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Post by counto on Aug 6, 2020 1:45:00 GMT -5
A couple things I liked and disliked about the Netflix version of A Series of Unfortunate Events
Liked: - Giving backstory to how the Schism first started and why Count Olaf turned to the fire starting - Added bits of lore from All The Wrong Questions - Casting the characters
Disliked: - The unnecessary bits of added humour - Episodes being broken up into two parts - Added characters not from the original book series
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Post by R. on Aug 24, 2020 1:55:43 GMT -5
I liked pretty much everything, but one thing really infuriated me. The way Esmé Squalor was portrayed. In the books she was a very intelligent character, who always had a good reason for what she did. In the series, she was kind of incompetent. She didn’t understand a lot of words, her disguise in TVV didn’t fool the Baudelaires like it did in the books, and even her motive for wanting the sugar bowl was botched. While in the books she was eccentric, in the series she was barking mad. Also, she seemed more of a genuinely evil person, unlike in the books where she firmly believes she is working for the greater good, and sometimes showed genuine kindness. Also, her menacing presence, which hardly changed at all in the books, seemed to gradually decrease each episode, until when it got to TPP I couldn’t take her seriously at all.
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Post by gothicarchiesfan on Aug 24, 2020 2:55:26 GMT -5
I liked pretty much everything, but one thing really infuriated me. The way Esmé Squalor was portrayed. In the books she was a very intelligent character, who always had a good reason for what she did. In the series, she was kind of incompetent. She didn’t understand a lot of words, her disguise in TVV didn’t fool the Baudelaires like it did in the books, and even her motive for wanting the sugar bowl was botched. While in the books she was eccentric, in the series she was barking mad. Also, she seemed more of a genuinely evil person, unlike in the books where she firmly believes she is working for the greater good, and sometimes showed genuine kindness. Also, her menacing presence, which hardly changed at all in the books, seemed to gradually decrease each episode, until when it got to TPP I couldn’t take her seriously at all. While different people will obviously have different takes on the material, I really don't recall Esmé being particularly intelligent in the books and I'm honestly struggling to think of examples. She does manage to fool the Baudelaires once in TEE but I can't really recall anything else. I also do not remember Esmé ever having even a single kind moment in the entire series, and her wicked actions were never portrayed as her actually working for the greater good. Pretty much everything she does in the series is done purely out of either self-interest or cruelty. Daniel Handler once explained Olaf's increasingly demented and stupid portrayal throughout the book series as simply being the natural result of spending hundreds of pages with a fully grown adult man whose every plot to kill three small children and steal their money, fails. He inevitably becomes a ludicrous figure and I think the same very much applies to Esmé. By book 11 Esmé has begun to dress up as an octopus and whip her child slaves with a special giant pasta noodle while forcing them to watch a musical put on by her adopted daughter. Now if there is an intelligent, kind, or even sane explanation for that, I would love to hear it. :Edit: Also, the reason her disguise doesn't fool the children in the show is that nobody's disguise does, not even any of the troupe's. That doesn't mean you're wrong for disliking it, but it's not as if they singled Esmé out.
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Post by R. on Aug 24, 2020 3:53:25 GMT -5
He inevitably becomes a ludicrous figure and I think the same very much applies to Esmé. By book 11 Esmé has begun to dress up as an octopus and whip her child slaves with a special giant pasta noodle while forcing them to watch a musical put on by her adopted daughter. Now if there is an intelligent, kind, or even sane explanation for that, I would love to hear it. I don’t really think that there is an explanation for that one, and it does sound positively daft and surreal out of context. By showing genuine kindness I really meant towards Carmelita. Esmé seems to love her like a daughter, and even left Olaf because of her. Unlike most other characters she formed an alliance with, it doesn’t seem to be a pretence, and she never betrays or mistreats Carmelita in all the time they knew each other.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Aug 24, 2020 6:45:25 GMT -5
A funny thing about me is that I was a herald of canonicality with respect to the Netflix show until recently. But even then I always loved Esme as she was represented on the show. I think the actress's performance was so phenomenal that it distracted me from my relentless search for different between the books and the show.
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Amber Rivers
Reptile Researcher
An AU where Violet Baudelaire grew up and became Huntress. Hear me out.
Posts: 25
Likes: 4
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Post by Amber Rivers on Mar 12, 2021 19:42:39 GMT -5
My issues in the series are practically about the elements that are outside the book. I am sure everyone wants to see what's happening while Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are trying to survive but the insertion of VFD characters like Jacques Snicket felt forced. Of course, this is not to say, that we should only focus on the Baudelaires like how the movie does. But there is something that the movie has done quite correctly and the series was not able to. Maybe it's the color palette? The series focused on giving the dark and depressing aura and it felt bland. Also the pacing? It felt fast but at the same time slow? Like it has a lot of things that it wanted to say (I guess we can claim that part is meta because Lemony Snicket always has a lot to say with so little time). So, in conclusion, I am sorry, friends, but I found the series similar to a stagnant stream. I liked pretty much everything, but one thing really infuriated me. The way Esmé Squalor was portrayed. In the books she was a very intelligent character, who always had a good reason for what she did. In the series, she was kind of incompetent. She didn’t understand a lot of words, her disguise in TVV didn’t fool the Baudelaires like it did in the books, and even her motive for wanting the sugar bowl was botched. While in the books she was eccentric, in the series she was barking mad. Also, she seemed more of a genuinely evil person, unlike in the books where she firmly believes she is working for the greater good, and sometimes showed genuine kindness. Also, her menacing presence, which hardly changed at all in the books, seemed to gradually decrease each episode, until when it got to TPP I couldn’t take her seriously at all. I agree. In the books, Esme Squalor is ruthless and intelligent and the Officer Luciana disguise is done well that the Baudelaires did not even have an inkling that she was, indeed, Esme. I didn't like how she was written as this vapid person although I love the actress that portrayed her. Esme knows what she wants and she knows she is going to get it. This is how she rose to the top, after all.
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Post by HAL 10,000 on Oct 11, 2023 23:37:23 GMT -5
Liked: No Happy Endings Giving more backstory The locations The score Disliked: Shoehorning Mr Poe everywhere The musical numbers with one exception(see above) The way Hector was portrayed
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Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Oct 12, 2023 8:37:33 GMT -5
Sunny not using her teeth to fight against an adult with an actual sword smh
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Post by HAL 10,000 on Dec 9, 2023 9:20:12 GMT -5
Swapping the names of Mr Poe's wife and his sister…although Mr Poe marrying his sister would explain a lot about his sons.
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Post by twigz on Dec 9, 2023 18:58:04 GMT -5
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Post by the panopticountolaf on Dec 10, 2023 21:49:11 GMT -5
kount kelsey, my beloved </3
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