A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017): Mostly any literary or dramatic works wants to end with a happy ending such that it enlightens audience feel but few writers believes in unhappy ending which enlightens audience perspective.A Series of Unfortunate Events is such unfortunate book in all perspectives but its not at all a tragedy.I loved the film adaptation of the book and Jim Carrey is the best Count Olaf.When I heard that Neil Patrick Harris is doing the role of Count Olaf in this TV Series adaptation I doubted him.I know that he is a good actor but Count Olaf is not at all his league.But surprisingly Neil Patrick Harris didn't disappoint and instead gave another memorable Count Olaf.Beside that there are lot of surprises in this TV adaptation.
Plot: After a fire destroys their home and parents, the Baudelaires siblings Violet (Malina Weissman),Klaus (Louis Hynes) and an infant Sunny (Presley Smith) are sent to live with a distant relative, Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris), who turns out to be a dastardly criminal after the youngsters' fortune. As they cooperate with the evil Count's twisted plans, the Orphans learn from several mysterious relatives and guardians, there is something deeper that ties their parents, Count Olaf, and all of their mysterious new allies together. The deeper they get in their investigation, the more they discover bout their parents dark family secrets.
What I felt: A Series of Unfortunate Events series consists of 13 novels (which I hadn't read).This version gets through the books at a rate of half per episode, so the initial batch of eight covers only the first four volumes of 13.
The specialty of A Series of Unfortunate Events is that whenever you start to feel that a good thing is going to happen for Baudelaires there comes another unfortunate event which surprises you.Especially the unknown couple's escape from unknown captors gives us a hope that Baudelaire's parents are alive but at the end of Season 1 there comes a twist which gives clue that there are still a lot more unfortunate events for Baudelaires.
Casting is the major pro of this series.Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf is very good and is hugely successful in not reminding us Jim Carrey. He gives a talented portrayal of a talentless actor of dubious motivation. Patrick Warburton, as Lemony Snicket, gave an engaging narration with brilliant humor touch to it.The Baudelaires also shine especially Malina Weismann as Violet Baudelair.
If you consider Writing and Direction,this show is on par and some times more engaging than the film.I have waited for a long time for sequel of the film but it didn't happen.But luckily Netflix brought us this mesmerizing series of unfortunate events with great output.This series follows a unconventional narration where narrator appears in middle of scenes and explains words and phrases in incongruous detail. When describing a word the reader may not be aware of, he typically says "a word which here means ...," sometimes with a humorous definition, or one that is relevant only to the events at hand (for example, he describes "adversity" as meaning "Count Olaf").
Background score and visuals are very good.Few scenes of CGI looked fake very clearly but it is negligible as they brought much better output with limited budget.
So,A Series of Unfortunate Events is an engaging Gothic adaptation of popular book with stellar cast and direction.
Eagerly waiting for Season 2!! My rating 8/10
