What You Need to Know About A Series of Unfortunate Events

On Friday January 13, Netflix will release the first season of A Series of Unfortunate Events, a new television series based on the absurdly macabre books written by Lemony Snicket. Starring Neil Patrick Harris as the villain of the show, the first season will cover the first four books of the series.

To help you get ready for A Series of Unfortunate Events, we’ve compiled a dossier of everything you need to know about the show. Spoilers are light in the slideshow, but we should warn you that the book series came out over a decade ago…so tred lightly should you decide to do any extracirricular research:

A Delightfully Dour Book Series

Imagine if Professor Snape, Tim Burton, and Marvin the Robot had a baby born on a dreary day. That’s the approximate tone of A Series of Unfortunate Events, a 13 book young adult series written by Daniel Handler under the pen name “Lemony Snicket”. The series follows the Baudelaire siblings through a series of increasingly dangerous and absurd misadventures caused by the relentless pursuit of their “distant relative” Count Olaf.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is narrated by Snicket, who is dour to the point of hilarity and frequently warns the reader to find a more pleasant book to read. While the plot of the individual books are somewhat repetitive at first, the series became popular thanks to Snicket’s unique narration and voice. Snicket frequently used asides while telling the Baudelaires’ story, using weird metaphors to explain difficult vocabulary and often hinting at his own macabre life story. 

The books are set in a strange timeless world that’s both modern and quaint. Characters use telegraphs and computers, machinery can be either antiquated or advanced, and the characters often wear clothing pulled out of the early 1930s. Little detail is given to the world outside the Baudelaire’s close surroundings, making their world seem both frighteningly large and tiny at the same time. 

This isn’t the first time that a studio has adapted A Series of Unfortunate Events. Paramount adapted the first three books into a movie, which starred Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, and a young Emily Browning. Although intended as the first in a series of movies, it sputtered in the box office, largely because fans found it to be too lighthearted. 

Colorful and Dangerous Characters

The main characters of A Series of Unfortunate Events are Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become the heirs to a large fortune when their parents die in a mysterious fire. With no other close relatives to turn to, the Baudelaires quickly learn to use their own resourcefulness and talents to survive a very hostile and uncaring world.

Each one of the Baudelaires have a unique talent that helps them survive numerous deadly traps and situations. Violet (the oldest) is a gifted inventor, Klaus is extremely well-read, and baby Sunny has four sharp teeth and a talent for biting. The siblings are also incredibly observant, which comes in handy when dealing with their enemies.

The Baudelaires’ chief threat is Count Olaf, an alleged distant relative after their fortune. Olaf becomes the Baudelaires’ first legal guardian at the start of the city, but quickly loses custody after his true motives are revealed. For the remainder of the series, Olaf uses his acting skills, disguises and a small troupe of villainous friends to follow the children in the hopes of recapturing them.

Although Olaf often acts like a buffoon, he’s a cunning villain and will mercilessly kill anyone who gets between him and the Baudelaires. He also has a penchant for arson, which forces the Baudelaires to move from location to location during the series. 

Neil Patrick Harris (of How I Met Your Mother fame) will star as Olaf, while Patrick Warburton will play Lemony Snicket. Luke Cage‘s Alfre Woodard and Miami Vice‘s Don Johnson also star in the series as some of the Baudelaires’ later ill-fated guardians. 

A Growing Mystery

One of the big hooks to A Series of Unfortunate Events is the mystery lurking behind the Baudelaires’ misfortune. Snicket has a connection to the Baudelaires, Olaf, and several other characters in the series, although he never directly explains what it is. In addition, the Baudelaires also discover that Olaf has a curious ankle tattoo of an eye, which frequently appears in other places they visit.

As the books progress, the Baudelaires keep discovering clues about their parents’ past, which ties into Snicket’s often frustrating implications and teases. There’s a bigger and weirder story at play, something that ties everything together but frustratingly remains out of sight for much of the series. The Baudelaires eventually piece together enough of the mystery to satisfy most readers, although the books kept several parts deliberately open-ended and obtuse.

It’ll be interesting to see how Netflix’s adaptation handles the mysteries in A Series of Unfortunate Events, as the books left it to the readers to figure out most of the backstory themselves. Be warned: one of the major themes of the books is that it’s impossible to know the answer to every question, so don’t expect the show to leave you fully satisfied.