So growing up while everyone else was off reading Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings I was off reading the unfortunate story of three poor orphans whos parent’s untimely death caused by a massive fire would turn their world upside down and cause them to learn more about their parents then they thought they needed to know. Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny where remarkable children with Violet being the inventor, Klaus being a massive book worm and Sunny who just got her baby teeth loved to bite hard things. They lived in a mansion with their parents until tragity struck and their parents died in a terrible fire. They then were shipped off to their “uncle” Count Olf a devious man out for their huge fortune. Luck for them they are able to get away from Olf but each time they do he shows up in costume and tries to adopt them again (or kill them which ever comes first).

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children’s novels by Lemony Snicket (the pen name of American author Daniel Handler), which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents’ death in a fire. The children are placed in the custody of a murderous relative, Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance and, later, orchestrates numerous disasters with the help of his accomplices as the children attempt to flee their clutches. As the story progresses, the Baudelaires gradually discover a deep background of secrets and conspiracies involving a secret society known as V.F.D., with connections to both Olaf and their parents. The series is narrated by Snicket, who dedicates each of his works to his love interest, Beatrice, and often attempts to dissuade the reader from continuing the learning experience of the Baudelaires’ story.

This series had 13 books, a Nickelodeon produced move featuring Jim Carrey as Count Olf and a current Netflix series featuring Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olf. This was one of the few book series I red cover to cover growing up as I wasn’t much of a reader. I don’t know what it was about this series but when my 5th grade teacher first red the Bad Begginings to our class I instantly feel in love and wanted to know more about these three unfortunate orphans. I was also very fasnated by the fact that the author had his own story within the story and it was so misterious and I wanted to know more. Learning along the way about their parent’s serect socity was cool too as it was an added layer to the story. 

Now I was not found of the ending of the book series which *spolier alert* Count Olf and the Klaus end up together in the end and the orpahans stay messirable orphans for the rest of forever. I personally thought that was a cope out and didn’t end the story very well. But as the whole story went I did like it over all. I was also one of those kids who got really excited when another instalment of the series came out and I had box sets of the books 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 & 10-12 + unlucky 13.

Something that I did love a lot about this book series was that it teaches you about words, grammer and spelling. Each page of the book you learned a new work and then the definition of said word. Then in the 3rd book with Aunt Josephen you learn grammer and how to apply it to your writing.

Like I said earlier there was a 2004 movie produced by Nickelodeon which to me wasn’t very good at all mostly because it tried to fit 3 books in one 90 min movie. The ending of the movie was not good as it didn’t stick to the books. I also was not too keen on Jim Carrey playing Count Olf and found him to be too happy and not violent enough. Then you have the orphan actors and they were a little too old for their characters plus the way they dressed was kind of weird and Klaus didn’t weair glasses. Also it felt too dark but yet too light at the same time and it just wasn’t working for me.

Fast forword to 2017 and the new Netflix tv series was created and it is amazing. I just watched the first 8 episodes they have released going over the first 4 books with each book givin to 2 episodes each which I find to be the perfect amount of time to give to each book. It goes from the Bad Beginning to the Miserable Mill leading into the The Austere Academy in the end. This version of the books is very Wes Anderson leaning which I love because he created the ’90s version of the Adams Family which is one of my favorite movies as it is dark yet funny and has some hart to it. It also gives you a little bit of Edward Scissorhands vibes by Tim Burton.

Another thing that I love is Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olf. He is amazing as Olf and takes him from goofy guy to evil villain in one take and even takes a hard tone at times with his portrail. Oh and his henchmen/women are so funny and has some of the best one liners of the show. The orphan actors are much better then in the movie and Sunny has to be my favorite of the three. Also can we talk about how diverse this cast is. Two of the Baudelaire relatives are people of color with Uncle Monty being indian played by Aasif Mandvi and Aunt Josephin and Mr. Poe being black played by Alfre Woodard and K. Todd Freeman respectly which is awesome. But I will admit Mr. Poe is very annoying but that’s just in general at how nieve his character really is. Oh and Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket is so good. He portrays this character so well and narrorates this show perfect. I think this show was very well done because Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket wrote the skript for it. Then you have the theme song which is actually pretty catchy and the music in the show is great with the few numbers they have in the first and last episodes.

Reviews of the Show:

Anyway definitly think this is worth checking it out and if you haven’t red the books please do it will be very unplesent all 13 of them but well worth it. Looking forword to season 2 and to get deaper into the misfortunes of the Baudelaire orphans.

Till Next Time Stay…Unfortunate meaning having or marked by bad fortune; unlucky