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Post by mortinson51 on Mar 30, 2018 6:08:39 GMT -5
It's weird for me, I really loved these two episodes but not as much as I wanted too. Especially the first part.
To me the first part didn't feel like a season premier to me. I just remember last year when I finished TBB part 1 and it end. I was shocked I needed to see where this season was going. But this time when episode ended I didn't have that same feeling.
The scene when the Baudelaires are chasing after Olaf wasn't as dramatic as I wanted it to be. In the books it was heartbreak but here they made it funny. Even though i was a little disappointed in that change it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would
I think another thing that bothered me was the Olaf/Lemony photograph tease didn't go anywhere. I thought they were going to go more into their backstory but that didn't really pay off, instead we just got Olaf making jokes about his time at school. It may sound like I'm being negative but I really loved TAA, especially Part 2.
I'll just repeat now what other people are saying because it's true!!! but Coach Genghis is hilarious and perfect (favorite Olaf disguise so far).
Loved Jacques I need more lemony and Jacques scenes in my life. It's so sad
Carmelita was getting on my nerves in a good way.
I think this season is funnier. I think the jokes are landing better. The actors all seem to have found there rhythms in plying these characters and it really shows.
So overall with some minor disappointments I'm really loving this season. Sorry if this post came across as too negative.
PS was it just me or was Olaf's Tatoo on the wrong side of his foot. The movie the books now the show Dang you tatoo continuity!!!!
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Post by Invisible on Mar 30, 2018 10:19:57 GMT -5
I think the end was a bit of an anticlimax. And I was so hoping Nero would have a musical number. Can't you just imagine him singing about what a genius he is?
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Post by veryfakedonkey on Mar 30, 2018 11:56:06 GMT -5
Coach Genghis' voice combined with his makeup made him the scariest disguise (and the only one that scared me).
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Post by lastsafeplace on Mar 30, 2018 12:14:45 GMT -5
For me, the best parts of TAA were the added parts, like Larry and the librarian and JACQUES SNICKET. I like how they're foreshadowing the taxi/VFD connection that comes up again with Kit. It seems like there was a lot less of the book in these episodes, like when the Beaudelaires don't get silverware. And the end scene felt completely different than in the books.
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Post by Violent BUN Fortuna on Mar 30, 2018 12:57:20 GMT -5
I agree that Nero's violin playing should have been worse. That was one thing which I was disappointed in. I also didn't like the romantic aspects to the Baudelaires' relationship with the Quagmires -- just because it wasn't like that in the books. I mean, I know they held hands and stuff, but I certainly always felt that they were just really close friends and nothing more -- whereas later on, Violet & Quigley (and Klaus and Fiona) are far more overtly romantic. However, all that said, I think they managed not to take it too far in these episodes, so it didn't dominate the show or anything.
But really those would be my only complaints ... One thing I think is that, even when they change things from the books (and I would ideally like everything to be totally faithful to the books), they still manage to stay faithful to the spirit of the books, which is really important for me. I think if you manage to get the right feeling, if you manage to convey a sense that you do understand the books and what they're about, you can get away with changes which otherwise might grate more. It's rather like the Paddington films -- there are very few scenes in those taken directly from the books, but they get the tone and attitude just right, so it never feels like they're being disrespectful to the source material
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Post by gliquey on Mar 30, 2018 14:11:11 GMT -5
Okay, the rest of my comments: The episode's "stunts" disappointed me a little bit. Larry's fall, bringing the book rack down with him, looked really staged and so I thought it was an intentional plan by Larry at first. The librarian's perfect throwing of books onto the shelves in the library is absurd and unnecessary. And as others have said, the Genghis / Baudelaire chase scene is comical rather than suspenseful or frustrating, and the slow motion shots were just plain ridiculous. Also - wouldn't the car have sped up too fast for the Baudelaires to be chasing after it that effectively (even though they were still a long distance away)? It's confusing to me how long the Quagmires are supposed to have been in Prufrock for before the Baudelaires arrive. I had assumed at the end of season 1 that they were arriving simultaneously. But then they're certainly living in the Orphans' Shack for a while before the Baudelaires get there. However, the journey of their parents seems to happen concurrently with the Baudelaires' adventures - we know for a fact that the parents are in the plane when the Baudelaires are out at sea in TWW. The Quagmire fire is clearly after this scene, so how long does this give them? It's just occurring to me as I write this that perhaps the Quagmires went to Prufrock anyway when their parents were still alive, but that's a big deviation from the books and definitely not made clear by the show. Carmelita is absolutely incredible. I love all of her scenes, and all of her quatrains, as well as Violet's line "maybe I'm just tired, but I think she's improving". I can understand now why the reviews were raving about her. Excellent moments: - The Judaism references.
- Democracy is Olaf's "second favorite form of government".
- I love the whistling reminiscent of TMM and the singing of "That's Just How the Story Goes". Carmelita's theme in the soundtrack is also very nice (I noticed it particularly in her literal cakesniffing scene).
- Mrs. Bass' measurements of things related to her bank robbery.
- Carmelita's literal cakesniffing is a hilarious twist and brings in such an element of psychological projection into her insults. It's also a blatant drug reference (look at the high she gets off it), which I'm in two minds about.
- Olaf's line "one of those things a hamster plays on before you put it in the oven."
- The poster "Goodie! Goodie! Books!" being changed to "Die! Die! Books!"
- Olaf mistakenly calling Nero "Caligula".
- Olaf's expulsion from Prufrock and "gym test" of arm wrestling are improvements to the backstory and the story, respectively.
Minor complaints: - I don't like the "I'll tell you what I want" joke - it's such an out of place reference for ASOUE.
- "victoriously final days" is a bit tortured. Obviously a lot of the V.F.D.s are but this one in particular just strikes me as bad.
- Netflix skips the intros by default, which is a shame. I wonder if many people haven't realised that the opening song changes every episode.
- I wasn't a fan of Olaf's "step down" opening speech. Or the "this little batch of episodes in your lives" line - it's one fourth wall break too many.
- "rosin my bow" / "don't say that in front of the children" is unnecessary and not even a good double entendre.
- Jacquelyn hiding under the desk is not funny.
- It wasn't clear how much time was passing between the scenes when the Baudelaires start S.O.R.E. and when they have been going at it for a few days/weeks. Had I not read the books I would have been confused.
- Sunny's card dealing, while a nice little ongoing joke, looks too obviously CGI here.
Stray notes: - Is "matriculation" a word used in the U.S. for boarding schools? Here in the U.K., it's a formal ceremony that only a handful of universities (most famously Oxbridge and St. Andrews) have.
- For some reason, I've always pictured the shack as quite large. I don't have a clue why, but it was a small shock to me to see such a tiny shock, even though it makes complete sense. The lack of pink disappointed me though.
- The apples taste of horseradish. Whose doing is that?
- Jacquelyn and Larry are "not due [at the mountains] until the end of the season". Intriguing.
- Why does Remora keep stopping Klaus from communicating with the Quagmires in the pep rally?
- The closed captions spoil that the librarian
is called Olivia . - Remora tells a story which leads to the children revising the question "What color were the cows on the dairy farm?"
- I was really not expecting the line "a violin cadenza in the style of the Human League".
- What actually are all the tombstone buildings? I'm confused a bit about the layout of the school.
I really like the drawings on the blackboard foreshadowing TGG (and maybe other books but it went by too quickly for me to see). I must have missed this - at what point did they appear? Does anyone have a freeze frame?
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glider
Bewildered Beginner
Posts: 1
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Post by glider on Mar 30, 2018 14:18:29 GMT -5
The Austere Academy was one of my favorite books in the series, and I have to say I was disappointed with this adaptation.
Positives:
- LOVED Carmelita, definitely the highlight of the episodes, she stole the scene every time she appeared - The Quagmires were adorable and felt the actors did a good job portraying them - Jacques was a great treat to have in these episodes and that scene with Lemony in the taxi was amazing
Meh:
- I don't know how I feel about Jacquelyn and Larry, to me they seem like a mess and they just seem out-of-place and unnecessary - The pacing of the episodes was way too fast and it was hard to get invested or follow along with what was happening with the Baudelaires, felt like the Baudelaires got really lost in the mix - It was hard to understand how crucial it was for the Baudelaire's to pass their tests, and it was just too rushed to sympathize with the situation - I was looking forward to the last escape scene the most and it was so anti-climatic and not how I envisioned it in the books
Overall:
- It's just way too silly for my taste, way more than Season 1. Olaf and his troupe just seem so inept that I don't feel any fear for the Baudelaire's whenever he shows up - The actors portraying Violet and Klaus have gotten way better, but again its hard for me to sympathize with their situation as the show feels too rushed to be able to connect with them
Maybe a lot of this has to do with me being 24 and having read the series when I was 12/13, but it just seems like a silly kid show to me. I will continue to watch the season and hope it gets better.
Sorry if I sound negative, but I am still super grateful that it was adapted to a Netflix series.
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Post by ryantrimble457 on Mar 30, 2018 14:27:49 GMT -5
gliquey, "matriculate" is a fancy word for "to graduates"or sometimes just "to enroll in," as far as I've heard in the US (my whole life of living here). Not a word people regularly use.
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Post by Groge on Mar 30, 2018 14:58:38 GMT -5
PS was it just me or was Olaf's Tatoo on the wrong side of his foot. The movie the books now the show Dang you tatoo continuity!!!! Just finished TAA and loved it! Yes I noticed it instantly. I'm certain throughout the show it has been shown in the inner of his left foot but here it his on the outside of his left foot. Really don't understand why they've done this. Genghis' look and voice were brilliant. So happy to see Nathan Fillion as I'm a big fan of his. Introducing Jacques early will certainly pay off later on compared to his brief appearance in the books. As always, loving all the little references and foreshadowing hints throughout. Sugar bowl! I now have "cake sniffing orphans in the orphan shack" in my head (and to my wife's amusement, out loud too!). Won't get a chance to watch TEE until Sunday (I know! ) but at least as much as I would binge it all if I could, this will give me some time to take it all in and get myself ready to look forward (even more) to the next episode.
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Post by Violent BUN Fortuna on Mar 30, 2018 16:14:40 GMT -5
gliquey here's a screenshot. There's a diving helmet, some mushrooms, and also (I now notice) a sugar bowl, an aqueous martini and a spyglass drawn on the blackboard (and other things, but I can't make them all out. Sorry if this screenshot isn't very clear. Essentially these drawings are in every scene in Mrs Bass' class.
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Post by gliquey on Mar 30, 2018 16:33:00 GMT -5
gliquey here's a screenshot. There's a diving helmet, some mushrooms, and also (I now notice) a sugar bowl, an aqueous martini and a spyglass drawn on the blackboard (and other things, but I can't make them all out. Sorry if this screenshot isn't very clear. Essentially these drawings are in every scene in Mrs Bass' class. Wow, that's excellent. I didn't notice that at all.
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Post by Violent BUN Fortuna on Mar 30, 2018 18:56:58 GMT -5
gliquey here's a screenshot. There's a diving helmet, some mushrooms, and also (I now notice) a sugar bowl, an aqueous martini and a spyglass drawn on the blackboard (and other things, but I can't make them all out. Sorry if this screenshot isn't very clear. Essentially these drawings are in every scene in Mrs Bass' class. Wow, that's excellent. I didn't notice that at all. Well now I feel proud! But yeah, it's such a cool detail! I love that they put this much thought into everything.
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Post by mizbizsav on Mar 30, 2018 19:10:43 GMT -5
Just finished Part 2 after watching Part 1 last night! I do have a strange feeling about these episodes, which I don't know whether to attribute to them being the first of the season (it's always jarring when you're just getting back into an adaptation), my sleep-deprived brain, or if it's a legitimate issue I have with the episodes. There were plenty of things I loved but also some things they changed up that I thought were unnecessary. As others have mentioned, I loved Jacques! He's just so cool and kind - it was great to get to know him more. And that scene with Lemony broke my heart. The whistling of "That's Not How The Story Goes"... gahhhh. I also thought Olivia was interesting. I assumed she was doing undercover work the whole time, but by the end of Part 2, I'm thinking she's getting ready to be recruited? Maybe her first big task is as Madame Lulu? I'm very intrigued. Carmelita was also great - Kitana is amazing. I think somehow these episodes were simultaneously darker and sillier? The set was amazing and dark (figuratively and literally) and the music reflected that better than last season, so that was great. And the jokes landed better here, too. (So many dark ones!) But there were some silly scenes that I had hoped they were moving away from since The Miserable Mill episodes had struck a more serious tone (in my opinion). I have never liked how they portrayed VFD agents (mostly through Jacquelyn and Larry), so seeing more of them is actually a con in my book. What they're doing is not inaccurate to the books, per se (VFD is pretty odd), but the organization was always shrouded in mystery and heartbreak in the books and here they seem a tad goofy and inept. Again, not unlike the books in cases (that cow disguise?), but it all comes down to tone - in the books, even if the characters were doing and saying ridiculous things, they were of high importance. The show acknowledges the weirdness, which takes away from that. I'm probably being way too nit-picky, but one last moment of harshness... that car-chase scene. It is one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating scenes in the entire series - it is one of THE most crucial scenes. And to make it silly just gahhhh, it makes me mourn what could have been. Anyway, this is way too negative-sounding! I really am on the meh-to-positive scale on these episodes, I promise. I loved seeing the Quagmires as they found out info on VFD - that sequence was good. Also the joke about the hook-handed man's name really got me. Plus he was really concerned about flour-Sunny, which was a great touch. The episode made me understand how the Quagmires could believably pass as the Baudelaires, so yay! Carmelita sniffing the cakes!!! Was NOT expecting that, but it made me strangely happy that the children got to witness her embarrassment. Nero Feint!!! What the heck!!!
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Post by zombieinthesnow on Mar 30, 2018 22:20:39 GMT -5
I feel like TAA wasn't the best one to start a season off with (idk what would have been, I mentally break the series into 1-7 and 8-13, which wouldn't have worked with their three-season plan), but it was still pretty solid. I was impressed with the actors they got for Carmelita and the Quagmires, they outshone the Baudelaires imo. I haven't watched the other eps yet, but did anyone else get kind of an (unrequited) romantic vibe with Ferdinand's interest in Olaf? Honestly I’m not a huge fan of the romantic undertones they gave Violet and Duncan as well as Isadora and Klaus. I know Violet/Duncan was kind of teased in the book but it all struck me as odd and unnecessary. idk I just don’t think it added much. It wasn’t too obnoxious, though, so I’m not that annoyed. Same, especially since Duncan's actor looked much younger. I was hoping they'd nix the Violet/Duncan and Klaus/Isadora coupling from the books, it always felt too neat to me. I wasn't invested in Violet/Quigley or Klaus/Fiona either, but I felt that they were handled a lot better.
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Post by zinthaniel on Mar 30, 2018 23:26:28 GMT -5
I haven't watched the other eps yet, but did anyone else get kind of an (unrequited) romantic vibe with Ferdinand's interest in Olaf? Yes, that much is implied when Ferdinand places his hook on Olaf's thigh, in TAA, when he attempts to keep him company to which Olaf directly acknowledges with an awkward glance at Ferdinand's hook placement and telling him to go somewhere else.
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