By: Sam Martini ~Staff Writer~

Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is the complete opposite of what its name suggests. The series follows the Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, as they are chased by Count Olaf for their inheritance, bouncing from guardian to guardian in the process.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is one of the biggest Netflix shows to date, both in hype and in revenue. This first season consists of eight episodes and follows four of the books.

The series does a fantastic job of sticking to its source material, even going as far as getting the author, Daniel Handler, to do the teleplays for five episodes. The tone of the show is a great success, borrowing from the visual style of Wes Anderson and narrated by Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket.

Warburton does a fantastic job as Lemony Snicket, putting a face to the name while keeping his drab ominous tone.

The child actors also deliver strong performances. Both Malina Weissman as Violet and Louis Hynes as Klaus do a fantastic job of making us believe their vast intelligence as well as their sadness for their situation. Presley Smith as Sunny, even as a toddler, gives great facial expressions making her appear more of an equal to her siblings, instead of just a dribbling baby.

Neil Patrick Harris is centralized in the marketing of the showand dynamically portrays the sinister Count Olaf.

The character may have been a bit too sinister for the likes of Harris, switching to a Barry Stinson-like sarcasm when a line appears too harsh, pulling from the character and taking several lines to reestablish.

One of the greatest things about the character of Olaf is his own “character.” Being an “actor,” Olaf disguises himself to trick the guardians of the Baudelaires. This provides excellent comedy as Harris switches from these other personalities back to Olaf on a dime trying to stay in these characters as his own character.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a marvelous show and a short watch, only eight episodes. As far as the future of the series is concerned, it looks bright as talks begin to fill the internet of a second season. Hopefully, it will be soon because this series is taking a darker turn for the better.