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WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
This series follows the tragic tale of three orphans - Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire - who are investigating their parents' mysterious death. The siblings are saddled with an evil guardian named Count Olaf (portrayed by award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris), who will do whatever it takes to get his hands on the Baudelaire's inheritance. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny must outsmart Olaf at every turn, foiling devious plans and disguises.
The series is based on the best-selling series of books by Lemony Snickey (aka Daniel Handler).
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
“Look away, look away…” is what every episode of this story starts out with and for good reason. These poor Baudelaire orphans can’t catch a break. If you’re not familiar with their story then here’s a quick recap: Their parents died in a mysterious fire leading them to be placed with a guardian called Count Olaf who is only after their vast fortune. After they manage to alert the authorities about this dastardly villain, they get placed with a series of guardians who despite their good intentions all fall prey to Count Olaf’s machinations leading to their deaths.
After Count Olaf’s shenanigans last season, the Baudelaires find themselves at a boarding school which of course Count Olaf manages to infiltrate. And as with last season, the kids get bounced around from guardian to guardian, they do however, uncover more of what happened to their parents and get some more answers.
While this show is heart-breaking and you just want these poor kids to get a happy ending, it still somehow manages to be hilarious both in the way the characters ignore the painfully obvious as well as stating the obvious. Count Olaf’s disguises are so pathetic and easy to see through but the adults around the Baudelaire’s are oblivious to them until the very end.
This season sees the children meet up with another pair of orphans at the boarding school they are sent to and become fast friends, after discovering that their parents were part of the same secret organisation.
Much of the season sees the Baudelaires trying to rescue their friends and once that is accomplished they then try to find out just what and who the mysterious VFD (Volunteer Fired Department) that keeps cropping up is. They learn that it is a secret organisation that their parents and all their guardians were part of.
The kids end up at a carnival where they learn that one of their parents might have survived the fire and that the librarian from their boarding school is stationed there to help them, but in an unfortunate turn of events the children disguised as freaks get recruited into Olaf’s band of merry troublemakers and as they are going over a mountain pass, the elder two Baudelaire children Klaus and Lavender, who are travelling in a caravan being towed, literally get cut from the group, hurtling toward the edge of a cliff and leaving baby Sunny in the hands of Count Olaf.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is not a binge watchable show. Aside from each episode being almost an hour long, so much happens in each episode (most of it unhappy and disappointing) that your heart cannot take all of it in one sitting. It’s best watched over a period of weeks.
Oh the suspense, oh the drama! What will happen to these poor Baudelaire orphans now? Will they hurtle over the edge of a cliff? Will they get rescued by a mysterious and benevolent angel? What of poor Sunny? As usual, A Series of Unfortunate Events leaves us with more questions than it does answers. But that’s why we keep coming back, to see and hope for that happy ending.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
