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

1. The Authentic Adaptation

The movie version really fell down in capturing the books' spirit. Part of the problem was stuffing the first three books into one film (and a sub-2 hour one at that), but it never really managed to convey the whimsy, the literary love, or the absolutely terrible nature of the books, instead ending up a muddled mess.

Netflix allows an adaptation to really take its time, and it works so much better. The eight-episode first season adapts the first four books, with each getting a two-parter that typically runs around 42-50 minutes in length (with exception). It's not without problems, but for the most part this is a much better way of telling the story. It means that it's an incredibly faithful adaptation, and even gets to fill in some of the gaps that we don't see on the page, telling side-stories that we assume live within the spaces of the books.

More important than that, though, is just how Netflix - with the help of Daniel Handler, who wrote the book series under the Snicket name and has contributed to the scripts here - have captured the feel and tone of the books. From the 'look away' opening credits to Snicket's notes to Beatrice, to the mix of the weird and wonderful, comic and cruel, everything that was great about the books - as both child and adult - is present here, and it makes for a fantastic take on a great series of novels.