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

2. The Maddening Mystery

On the surface, the story is a fairly simple one. It is, as the title explains, a series of unfortunate events that befall the lives of the poor Baudelaire children, as Count Olaf tries to get his hands on their fortune.

Underneath, though, is a bigger tale, one that goes beyond the Baudelaires and encompasses their parents and secret organisations - of which there's only an incomplete history. There are references to this throughout, building as the series moves along, with plenty of references to the VFD.

It's something that helps sustain and even boost the books, and seeding it now means there's more scope for payoff later on. The show will likely return for a second and then a third season, and this larger conspiracy helps to build a story bigger than the repeated Olaf against orphans formula. The numerous nods will be a delight to book readers, but there's enough hints for newcomers to pick up on too, meaning that we get sucked deeper into the mystery that helps push the narrative along.