that he stole from a lady in the front row…
He was invited for this library conference because he’s writing a book for the middle school level called the Magical Misfits which sounds pretty promising.
He was definitely the highlight of the conference for me. Way more exciting than my subcommittee meetings on the Library of Congress Genre/Form Thesaurus for Music or the Cataloging and Metadata Management Subcommittee…
@luvche21 color me jealous…
@PocketBrain
@luvche21
Me Two.
Oh yeah.
And Mee Three.
No previous knowledge of this at all…is it supposed to be weird?
@mikibell Yes. A certain degree of weirdness is requisite.
I read the first five or six books to my kids and we loved them. I didn’t like the movie and we all complained about the divergences from the books while watching it. We binged the first season of the show the weekend it came out and loved how closely it followed the books and felt like it really captured the feel of them even when it changed details. I adore NPH so have no complaints about it portrayal and actually liked the Lemony monologues.
This adaptation reminds me ever so much of Pushing Daisies, which I loved (not surprising since they’re both produced by Barry Sonnenfeld).
I read the books when I was a kid and throughout watching the first couple episodes, I though the show was TOO hopeful. Then I tried not to judge it on 10-year-old me’s memories, and I really enjoyed it. The art style is whimsical and colorful – a juxtaposition to the sad, hopeless despair the Baudelaires experience on their journey. Sunny’s lines always made me chuckle.
Was Olaf as incompetent in the books as in the TV show? I can barely remember the books, but I always thought he was more sinister and cunning than the show leads him on to be.
Netflix true crime series Narcos spurs huge demand for Colombian women.
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23-year-old Viviana, from Cartagena, says "I come to these events because I know the men attending are serious about marriage, they are faithful and are good to family. For Colombian women, it is the most important thing, good husband and good family. Kenneth says, "It has not been all rosy. Narcos has brought us some problems. In Cartagena, we have several Penthouses we rent out. One was originally owned by “Don Diego” head of the Norte Del Velle Drug Cartel, the other by Pablo’s people. Over the past year, the properties have been tracked down by individuals thinking they will find large qualities of cash hidden, thus we sometimes find holes all over the walls after a tenant leaves. For Narcos fans, those who love the gangster genre, or just those who just like seeing beautiful Latin women, there’s good news; Netflix’s has confirmed Season 3 and 4.