A Series of Unfortunate Events
2017
Original language: English
- action & adventure
- family
- comedy
- mystery
The story
The orphaned Baudelaire children face trials, tribulations and the evil Count Olaf, all in their quest to uncover the secret of their parents' death.
What it’s like
Storybook artifice dressed in gothic grandeur: a wide, deliberately theatrical look with saturated, painterly sets, hand-painted backdrops, and fussy Victorian interiors cluttered with mismatched oddities. Camera work is mostly symmetrical, centred compositions and playful direct address, with an omniscient narrator's voice that cuts in to explain and sigh at the world. The score is brisk, whimsical strings and xylophone that tilt toward the macabre, and the whole thing feels like a picture book that has been left out in the rain, damp and slightly sinister but still bright. Its vibe is dark whimsy and wry melancholy, the sort of thing that suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a family viewing with older kids, or a comfort rewatch with a mug of cocoa. Episodes move briskly, each one a self-contained caper with a running thread of mystery, and the emotional register stays sincere beneath the mockery: three siblings who only have each other, forever cleverer than the adults failing them. Intensity is mild to moderate: peril, menace, and villainous cruelty, but no real gore, and the danger is cartoonish rather than frightening. It is for viewers who enjoy clever children, arch humour, and Gothic oddness without much bloodshed.
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