A Series of Unfortunate Events: Will Netflix be able to do justice to the books?

I can’t look away. I can’t avoid the cruel whimsy. I want to be in a dimly lit room, reading the books all over...

I am ten-years-old, sitting on my pink barbie bed, it is way past my bed-time. The Grim Grotto is the sole object of my fascination. I hold up my tiny book light to the sentences I had waited so long to meet with.

Twelve years later, I am that little girl all over again as I watch the Netflix teaser for A Series of Unfortunate Events (ASOUE).

It begins: “Hello, I am Lemony Snicket and once again I find myself talking to a stranger in a dimly lit room.”

But I can’t look away. And I can’t avoid the cruel whimsy. I want to be in a dimly lit room, reading the books all over again.

Patrick Warburton in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2016).Photo: Imdb

Count Olaf still makes me shiver. Violet Baudelaire still makes me believe that everything can and will be alright. Hearing the name Lemony Snicket makes me nostalgic in a way that I can’t really describe.

Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf just makes everything better. How can anyone not love him?

Neil Patrick Harris in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2016).Photo: Imdb

The only question is, will the show be as good as the books?

Is it ever?

It’s hard to portray such vivid details, the slow beat of your heart as Count Olaf’s name was mentioned, the grim atmosphere that echoes into your entire being with every page, onto a screen. The movie wasn’t all that bad, but let’s be honest, it didn’t hold a candle to the books.

Here’s hoping that Netflix’s release will change that.

Neil Patrick Harris, Aasif Mandvi, Malina Weissman, and Louis Hynes in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2016).Photo: Imdb

Since Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, is the executive producer for the show (unlike last time around when Brad Siberling kicked him to the curb) – we’re excited. We’re ready. We can’t wait to be mesmerised by the world of ASOUE that we all knew and feared as children.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2016).Photo: Imdb

Friday the 13^th– it’s all back again.

Coincidence? I think not.