A Series Of Unfortunate Events S2
Based on the children’s novels of Daniel Handler, under the pen name ‘Lemony Snicket,’ A Series of Unfortunate Events follows the story of the Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny. After their parents die in a fire, the orphans must evade the evil Count Olaf who is attempting to kill them for their inherited fortune whilst trying to uncover dark family secrets. Series 2 begins after the orphans are sent to a sinister boarding school.
The series is narrated by lemony snicket (played by Patrick Warburton) through fourth wall breaks are all brilliant. They show real love of the English language, normally using definitions of words to tease the episode ahead. The song of the opening titles changes per episode, working as both a recap of the previous episode and a way to introduce the current episode. This is really cleverly done, and I’ve not seen many other programmes do anything similar.
One of the highlights of the series was Nathan Fillion, who shone as newcomer Jacques Snicket. Brother of narrator Lemony Snicket, he played the caricature of a dashing hero wonderfully. Neil Patrick Harris is brilliantly stupid as Olaf, he doesn’t hold back into getting into the character of Olaf, and the many disguises that he uses.
But I must say that the programme is extremely formulaic. The season consisted of five ‘2-parters,’ but almost the exact same thing happens each time. It makes the programme extremely predictable, and grows quite tiresome. It became tempting at points to just google the mysteries the programme leaves as it didn’t answer them fast enough for me. If the dialogue wasn’t so clever, and the unanswered questions so intriguing, I may not have been able to finish the series.
Overall, I would say that the series is worth a watch, but bear in mind that the books were initially written for children. There is a lot to be liked, from the flamboyant performances of the cast, to the intriguing mysteries the series poses.