A Series of Unfortunate Events
Mar 24, 2017 13:18:24 GMT -8
Post by Zarnium on Mar 24, 2017 13:18:24 GMT -8
Originally posted 01/14/17
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I watched the first episode, and... I'm not sure what to think?
It wasn't bad. I like the actors, Neil Patrick Harris kills it as Count Olaf, and there are a lot of really funny lines peppered throughout. My favorite bit was that ridiculous "It's the Count!" song. Storywise, it's a bit plain and obvious, but that's to be expected since it's mainly expository, and the first book was easily the weakest of the lot and didn't have the richest material to work from, anyway. That said, something about it felt a bit... off.
There are two major issues here. The first is Sunny. Sunny is an incredibly difficult character to adapt to live action because she's a baby who doesn't act like a baby. While she's written in the books as having the same mental capacities and mobility as her older siblings, she has to be played by a real baby in live-action, and babies can't actually act. This results in Sunny feeling less like a character and more like a prop who gets lugged around. Sunny typically just sits motionless in Violet's arms without reacting to anything and doesn't add to any scene she's in. The way her dialogue is displayed falls flat, as well. In the books, Sunny usually speaks by spouting gibberish nonsense words, which are then seamlessly translated by the narrator. In the show, Sunny makes baby sounds (often not matching any lip movements) which are then displayed as subtitles. This just doesn't feel very natural, largely because it's hard to believe that this catatonic baby is capable of observing or understanding anything around her, or that her gurglings could be construed as any sort of intelligent speech.
The second issue is something I'm having trouble putting my finger on. I think it's that the style of dialogue from the books tended to sound a bit stilted and off-kilter in way that doesn't translate well to being spoken aloud, and the show is trying to mimic that without making much of an adjustment. For practical reasons, it's also lacking the running commentary provided by the narrator that constantly mocked characters for saying stupid or obvious things, which can lead to certain lines just seeming vapid rather than funny.
I feel kind of bad for complaining, because I really have no clue how either of these issues could be fixed. Still, I liked a lot of what I saw and I'm looking forward to seeing more
-------------------------------------
I watched the first episode, and... I'm not sure what to think?
It wasn't bad. I like the actors, Neil Patrick Harris kills it as Count Olaf, and there are a lot of really funny lines peppered throughout. My favorite bit was that ridiculous "It's the Count!" song. Storywise, it's a bit plain and obvious, but that's to be expected since it's mainly expository, and the first book was easily the weakest of the lot and didn't have the richest material to work from, anyway. That said, something about it felt a bit... off.
There are two major issues here. The first is Sunny. Sunny is an incredibly difficult character to adapt to live action because she's a baby who doesn't act like a baby. While she's written in the books as having the same mental capacities and mobility as her older siblings, she has to be played by a real baby in live-action, and babies can't actually act. This results in Sunny feeling less like a character and more like a prop who gets lugged around. Sunny typically just sits motionless in Violet's arms without reacting to anything and doesn't add to any scene she's in. The way her dialogue is displayed falls flat, as well. In the books, Sunny usually speaks by spouting gibberish nonsense words, which are then seamlessly translated by the narrator. In the show, Sunny makes baby sounds (often not matching any lip movements) which are then displayed as subtitles. This just doesn't feel very natural, largely because it's hard to believe that this catatonic baby is capable of observing or understanding anything around her, or that her gurglings could be construed as any sort of intelligent speech.
The second issue is something I'm having trouble putting my finger on. I think it's that the style of dialogue from the books tended to sound a bit stilted and off-kilter in way that doesn't translate well to being spoken aloud, and the show is trying to mimic that without making much of an adjustment. For practical reasons, it's also lacking the running commentary provided by the narrator that constantly mocked characters for saying stupid or obvious things, which can lead to certain lines just seeming vapid rather than funny.
I feel kind of bad for complaining, because I really have no clue how either of these issues could be fixed. Still, I liked a lot of what I saw and I'm looking forward to seeing more