okay I just saw a bit of an episode while my dad was watching and who the hell was the guy who decided "you know who would be a good choice to play count olaf? neil patrick fucking harris"
I am still on the fence on whether or not I approve of this
currently I'm still just going "why is this a thing"
but HOW?I absolutely adored these books as a kid, so it's really awesome to see such a faithful adaption finally happen! Granted I haven't read the books since the 13th one was released so I only remember bits and pieces, but watching it has really helped jog my memory.
I was super nervous about NPH as Count Olaf, because all I saw was Barney wearing bad makeup in the trailers, but he's really won me over with how hilarious and evil he is. (Evil means profoundly immoral and malevolent) ;) He has some of the best lines ("So remarkable...And flammable..") and was such a delight to watch. But he was also very good at showing off his creepy and ruthless side when he needed to.
PW also won me over as Lemony Snicket, I loved his deadpan delivery and sweet pining for Beatrice. All of the side characters were very good and had outstanding personalities. I think my fav guardian overall was Uncle Monty, and the man with two hook hands was my fav henchman.
My only complaint was how...dull the Baudelaire siblings seemed in comparison to everyone else. Their actors only seemed to open up a bit more and start emoting around the 7th episode. I'm willing to go a bit easy on them though because this seems to be their first roles in anything major and I feel like the writing was more at fault than them.
edited 14th Jan '17 1:53:06 AM by Farriet
Perfect is very boringJust saw the first few episodes. Oh boy...
/Rant On I never thought I'd say this about a fucking Jim Carrey film but where subtlety is concerned, the movie is significantly more nuanced than the show.
Why?
Because The characters. Do Not. Stop Talking. ABOUT. EVERYTHING. The Narrator. Does Not Stop Talking.
Seriously. Everything is either explained in a lengthy diatribe or extremely wordy conversation. I know that this is based off a book, but I don't need a narration or character explaining every scene or the characters talking about how sad they are. Just show them crying and being sad! I shouldn't have to remind the creators television is a visual medium- Show, Don't Tell
It's like the series is afraid that if a minute goes by without talking, the audience will lose interest. Please, just let characters be characters!
/rant off
So yeah. I'm really hoping the show improves. The production value is beautiful and I think the actors are all doing a really fine job trying to work with an overstuffed script.
edited 14th Jan '17 2:17:59 AM by Mattonymy
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.See, you say "just let characters be characters", but I'd argue that we should just let A Series of Unfortunate Events be A Series of Unfortunate Events. The narration is a key part of the series' charm, and I feel like it would be a bit of a pale imitation of itself if we lost such things. Really, these were hardly subtle books to begin with.
Basically...aesthetic or death, I suppose. And I'm only being semi-ironic with that.
Fortunately, that will not be an issue here, for multiple reasons.
Speaking of which, how did Duncan and Isadora survive the fire in the first place?
Also, that person who set the fire...they appeared to be a woman...Now, who might we know who dresses like that...
As for Jacqueline...they could just cut out the "mistaken for Count Olaf" bit and just have her locked up for some inane reason (Lord knows there are dozens of them), then have her killed. The Vile Village was already a Wham Episode - imagine how big it would be if the person who's been there since the beginning was the one found murdered. Strange, though - I would have thought they'd just use Kit for this sort of role...
You know, it occurs to me...Dr. Orwell has effective control over the Mill in this version. Why not just call both Klaus and Violet up for an eye exam, hypnotize them, then just give them all to Olaf to be his slaves or something?
edited 14th Jan '17 4:03:35 AM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!I think you might like it. And hey, if you don't, it's a short season anyway, so it's not too much of a time sink.
About Jacqueline again it's been almost exactly a decade since I've read the books, but according to some of the book fans apparently there's a "J.S." referenced a few times who isn't Jacques Snicket.
Also, could everyone please spoiler tag the stuff about (last episode spoiler) the Quagmire parents or specific books with the episode number? Not everyone's watching it in one go.
Well, it's not a cliffhanger that takes you out in the middle of the action, but it is clearly not the end of the story, and technically adapts...I want to say the first chapter or so of Book 5? Basically, they're somewhere new now, and there are hints of what is to come.
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Well, there was Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor, but it was unlikely that the message was referring to either of them. It could refer to Jacqueline, I suppose...
As for tagging episodes...I don't know. It seems like a hassle, especially considering how much ground we still have left to cover (and I'm of the opinion that at this point, if you haven't finished the season, you really shouldn't be here and expect not to be spoiled).
edited 14th Jan '17 12:35:39 PM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!Yeah, any people complaining about the lack of subtlety in the show should try re-reading the books, since the narration overexplaning things, and than immediately being redundant as the explanation is shown in a much more natural way in the story itself, is one of the series most charming and essential Running Gags.
One of the key charms of the series is that it is overflowing in theatrical artifice.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.![]()
Again, books vs television, changes need to be made for an adaptation to work. Having Lemony Snicket's overhead narration works in the book series because it's a piece of literature- you can read what's happening to the Baudelaires and have Snicket narrate or interject without having it seem forced. In a visual medium, cutting to a smiling Warburton whenever someone dies or is in peril is incredibly distracting.
I'm not saying cut every single narration but in the movie they at least knew to use Jude Law sparingly just to add emphasis to a dramatic scene. Here, it's used way too much and sometimes the narration doesn't even make sense or worse actually spoils future plot points. VFD organization is mentioned by name within the first two episodes or when Warbuton mentions Aunt Josephine is alive in episode 5, spoiling it for the viewers. Yeah real subtle.
Anyway, I started listening to this teleplay as a radio broadcast i.e. having the audio play in the background while working on projects / not watching. I actually prefer it- it's like a condensed version of the audio books and story-wise, I miss nothing.
edited 15th Jan '17 12:41:14 AM by Mattonymy
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.Having seen the first episodes, I have to disagree there...using the narration as counterpoint works surprisingly well. I have more some issues with the tendency of the dialogue overexplaining things which have already been explained.
For example the plan of the Count in the second episode is more or less obvious from the get go. But a lot of time is spend on showing how the children figure it out. Than it is explained multiple times when they try to wriggle out of it. And then it is explained yet again during the reveal scene. And one point I wanted to scream at the TV "Yes, we get it". Thankfully there aren't too many moments like this, but overall I get the impression that each double-episode could use ten to twenty minutes less overall.
On a different note: The title song is one of the most clever things I have ever seen on TV...the should have simply put that one in the trailer. I bet that would have convinced a lot of people to give the show a shot just to be contrarian.
@swanpride that bothered me too, especially when Klaus is explaining it directly to Olaf and Olaf stares blankly and has no reaction. I mean, it happens in the book too but somehow I imagined that scene much more dramatic than the episode made it out.
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.I know most people have suggested Jacqueline is a gender-flipped Jacques Snicket, but I'm wondering if perhaps she's actually Kit Snicket under an alias. It would make sense to introduce Kit earlier given how large a role she plays in the final books, and one of the main drives of this series appears to be to make the plot more interconnected instead of only beginning to appear in the later books (what with the much more blatant VFD and secret code foreshadowing, and the huge role the Quagmire parents are playing).
I thought about that too, but I believe that Gustav referred to her as "Jacqueline", and in a scene where they were alone, and I'm not sure why Kit would hide her identity from another VFD member, or even if such a thing would be possible. And while we've definitely engaged in some Adaptation Expansion here (along with some curveballs for fans of the books), that feels like it would be overcomplicating things.
Really, "Jacqueline = Jacques" makes the most sense to me, and could play into expanding the VFD stuff as well.
edited 15th Jan '17 2:14:56 PM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!And just like Battle Bots back in the Summer, I reapparate to Tv Tropes to share my thoughts on this installment of A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Reapparate here means "A fancy word for reappear that I stole from Harry Potter".
Anyway, the situation is much like The Lord Of The Rings to me. The books are better on pretty much everything, the first big attempt at an adaptation is a bit cramped, but ultimately still has the superior atmosphere built up that feels more like the way I pictured it, and the next adaptation is bigger and farther drawn out, clearly was better thought out and better acted, but there are places where it seriously falters]
Now to exclusively focus on ASOUE again, specifically the criticisms atm:
- The added subplots for time get a bit distracting at points, I know they wanted some padding time and with the books done, VFD was obviously reasonable to come up with...but come on!
- The whole "consultant" angle for Mr. Poe's reasoning just adds insult and makes Mr. Poe more gratingly useless.
- While I appreciate Gustav getting more screentime, his death was...boring. I had expected with them adapting the books to go into full detail of Olaf drowning him...but it was just a poisoned blow dart to the neck....you've failed when a Cutaway Gag narrated by Jim Carrey is more exciting.
- Uncle Monty is too eccentric and suspicious himself, he lacks the goofiness and I daresay cuddliness the books portrayed him as [and Tim Curry superlatively voiced for the audiobook]. Even Billy Connolly's version from the movie felt better for the situation, and he was probably the flatest character. The point of The Reptile Room is that it is cheerful until Stephano shows up, but it's hard to get that vibe with the way Mandvi plays him.
- The last sentence above is exacerbated by Klaus being cynical about Monty never being mentioned, even though this time around, it was clear the parent's willed him as their guardian...yeah, yeah I know, suspense for VFD...but it ruins the atmosphere.
- Neil Patrick Harris is just as I imagined Count Olaf, but his Stephano just plain old sucks compared to Jim Carrey [or even Tim Curry]. Yes, NPH's is more faithful to the text, but the accent failure and a bit more complex disguise Carrey wears makes for a more entertaining and more believable explanation as to why the Baudelaires aren't believed.
- Being more faithful with the legal document was also big minus compared to Klaus burning it up, in this case, they could've had Sunny make the henchman do it as a Poker bet.
- I haven't seen The Wide Window yet, but I already know no one tops Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, who was the best performance in the whole movie by far. What I've seen in trailers makes me worry they'll deviate to far away with her as well.
- Speaking of another unwinnable case, Jude Law also can't be topped.
- Also, why "The Littlest Elf" hasn't gotten any nods yet is beyond me.
...It doesn't sound like you've even bothered to give it a chance.
Also...
Um...why?
I mean, if you ask me, the latter just takes away Violet's agency in this by turning her into a Damsel in Distress for Klaus to save. Really, what's the point?
See...I don't know if that should be believable. I think it works better if others are missing what is incredibly obvious - it adds to the misery, I suppose.
edited 15th Jan '17 9:37:38 PM by KarkatTheDalek
Oh God! Natural light!In fact Snicket has that whole rant on the DVD commentary about how burning the document not only reduces Violet's role, but makes it so the day is saved by brute force rather than ingenuity.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.I haven't read the books aside from the first half of Bad Beginning being read to me in second grade. All of my knowledge on the series comes from the Nickelodeon movie and three separate games (Gamecube, PC, and Gameboy for those curious) made about the movie back when it was first made, so I can't really say for it's authenticity compared to the original series.
But, man, even if it wasn't trying to be wholly faithful to the books, don't write it off as doing so. Can't a bit of creative license that makes an experience better to watch be allowed in 2017?
I finished watching the first season and I really enjoy the direction they are going in this adaptation.
"Strategy? Spacing? I just keep punching until I hit something." - Sol Badguy

But if she's Jacques Snicket, how are they going to do the plotline where he (now she) is mistaken for Count Olaf because of also having one eyebrow?
Maybe they changed Kit Snicket's name for some reason?
Also curious what having the Baudelaire parents alive means about the reveal of Beatrice's identity, since Lemony here did refer to her as dead.
edited 13th Jan '17 9:18:37 PM by Tuckerscreator