2017 Netflix series represents better than 2004 movie

Before there was the friendly, warm, snowman Olaf in “Frozen,” there was the cold, disgusting, Count Olaf in “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
The first time the world heard about Count Olaf was in the Lemony Snicket’s children’s books. Lemony Snicket is the pen name of Daniel Handler. The first book in the series was published in 1999. There were 13 books in the series.
The first time we saw Count Olaf was in 2004 when Jim Carrey played the creepy man in a movie directed by Brad Silberling. That movie was a let down for those who loved the book series, and there were rumors for years about a remark, or TV series, or simply something better.
That dream finally came true this month when we finally met an ideal Count Olaf in “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” as a Netflix series. Neil Patrick Harris plays Olaf in this series.
On Jan. 13, Netflix released the first eight episodes of the show, and there are two episodes per book, so the first season goes through the first four books. Each episode is 50 minutes long.
As a fifth and sixth grader, I read the “Unfortunate Events,” and I remember having to wait for our public library to get the 13th and final book to finish. I remember having my name on a wait list and growing more and more impatient with everyone else reading it, so much so that I eventually bought my own copy to read.
“A Series of Unfortunate Events” have been my favorite series since, and along with many others, I, was extremely disappointed in the representation of the books in movie form, and I was so pumped about the Netflix series that I watched all eight in a day.
Along with Harris as Olaf, the entire cast of the series fit a better representation of the book’s descriptions of the Baudelaire children. Malina Weissman plays Violet, Louis Hynes plays Klaus, and Presley Smith plays Sunny. In addition, we see Lemony Snicket, played by Patrick Warburton, pop up occasionally through the episodes to provide insights and guidance, just like in the book.
The books are sarcastic, educational, and entertaining. The narrator, Snicket, tells the reader to put the book down and walk away from the terribly sad story that he has to share. The Netflix series does the same with the opening theme song.
The song adjusts with every two episodes, but remains constant with the line, “Look away, look away, it will surely wreck your evening, your whole life and your day, every single episode is nothing but dismay so look away.”
The narrator interrupts to create suspense randomly throughout the story. During the interruptions, like in the books, Snicket takes time to define certain words or phrases that we should probably understand as college students, but we might not have known as fifth and sixth graders.
In the books there were various characters who we were not allowed to meet until we were deeper into the series and we were not allowed a look into their backgrounds, but the Netflix series takes the time to showcase multiple story lines while telling us the story of the Baudelaire children.
If you have not read the books, watched the movie, or watched the Netflix series, I do not want to ruin the story line and I do not want to give away the secrets of the story, but I can tell you the books and show, not so much the movie, are entertaining, sarcastic and humorous.
I recommend that everyone pick up the books, read the story, and then watch the Netflix series. They are a quick read and a quick watch and well worth the time.
Ignore the movie though, we should probably just all pretend that never happened.