Netflix's A Series Of Unfortunate Events: 7 Ups & 1 Down

3. The Outstandingly Odious Olaf

Odious here means something that is repulsive or extremely unpleasant, like a warm toilet seat in a public restroom, or someone who excessively scrapes their yoghurt pot. To say that Olaf is outstandingly odious doesn't mean his nature is to be applauded, but rather Neil Patrick Harris does an outstanding job of getting Olaf's odiousness across.

NPH is the series' ace card. Olaf is a wicked villain, but he's also a thespian with a massively overinflated ego, and Harris does a supreme job of blending those two elements together. He's over-the-top, sarcastic, mugging, and a good actor having to play a terrible one, taking on various disguises without losing Count Olaf. Underneath all of that, too, is a real edge; so much more than Jim Carrey's version, you feel the danger that Olaf presents, outlined early on when he smacks Klaus across the face. It happened in the movie too, but here it's really unnerving, and Harris somehow manages to stride the lines of the character wonderfully. He's camp and theatrical, and yet you always believe he'd actually kill these children if given the chance.