The book, The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, turned to movie has now been rejuvenated into a netflix series. It took a more theatric spin on Count Olaf and the Baudelaire children. This new series has a slightly less muted color palette. Whereas the movie which preceeded had allowed the characters to develop and brighten the screen through their personalities better.
Neil Patrick Harris took his broadway talents to the big screen incorporating them with singing numbers through Olaf’s acting group. While Carrey takes a slightly more humorous approach, Harris shows the more cruel nature of the character. The cruelty however can’t be taken too seriously without random jump cuts or the lovely neighbor. The theatrical nature of the series kept any creepiness at bay and didn’t work well in portraying Olaf as creepy as he is. Then as far as the Baudelaire children go they hardly express any emotion throughout the series.
They now have a Lemony Snicket character, who narrates the series. It seems like an easy way out that they could just throw in extra information to the audience. The voice is more of a distraction, and breaks up the scenes to where they don’t flow nearly as well as they should. He will be thrown in there awkwardly in the back of scenes to which will cut to him to start speaking. It was a good series, but to fit the true eeriness of the series it would’ve fit better had there been less theatrics to humor the screen.