Review of "The Bad Beginning" (Netflix)

SPOILERS

Soon after watching A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix, I decided to reread the books for the first time in years. It was surprising at how quickly the story went, how easy it was to read, and how the voices and expressions in my head from years ago all of a sudden came back.

For someone who has had her fill of book to screen adaptations, good, adequate, and plain old disappointing, this was a breath of fresh air. Since Daniel Handler, the real name of the books’ author and narrator, Lemony Snicket, was involved with the adaption from the beginning, instead of fired like he was on the film adaptation, I was expecting high quality storytelling. And I was not disappointed. "The Bad Beginning" stayed pretty true to the book. Since I read the book soon after watching, it was fresh in my mind and I was surprised at how similar it is. Dialogue and references and the quips of Lemony Snicket were exactly the same, like “Klaus found himself reading the same sentence over and over. Klaus found himself reading the same sentence over and over.” This is my new number one book-to-live action adaptation. It beats Deathly Hallows. It beats The Hunger Games.

The episodes hit all the classic main plot points, the things that were in the film as well. You have the opening scene on Briny Beach, the disastrous dinner with good old pasta puttanesca, and of course “The Marvelous Marriage” by Al Funcoot. But then there were small changes, of course, including all the cutaway VFD stuff which I just love and was intrigued from the very start. It took me a little into the first episode to remember all the VFD subplot, but at the first mention of “volunteer fire department” something clicked and it all came rushing back.

I was also surprised at all the big-name actors that were involved, such as NPH, Joan Cusack, Cobie Smulders, and Will Arnett. What I took away from that was those involved had to know the amount of success the show was going to have; the day before it was released, Netflix ordered Season 2. There were plenty of small and unknown actors who played their parts well (I recognized K. Todd Freeman, who played Mr. Poe, from Buffy).

My favorite little literary reference was the scene towards the beginning with the two Poe kids, Edgar and Albert (read: Allan), mentioning a raven (as in Edgar Allan Poe, author of “The Raven”. Clever, Mr. Snicket. Very clever.).

VFD noticed:

Volunteer Fire Department

Vigorously Fixed Destination

Come back next Sunday for "The Reptile Room"!

Click here for my full series review!