DAVID BIANCULLI

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LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
January 13, 2017  | By David Bianculli

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

 

SERIES PREMIERE: Forget about the Jim Carrey movie from a dozen years ago. This new Netflix version, overseen by Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler and Barry Sonnenfeld (one of the show’s gifted directors), is delightful from start to finish. Well, start to the end of episode eight, which is all Netflix is providing during this first go-round. Each book in the original Series of Unfortunate Events series, telling of the continuing misadventures of a trio of orphaned siblings whose family fortune is targeted by the evil Count Olaf, is dramatized in two TV episodes. So the first four books are covered in this eight-episode first season, and they’re covered beautifully. Guest stars such as Alfre Woodard and Joan Cusack have a fabulous time here, and Patrick Warburton, playing Lemony Snicket the reluctant “author,” is perfect. But so is Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf, who slinks through A Series of Unfortunate Events with a series of hilarious characterizations. The most TV fun I’ve had in quite a while. For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, listen to the show today, or, later on, visit the Fresh Air website. But gobble these up, regardless of your age. For an interview with executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, see Bianculli’s Blog.

 
 
 
 
 
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