‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Season 2 Review

You may have decided to start reading this article in the hope of discovering (a word here meaning to find or locate) whether or not the second season of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is worth your time. The answer is that it is a dark, miserable season of television that frequently warns you to look away – but do you? No. Because despite the many tragedies the Baudelaires go through over the course of 10 episodes available to stream now on Netflix, you will continue to watch, and quite possibly find a certain level of suffering enjoyable to behold.

Picking up where the last season left off, Season 2 covers the events of Books 5-9 and does so in much the same style as Season 1. Patrick Warburton continues his deadpan narration, foreshadowing miserable events, clarifying word definitions and constantly warning the audience to stop watching. The adaptations of the book’s plots are extremely faithful and the presence of conspiracies continue in a far more prevalent fashion than in the source material. The format is kept the same as the first season, 2 episodes per book with the first episode often being more focused on world-building before the main conflict arises in the second episodes. It’s formulaic, can sometimes be frustrating and it does repeat patterns from Season 1: adults who don’t listen and the orphans always triumphing but only just so they can escape to a new location. Enjoyment of this season will depend almost entirely on whether you enjoyed Season 1, as this is pretty much more of the same. For the first six episodes or so it’s more or less good and occasionally seems to be going through the motions to get to the next location. But for the final four, the quality and tension pick up making ‘The Hostile Hospital’ arguably the most solid of all of the book adaptations and ‘The Carnivorous Carnival’ a finale with far more bite (pun entirely intended) than ‘The Miserable Mill’.

Despite the many tragedies the Baudelaires go through… you will continue to watch, and quite possibly find a certain level of suffering enjoyable to behold

In terms of what the show gets perfectly right, however, praise has to be given to the production design. This show looks gorgeous and each of the five main locations is distinctive, uniquely designed and are complemented by the costume department, art design and excellent casting. No two locations look exactly the same and the use of grime, colour and texture all give it a signature flair. Less perfect is the tone. The show likes to indulge in misery (it sets that out from the title) but certain adaptation choices have made it so that comedy is often prioritised over horror, jokes over menace, which means the whole show lacks suspense. Neil Patrick-Harris’ Olaf, for instance, gets much more screen-time and often loses his sense of menace completely. While his menace does return in the final four episodes, there are points where he seems ineffectual and there only for comedy routines and dragging song numbers. That isn’t to say the comedy in this show doesn’t work – for the most part, it does – it is just at the expense of serious drama at points.

Some may have preferred the show to be darker and less indulgent in its comedic moments and characters, but others may think that it finds the balance just right for them to enjoy the strong performances, as Lemony Snicket, the Baudelaires, Olaf and his troupe all continue to shine alongside new guest characters. Whether or not all of the show’s attempts to include more of the conspiracy plots from the book pays off will have to be seen in Season 3. While not perfect, this show has definitely picked up from Season 1, arguably with stronger books to adapt that have never been shown on screen. It’s beautiful to look at, well-acted and though it can be formulaic towards the back-end the writers definitely seem to be more comfortable playing around, giving us the waking nightmare we will be happy to binge.