A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Netflix adaptation of novel series

One thing I always loved about Series of Unfortunate Events is that Olaf might be stupid and goofy, but at no point does he ever feel harmless. Count Olaf kills a lot of people, and the books never shy away from this fact, in fact he kills people constantly throughout the series. He might be anti-intellectual, but he can be scarily clever when he needs to be, and he is ruthless and cruel to excessive degrees.

The best villains balance being scary and competent with being entertaining and funny.

Humans like people who make them laugh, so it's a much better way to get the audience genuinely invested in a villain than just giving them Generic Tragic Backstory #19185 and expecting anyone to give two shits.

There are only two things about the ending that I care whether they change. They can't touch the Baudelaires burning down the hotel with the entire cast of the series inside, and they can't touch the audience having no idea what the Baudelaires will return to when they leave the island.

edited 3rd Apr '18 9:48:40 PM by Wackd

I knew people liked to meme the "It's The Count" song but holy mother of mothers.

edited 7th Apr '18 7:13:55 PM by Anomalocaris20

This is something which really disappointed me about the second season. Acting, narrative, CGI, all this was better, but the music was kind of meh other than the title songs.

Aww, I liked the House of Freaks song.

Yeah, aside from "That's Just How the Story Goes", I'd say that season 2's songs were better.

I thought they were pretty meh and forgettable. Especially compared to "that's how the story goes" which is along with the title song a genuine ear worm.

One kinda morbid complaint I do have is that Jacques looked pretty good for someone who had apparently been beaten to death with a crowbar.

Do I need to spoiler that? Ah, just in case.

edited 8th Apr '18 5:09:12 AM by Murataku

I literally don't remember any other songs aside from "That's Just How the Story Goes" from season 1 except for "It's the Count", which I don't really like.

edited 8th Apr '18 5:44:47 AM by PushoverMediaCritic

Because there weren't any other songs? Only the three....and all of them were memorable.

The House of Freaks song is such an Ear Worm.

I feel it is very annoying at best...but YMMV.

Gunter's song fell pretty flat. If I had to rank the songs, I'd go:

Look Away > That's Not How the Story Goes > House of Freaks >> It's the Count >> Keep Chasing Your Schemes

Also, though instrumental, the Lucky Smells theme (with the whistling) is pretty great.



In other news, wow, what an incredible season. Hospital episodes were probably the highlight. Esme killed it.

Also, did anyone else notice how the flags in the VFD courthouse are one shape away from being Nazi flags? Swap the crows for swastikas, and there it is.

edited 8th Apr '18 6:29:27 PM by Ryuhza

Personally, I liked Keep Chasing Your Schemes more than It's The Count, which I can only appreciate on the level of Stylistic Suck and So Bad, It's Good.

That's why I rate It's The Count higher. I figured that was what they were going for. Not sure what they were going for with Keep Chasing Your Schemes.

x3 I noticed it too. Though not sure if the comparison was warented.

I thought the Hospital and Carnival were the best. If just because Esme and Madame Lulu stole the show.

Yeah, It's the Count is bad on every level, but it is an enjoyable kind of bad because the badness is intentional.

While we're on the topic of songs, anyone want to take some guesses as to the songs in season 3?

Song as someone dies. Heh.

Well, there’s the Snow Scouts.

And I could easily imagine Olaf getting another number in, say, the Grim Grotto.

Anyway, my rankings of the show.

Overall:

9. Reptile Room

8. Bad Beginning

7. Wide Window

6. Miserable Mill

5. Vile Village

4. Ersatz Elevator

3. Austere Academy

2. Hostile Hospital

1. Carnivorous Carnival

I may break it down by episode later, but that'd require a re-watch

I didn't like Vile Village much the first time around for some reason, but I like it better on rewatch. My favourites are Hostile Hospital and Carnivorous Carnival, though. Least favourite might be Ersatz Elevator.

So, best "character"?

I'd say Genghis, it seems to be the most lifelike and farthest away from Olaf, but there's still enough obvious clues that something is off.

But generally, the Season 2 disguises have been much better than the first batch.

IMO, season 2 being better is because of two things. One, the first three books were already covered in the film and they wanted to do things differently, leaving only book 4 to have full creative freedom in season 1. Two, book 5 onwards is around when the books got into their groove anyways.