Netflix have today revealed the first full look at their adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s (Daniel Handler) A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The series had previously been adapted in a 2005 film featuring Jim Carrey, but this adaptation was heavily criticized for not portraying characters correctly and trying to rush through the storyline too quickly. In comparison, it has been confirmed the 8 episode series which will cover one book every two episodes- meaning each book will be almost as long as the original film.
In the trailer, we get the brief backstory of the Baudelaire children’s initial misfortune of their parents ‘perishing in a fire. Perishing means dying’ as Mr Poe helpfully points out. From there, we get a doozy of things; the strangely menacing Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) and his various plots to steal the Baudelaire fortune, and short but entertaining glimpses of key secondary characters like Uncle Monty (Aasif Mandvi) and Justice Strauss (Joan Cusack).
It also reveals plenty of clues and hints to the future of the series, most of which those who have read the novels will recognise as being Snicket’s classical teasing allusions which were oh-so-common during in the novels. The trailer itself seems quite entertaining, and is full of the dark macabre humour that Handler is so famous for- this time narrated by the excellent Patrick Warburton. Although we don’t have my personal favourite one of the books covered in this series (The Austere Academy and S.O.R.E. in particular), Netflix look to be onto a winner once again.
A Series of Unfortunate Events premieres on Netflix on 13th January 2017. Check out the trailer below:
