I will praise Netflix for this, among other things. The [amazon text=mordant YA books&asin=006029809X] by “Lemony Snicket” aka Daniel Handler needed to be a television series, not a movie series. And you may note that after the first attempt to adapt these to film, there were no more. Perhaps they couldn’t afford to throw more scenery at Jim Carrey.
Not that Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf will chew any less scenery, for it’s the kind of character that demands it. But the books are indeed episodic, and an eight episode season is more fitting for the sad story of the Baudelaire Orphans, as recounted to us by Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket (and I’ll admit — his baritone seems a much better fit than Jude Law in the movie).
There is also no better day for this sad series to debut than Friday the 13th. And so it is — January 13, 2017, we can binge on this sordid tale, though Snicket advises us to look away. Sorry, Lemony; we feel compelled to watch it.
