A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Netflix Series

Written by Elise (Elle) Maurer

As part of research into Lemony Snicket’s story of the misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans, I have been watching the episode corresponding to the book I have just finished (currently the last one I’ve seen is halfway through the hostile hospital due to time and scheduling reasons.) The first season, premiered January 13, 2017 follows the children along the first four chapters of their journey. In total, there are three seasons, all of which are now available on Netflix. For this review, I would first like to talk about the casting of the characters, then I will release another review detailing my thoughts on the plot comparison. For a more in depth synopsis of the plot refer to my previous review here. I will not be giving a description outside of physical for the characters.

Count Olaf As
Depicted
In The Books

For the review of the casting, I will be focusing on the main character who appear in more than two episodes of the series, as critiquing every guardian would make this review painfully long. To start, Count Olaf:

Neil Patrick Harris as Count
Olaf

Count Olaf in the books as tall, light skin, blue eyes, an eye tattooed on his ankle, and a uni-brow. His demeanor is mean and threatening and according to the children he always has a gleam in his eye. I think the casting of Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf was the best decision in connection with the show. He plays this character very well and adds an element of fear when looking at him, and gives the impression he is disgusting and filthy as described in the book. Just look at the positively evil glare of him. Wonderful, magnificent, nothing could beat that!!

Louis Hynes and Malina
Weissman side by side

Next we move on to the subject of the book. The orphans. I would first like to critique Klaus and Violet by comparing them to each other. Violet is portrayed by Malina Weissman, and Klaus by Louis Hynes. Comparing them to their physical description in the book, they fit very well, but not so much in comparison to each other. Violet and Klaus appear to be about the same age, though in the books, Violet is around a year and a half older than Klaus. It is confirmed in the beginning of the series that Klaus is twelve (and shortly turns thirteen thereafter in The Vile Village) and Violet is 14. Females tend to go through puberty around this age, though males do not start showing strong signs of puberty until they hit being an old 13 or even 14. Therefore, Klaus should look a lot younger than Violet in the series, especially considering Malina looks older than 14. I understand filming a series such as this one takes time, and the kids will grow up during the process, but even in the first season, Malina and Louis looked too old, especially Louis in comparison to Malina, than they were portrayed in the book.

Presley Smith as Sunny in
Season one of The Series of
Unfortunate Events

Again, working with child actors is a challenge, especially babies, and in the case of Sunny, she is not nearly as developed in the series as she is in the books. This is mostly attributed to the fact Presley Smith, who plays Sunny, was only eight months old upon her arrival to the series. She probably got frustrated easily and could not deal with acting out full scenes, as her older on-screen siblings could. During this time of life, she would be growing very fast and the time taken to film the show is much longer than that of the books so it makes sense why we see Sunny grow up so fast on camera. In the books, she isn't walking until the seventh book, while in the series she is walking by the fifth. This was frustrating for me as also she was not given as much screen time in the series as she was in the book. Situations revolved a lot around sunny during the plot of the books, yet shy away from her as much as they can during the series.

Overall, I have to say the producers have done an amazing job of bringing justice to these books(so much better than the movie version flop of 2004), and especially working with child actors. The acting of the children sometimes feels stiff, awkward, and scripted (I mean, of course it is but we as the viewers aren't supposed to know that), but the children begin to gain confidence in themselves towards the end of the series. I'll have to give the series 3.9/5 bologna slices for casting, as there are some issues in the quality and ages of the actors. Until next time, enjoy this quote from Lemony Snicket, "At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey.”