a series of unfortunate events season 1 review
My Rating: 7.5/10
IMDb Rating: 8.2/10 TV.com Rating: 8.8/10 Metacritics Rating: 81/100 Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93% My Favorite Quotes 1. Violet Baudelaire: Why do you hate us so much? Count Olaf: Because it's fun! This could possibly end up being the longest and most in depth review I have ever written because of the childhood memories and nostalgia that I have with this book series/TV series/movie. Let me start of by saying that I have read all the books and this may influence my review quite heavily and draw forth some unintentional bias. Also, to put this review in some sort of context, I am a ginormous fan of the movie. Although it did not copy the 3 books scene for scene, it was still such an entertaining movie that treaded a fine line between being comedic and dark at the same time. It also did a great job of rearranging the plot to make for a better overall production, especially the ending. Unlike most reviews of this series I am NOT going to focus on all the discrepancies between the novels and this TV series because I firmly believe that the differences are what made the movie such a masterpiece. Anyway, my initial impression of the series that I am not a huge fan of would have to be the extreme emphasis on happiness. And it’s set goal to appeal to younger children and not so much anybody else. I am not saying you can’t enjoy it as a teenager, I am just saying you must have a childish personality in order to become fully immersed in that world, at least so I would imagine. Secondly, and probably my foremost complaint is the actors chosen to play Violet and Klaus. When it comes to creating a film adaptation from a novel it is extremely important that you cast the right actors and actresses. They really screwed this one up in my opinion, not in terms of appearance, but in terms of acting ability. Both of their acting is extremely childish and not believable what so ever. Dare I mention the terrible computer generated images use to construct Sunny’s facial expressions. As for Mr. Poe, I have no issue with his ethnicity because it was never specified in the novels whether he was white or black, but I am more infuriated because the personality he has in the show is not what I had pictured. Two characters that I thoroughly enjoyed were Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton) and Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris). Even though I did not like them nearly as much as I liked Jim Carrey and Jude Law, they were still enjoyable to watch and made the show much more enjoyable, despite the massive amounts of negative reviews against them. Very soon after I had finished the first episode I knew that this show was not going to be the dark/comedic show I had hoped it would. So, I accepted the fact that it was purely comedic and intended for children. As a result, the acting from Sunny, Klaus, and Violet became somewhat bearable. Despite my disappointment in the show due to my high expectations, I am still very happy that I will finally be able to watch the rest of the books play out. For that reason alone, I thank you Netflix. I understand that I said I was not going to talk about the similarities and differences between this show and the novels, but there is one thing that infuriates about the plot. Not once in the entire book series did it ever hint at the notion that the Quagmires parents were alive, at least in the first 4 novels anyway, but for whatever reason the director decided to put little cameos of them at the end of every episode. Also, the other secret agents/spies (members of VFD) showing up as hidden characters, this was never made known in the novels. One of the things that made the books so memorable and was the mystery behind this secret organization known as VFD, every time they were mentioned in the books you were left with even more questions than before and even fewer answers. I would also like to point out how distasteful the opening theme songs are. I force myself to skip past them because of how terribly they are. I must admit the ending was very well put together because it gave us a hint at where the orphans will be taking part in some more unfortunate events next season. To conclude my review, I will say that this is still an enjoyable show to watch and kept me intrigued throughout, although there are many, many things I would like changed I will take what I can get. Hopefully they make another 2-3 more season to cover the other 9 books. Extra: As I have already stated earlier I am not going to downgrade the rating I give this show based on book accuracy, but because I have read so many reviews hating on the 2004 movie I am going to point out some of the minor things in the show that did not exist in the books or things in the book that were not in the movie that I have not already pointed out. For example, the movie theater scene with Monty, the entire infiltration of Count Olaf in Dr. Poe’s office, the man and women unknown characters who play Mr. Poe’s secretary, and most importantly the Baudelaire parents being alive. I haven’t read the books in an awfully long time, but from what I remember there was no crying crocodile in Monty’s reptile room, Stefano never threw a lamp out the window to strike Monty upon the head, Sunny was never put in a suitcase, no labyrinth in Monty’s backyard, no orphan defending reptiles, No Lachrymose News, Fight outside the “Anxious Clown” restaurant, no locked safe in Aunt Josephine’s library, Aunt Josephine did not escape on a ski-doo, lighting the scarf on fire to use as a signal, Just to point out a few. |
Positives and Negatives
+ Neil Patrick Harris
+ Covering of the 4th book
+ Ending
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- To comedic
- Mostly terrible acting
- Soundtrack
+ Covering of the 4th book
+ Ending
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- To comedic
- Mostly terrible acting
- Soundtrack
Criteria /10
Acting/Characters: 5/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 9/10
Pacing: 8/10
Soundtrack: 4/10
Dialogue: 7/10
Special Effect: 5/10
Theme: 7/10
Ending: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 9/10
Pacing: 8/10
Soundtrack: 4/10
Dialogue: 7/10
Special Effect: 5/10
Theme: 7/10
Ending: 8/10