Growing up, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was my favorite series (besides The Baby-Sitter’s Club– I feel I should add for any of my friends/family who are going to read this and fact check me). So, naturally, when I found out that Netflix had signed on to do an eight-episode production of the beloved series, I was tickled pink.

Daniel Handler (the real-life counterpart to the pen name he employs throughout the series)  was my literary role model when I was younger: he loved alliteration, was constantly making use of large words and terms in his narration, and skillfully used second person the entire series.   The books offered little closure at the end of each installment, and more questions than answers when the series concluded with its thirteenth part, The End.

On October 4th, Netflix released a first-look trailer of the upcoming series which is set to premiere (when else?) Friday the 13th of January.  What excites me so greatly is how true to the narration of mood of the novels is seems that Netflix is sticking to.  Snicket, shown in the trailer, simplifies the way in which he speaks to the audience, and again, continues to utilize second person.

This is not the first time the series has been adapted, and while I loved Jim Carrey as Olaf in the film adaption, I felt that because the Unfortunate Events movie combined the first three books into an hour and a half time slot, it did not allow for the choppiness and separation of the stories the way a television series will allow.  Making sure three different stories were told resulted in the loss of subtlety and nuance I adored about the books in the first place.

If you can’t wait until January to see how Netflix will pull off this twisted world and rejection and woes, check out the trailer below:

bridget

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