A Series of Unfortunate Events — The Best Adaptation
In a world divided by politics, money, and debauchery, this is the hill I choose to die on. There are two adaptations of the titular book series but only one that really matters. The film Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) vs. the Netflix show A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017). This isn’t entirely a comparison of which adapted the source material more accurately onto the screen. If it were, the Netflix series obviously wins for having the entire story. Accuracy is still a factor, however the medium of each adaptation limits its importance and thus the movie version won’t be unjustly criticized for having the elements that make up a movie (i.e., a single, discrete 1-2hr product) and similarly the Netflix show won’t be unjustly criticized for having the elements that make up a series (i.e., an episodic product with 40-60-minute episodes). I will refer to each henceforth by their respective formats (e.g., “film” vs. “series,” “movie” vs. “show” or “Netflix/TV,” etc.) because repeating the entire title would get tedious. They will be judged by how well the story is told in each’s format and what liberties each took that improved or impaired each’s version. This is about which adaptation is the best. And, trust me, there is one clear winner. Enough talk, let’s do this.
Plot
The movie took the most liberties for scrunching 3-books-worth of material into it and altered the timeline a bit. The film begins with The Bad Beginning before segueing into The Reptile Room and then The Wide Window before returning to The Bad Beginning. For the Netflix show, the plot follows all the books pretty much to a T, the exception being the very end where it’s a generic all-live-happily-ever-after ending. The movie, while handling more material than it could portray, manages to have an entertaining plot with emotional highs and lows. The show, on the other hand, felt flat throughout. While its story progressed and made sure to get just about every point from the books, the plot didn’t have the same highs and lows as the film. This is because of a combination of other elements that I’ll delve further into, particularly its tone. But to summarize this element in particular, the movie managed to do more with less while the series managed to follow more of the events more accurately if not more effectively. From a storytelling perspective, the movie wins.
Score
The film hands-down has the better music. I still listen to it to this day. Thomas Newman nails the emotions that enhances the other elements of the film like its plot and tone. The show, on the other hand, has a forgettable soundtrack. The only music I remember are its opening and the random musical number thrown in somewhere at the end of a season, and, while they are consistent with the show’s plot and tone, only add to its flatness. More on this flatness in the later sections. Back to the score of the film, even the film’s credits song went hard with Drive Away. Some other standouts are The Letter That Never Came and The Reptile Room. But seriously, this soundtrack does not get the recognition it deserves. If you haven’t, go check it out.
Set Design
The better set design also, hands-down, goes to the film version. A world that actually feels real and lived-in yet unique with steampunk vibes that are consistent with the darker tone is all around better. The show has very fake looking buildings, backgrounds, and scenery that look like a television set. The show’s design is like a Wes Anderson production. Most of it looks bright and polished which, again, is consistent with the show’s tone and plot but ultimately adds to its flatness. It’s like the visual equivalent of a sterilized hospital building, it’s all so sterile. It’s just so fake-seeming. I didn’t like it. The film’s scenes I don’t really get tired looking at. To touch on a bit with how the scenes add flavor to the film as opposed to the flatness of the show, just comparing Briny Beach between the two makes it apparent. One looks real and the way the scene plays out actually makes Mr. Poe’s arrival seem unfortunate, which it is given he emerges from fog and announces the reason he’s there. The other looks, again, like a cutesy, chipper toy set hyper-realized to fit a Wes Anderson production from the neatly lined changing stalls to the trolley. Part of the difference is also due to the cinematography, though it’s also made very noticeable by the differences in acting.
Acting
This is likely the most divisive element between the two versions. Getting the easy parts out of the way first, the film’s Baudelaires are the better actors. They come across as real in their scenes rather than pretending to be real as the Netflix show’s Baudelaires often do. The side characters, like Mr. Poe, are also more realistic and not made to be one-note punchlines that are so overused by the Netflix show that it is aggravating. To again compare the scene on Briny Beach, Mr. Poe’s delivery of the line about the Baudelaire’s parents having perished is delivered straightforwardly yet reluctantly in the film version while in the Netflix version it’s delivered jovially. The show has more of these characters due to having the entire plot of the books, and some characters are more than one-dimensional like Olivia Caliban. Unfortunately, she’s the only one I can remember being more than a cardboard cutout, and the other performances (again, Poe and others like Carmelita Spats) inundate the Netflix show with its flat gimmicks, buffoonery, and lighthearted and chipper attitude. To pull specific examples from the show, “cake-sniffer” and any given character explaining the definition of a word after the word has been used are some running gags though oftentimes the latter made the show feel like a kid’s educational channel. There’s also the frequent breaking of the fourth wall that makes the show feel even less real.
Now for Olaf and co. Jim Carrey is the better Olaf. Yeah, I said it. He has a good number of moments where he is classic Carrey and acting foolish. But, the key thing about his portrayal, he sells his dark side. When he treats the orphans poorly, he genuinely seems like he doesn’t care about them. When he slaps Klaus, there’s genuine malevolence there. Same for when he kills Aunt Josephine. Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) is all buffoonery and jokes and is a flat character. When he slaps Klaus, it’s lighthearted and intentionally so. When he has Aunt Josephine killed (he doesn’t even do it himself) it’s played off for a laugh rather than a somber moment. Most of all, he does not sell the character of Olaf being sinister and cunning at all. He is blatantly made a joke for being unintelligent (e.g., mistaking “literally” and “figuratively” is seriously one of his gags). All NPH is is hammy. Jim Carrey is also hammy, but his Olaf is more than that. He is actually sinister. You genuinely believe he is evil all thanks to those glimmering moments where he breathes something other than a running gag or punchline into the story. And because he isn’t made to be a walking gag reel like the Netflix version, it’s actually believable that he could do the things he does. Because he isn’t made to look unintelligent, he’s an actually convincing villain and threat, not Team Rocket or something evoking a similar eye-rolling, head-shaking, “Oh, Olaf!” comedy-sitcom-type bit. As for Olaf’s acting troupe, they all contribute to the show’s flatness and don’t come across as real characters (the exception being the hook-handed man). Each have their own running gags or are played off for laughs rather than, well, being characters. The troupe in the film are admittedly not important, though they don’t stand out as being hammy or being used for a cheeky gag. That’s probably important in itself, that because they didn’t stand out they then at least didn’t stand in the way. Overall, the film’s acting is superior.
Pacing
This is a mildly tough one to evaluate due to the different formats, however this can also fit in with how I evaluate both the film and the show’s plot. The film, while fitting in the content from three books, is paced rather smoothly and doesn’t feel like it’s ever rushing nor dragging. The Netflix show doesn’t necessarily have bad pacing either, though in retrospect it honestly does feel slow when it in actuality is not slow. This is again due to the flatness of everything. With everything being so jokey and lighthearted it feels like the show didn’t actually go anywhere. Anyway, this is a tossup, but I give the edge to the film due to taking the liberty of spicing things up rather than being dreadfully plain like the show.
Tone
As mentioned before, the film reaches greater emotional heights than the show due to superior utilization of various elements, one of which is its tone. The atmosphere, the production design, the acting, and the soundtrack all come together to create feelings of seriousness and somberness, yet allow for brief moments of wonder, poignancy, and happiness (e.g., the Baudelaires being with Uncle Monty, their inventions and their successes, and their return to their destroyed home). Every element of the Netflix show comes together to create the same feeling of lightheartedness all the time. It’s not bad, but it is boring. It’s somewhat ironic, the Netflix show more devotedly portraying the actual events that the books told while the movie more accurately evoked the themes, message, and feeling the books (at least, I think) were getting at: uncertainty. The show closes on a feel-good family-friendly kind of ending. That in itself is also kind of ironic, but I don’t want to go off on a tangent. The film’s Baudelaires got something like closure and coming to terms with the death of their parents, however their future was uncertain. Olaf, while triumphantly beaten at the end, did still escape. The Baudelaires still hadn’t found their sanctuary. That was always what I thought the message of the books was. Life is uncertain and can hound you like a crazed money-grubbing somehow-related family member. It isn’t a series of running gags behind a paper thin verisimilitude of unfortunate events.
For those keeping score, that’s 6/6 points in favor of the film, though I can be generous and give the show a point or two for pacing and getting the whole story of the source material. Either way, the film wins with a 4-6/6 and the Netflix show loses with a 0-2/6. Obviously some points are bigger than others. Objectively the main and only thing the show has over the film version is that it has the entirety of the books’ content. Even then, that’s not saying much. In the end, the film is superior.
