Lemony Snicket's - A Series of Unfortunate Events Anatomy

"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off somewhere else". Netflix warned you. The on-demand streaming platform transforms "A Series of Unfortunate Events", the series of novels signed by Lemony Snicket, aka Daniel Handler, in the most anticipated TV series of 2017, but let's get this clear Baudelaire siblings story is not for weak souls. Orphaned, having lost their parents due to a fire, Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Haynes) and the little Sunny (Presley Smith), are entrusted to the care of Count Olaf. The man, starring a histrionic Neil Patrick Harris aka Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother), is a shoddy theater hack willing to do anything to grab kids rich heritage. The three protagonists will have to wade through subterfuge and deception, showing what they're made. Never mind, because they have not any children. If Violet is a great inventor, a mini MacGyver able to transform everyday items into objects that can pull the trio out of trouble, the twelve year old Klaus is an avid reader and Sunny has razor sharp teeth which if necessary are most beneficial. In eight episodes based on the first four volumes of the same name novels the authors Mark Hudis and Daniel Handler paint a meta-narrative framework that blends the flavor of macaroon with steampunk, the London Victorian to contemporary, developing a story over the top and enjoyable full of literary references, puns, characters and grotesque situations, including organizations secret and mysteries. Rapid dialogues, the sense for the surreal, symmetrical shots, pastel colors, dark veins and a parade of bizarre characters makes the show, as Variety wrote, "a weird, wonderful masterpiece or a self-consciously droll gothic dramedy that might be what would happen if Wes Anderson and Tim Burton decided to make a television series about children together”.

Feel like : Maggie Taylor

Images visionary and mysterious, on the border between dream and reality, where strange creatures, animals and people live together in a world dominated by the imagination. That's what they have in common A Series of Unfortunate Events and Maggie Taylor: a touch of magic, surreal hovering between reality and fantasy. The artist born in Cleveland collects objects, old photographs, daguerreotypes and nineteenth century, thanks to the use of Photoshop, breaks down and reassembles them, manipulates them, combines them to turn them into fairy tale fragments. The hair becomes a big bare tree, bearded roots, a woman takes off like a balloon full of air, a dress becomes the door by which they exit many animals, butterflies cover the person, the girls shaking in her arms giant fish, pink flamingos, hives, sweet fawns. Maggie Taylor goes digital to metabolize the real and return it to a dreamlike dimension that is intrinsic to the newspaper.

Dress like: Gucci

The Baudelaire’s world is a world of gray, obtuse and careerists adults, seen through the eyes of children. Filtered by their imagination it is both dark and colorful, modern and antique. Where the story is set? What time? In a no-place where cars, intercoms and phones belong to different periods, as well as the fashion of the characters. There are the 40s, the 50s, but also the 1800 and 2000. And if the 2004 screen adaptation starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep embraces a more obscure style, thanks to the beautiful costumes by Colleen Atwood, the Netflix series is a small masterpiece in technicolor. This time the clothes are made by Angus Strathie, Oscar winner for Moulin Rouge, and have a contemporary feel, that seems straight out of an Alexander Michael for Gucci fashion show and reaches its highest point in a series of colorful raincoats and in the disguises of Count Olaf. Fantastic atmosphere, scenery mixing caramel tones, steampunk quotes, strong color contrasts and surreal mood reminiscent greatly the aesthetics of Wes Anderson.

Think like: "Una serie di sfortunati eventi" Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket

"In every library, there is a single book that can answer the question that burns like a fire in the mind". Or again: "Wicked people never have time for reading. It's one of the reasons for their wickedness". In the new Netflix series books are essential. Not only because A series of unfortunate events is drawn from the cycle of 13 children novels written by Lemony Snicket, aka Daniel Handler, illustrated by Brett Helquist and published since 2000. Literature is the magical element that helps the Baudelaires (clear name homage to the poet of "Les Fleurs du mal") to survive even in the most horrible situations. Violet and Klaus are always surrounded by books. They read them to the faint light of a candle, cite them and even use them as a pillow. In every place there are wonderful libraries in their home, in that of the justice Strauss, of uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine. An attentive viewer can find scattered references to works and authors between dialogues and scenes. Some? "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare's "The Tempest", Agatha Christie, Melville's "Moby Dick" or "The importance of being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde.

Sound like: "Look Away" sung by Neil Patrick Harris

"Look away, look away, look away, look away, this show will wreck your evening, your whole life, and your day Every single episode is nothing but dismay, so look away, look away, look away". So intimates singing Neil Patrick Harris in the grim role of Count Olaf. The song, composed by Nick Urata with Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket himself, introduces each episode of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and varies the central part of its text summarizing inside what has already happened to the children Baudelaire and anticipating the upcoming events. This lullaby creeps in the mind as "It's the Count" and "No Happy Endings", other released hits by James Newton Howard and Chris Bacon. "It's the Count" is the captivating musical manifesto with which new Baudelaires guardian, helped by his assistants-actors gang, introduces himself for the first time to the three brothers. In the season finale almost every member of the cast, from the narrator Lemony Snicket to Count Olaf, from Mr. Poe to Klaus, sing "There's no happy endings, not here and not now...This is all the sorrows and woes". Maybe in the second season will come hope.

Taste like: pasta alla puttanesca

Love like: the Burton-Anderson surreal mood and aestethic

Of course the little actors are good. Neil Patrick Harris is flamboyant, expressive, sings, dances, plays, slightly and bizarre. As well as the rest of the cast. The dialogues are sharp, the interventions of the omniscient narrator played by Patrick Warburton are little pearls filled with elegant dissertations terminology and witty comments. And then there are the photography, with its pastel colors. In a nutshell A Series of Unfortunate Events is a delightful tale that combines the style of Tim Burton and Wes Anderson, a show that relaxes and amuses to see comfortable on the couch.