✨ my rating: 5 of 5 stars ✨

I am so happy that this series came out, to do real justice to the books (instead of the older movie which wasn’t that great in my opinion).

I loved reading the books when I was a kid, and I remember going to my school library every week just to read them. This series took the time to really explore the intricate stories of the books, and the characters were every bit as weird and quirky as I remember them to be. The sets were also stunning, almost reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic, and shone through in the beautiful cinematography. The actors playing the characters were impeccably chosen and had on-point delivery – Esme Squalor was AMAZING, as were the Baudelaires, Kit Snicket and Count Olaf, among the others.

Plotwise, there were some parts that I found overly exaggerated (cough cough Mr Poe, no pun intended), and repetitive (Lemony Snicket butting in all the time), but funnily enough I kind of got used to it after a while. At the same time, the show does very well in conveying moral questions and reflecting the absurdities of reality in a subtle and refined way, which is what drew me to the books in the first place.

I was also all prepared to be disappointed by the ending, because in my mind, there was no conceivable way to end it satisfactorily given the ambiguity of the books. The mystery of the sugar bowl, for instance. So the theories online about its significance were right! I won’t spoil it, but I felt that the show handled it really well, managing to balance uncertainty with finality, and ending on an optimistic note.

A Series of Unfortunate Events; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

🌹date finished watching: 2 feb 2019 🌹

✨ my rating: 4 of 5 stars ✨

This was surprisingly really good, despite my initial apprehension! When I first heard the premise of the series, I was confused as to its appeal – a psychopath going on a road trip with someone who he plans to kill? Um… weird. Indeed, it’s warped and weird but it’s great.

The actual show is far from this distilled synopsis. It depicts two teenagers with messy and difficult backgrounds, who both feel like outsiders. I thought that the characters were developed really well despite their unlikeable traits – their portrayals succeed at evoking empathy within the viewer even as we’re aware that they’re doing the wrong things. You can see that inside, they just want to be loved, and they’re running from the hurts and pains that they’ve been carrying around.

The flat and dry deadpan humour is also effective in this context, conveying the emptiness they feel inside. It’s realistic in the sense that they don’t offer any glamourised version of the two protagonists’ relationship – it’s not some romantic whirlwind, but it’s more of them each trying to figure themselves out, and understanding themselves better with the help of each other. Also, the soundtrack is lovely and the angsty indie undertones fit the mood and is the perfect backdrop for such a surreal plot. Definitely worth a watch!

The End of the F***ing World; directed by Jonathan Entwistle, Lucy Tcherniak

🌹date watched: 26 jan 2019 🌹