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Post by otherscott on Apr 23, 2018 13:50:47 GMT -8
I'm really enjoying season 2 to this point! (Through the Ersatz Elevator). I would say it's come out pretty much with the whole thing operating at that same level as "The Miserable Mill" from season 1, if not at a slightly higher level. That's a good thing. It's funny because these are really the books I remember not well (I believe I got through 9 of the books before losing interest). There was part of me that was wondering if I skipped The Ersatz Elevator altogether, but then I did remember the red herring bit at the end. I do like how the show basically operates as a procedural. I really think the format is good, the problem is procedurals are all basically law enforcement and hospitals nowadays so it's really hard to stand out.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 23, 2018 15:33:04 GMT -8
Yeah, Season Two has been a definite step up over Season One. It obviously helps that the books really start to hit their stride around The Austere Academy, but the show has ironed out its early kinks, and has upped both the stakes and the humor this year.
(Also, ironically, I remember a lot about The Ersatz Elevator, but I had completely forgotten the thing you're referring to.)
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2018 9:43:49 GMT -8
Finished Season Two. Really liked it, both as an adaptation of the books and on its own merits. Some scattered thoughts, with slight spoilers - I may do a more detailed post later: - As others have noted, the production design for this series is amazing. Bo Welch and his team give each episode (or two-part episode, anyway) its own unique look, capturing the off-kilter quirkiness of the books and crossing it with an extra layer of Magrittean dementia. The elliptical staircase that leads up to the Squalors' penthouse is particularly great. - The episodes don't usually suffer from the dreaded Netflix bloat. The built-in structure allows the show to move cleanly from Point A to B to C, and the retrospective approach lets the show plant a lot of early seeds and deliver strong (and sometimes unexpected, even for book-readers) payoffs. - The cast continues to be top-notch - particularly the kids, who shoulder more drama (and disguises) in these books, and acquit themselves nicely. Neil Patrick Harris gets to show off both his musical and magic skills, Lucy Punch is a wickedly funny Esme, and Patrick Warburton has, against all odds, become the defining Lemony Snicket. The supporting cast is consistently great as well. - Not only did we get a Dr. Horrible reunion in "The Vile Village," but Nathan Fillion is wearing a brown coat! That episode ranks pretty high in terms of Whedonverse references. - "Carnivorous Carnival" spoilers (even if you've read the book): Really liked the inclusion and use of Olivia this season - different from the books, but it was good and necessary to have an audience avatar for VFD. I'd forgotten that was Madame Lulu's real identity, so the way they planted the seeds for her in "The Austere Academy" gave the season a clear throughline - and made her death all the more tragic. I'm really looking forward to the final season, particularly since The Slippery Slope and The Penultimate Peril were my two favorite books in the series. Here's hoping the show delivers.
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Post by otherscott on Apr 30, 2018 14:35:26 GMT -8
I would have to say I enjoyed the first half of the season quite a bit better than the second half for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. I think that the show works better being goofy than it does at being a page-turning thriller just because from a pure plot and twist and puzzle perspective, it's not playing to the shows strengths. The show was having a lot of fun in "The Austere Academy" and "The Ersatz Elevator" and then for the most part I feel like the fun subsided a little bit and almost became a bit too overserious at the notable event halfway through "The Vile Village."
I'm curious to see how the third and final season works, I think becoming too plot heavy and particularly exposition heavy is going to be a danger. There's a bit of a slippery slope here with this show which if it gets rolling down too fast could end up becoming a tough watch.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 30, 2018 16:20:31 GMT -8
Well, the books themselves take a darker turn beginning around halfway through The Vile Village. The series drops the "guardian of the week" format and takes on a more urgent, perilous nature. It's true that the later books could get a little too plot-heavy (and I was never fully satisfied by The End), but the show has taken on many more character perspectives, which allows it to juggle lots of story threads without feeling too fatigued or bogged down. Hopefully, this trend continues in Season Three. There's a bit of a slippery slope here with At that moment, a duck dropped from the ceiling and handed Scott a hundred dollars.
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Post by Zarnium on May 1, 2018 8:45:51 GMT -8
I finished season 2, I thought it was excellent. I like how so much of the show is from outside the Baudelaire's perspective, it makes the story flow a bit better. Count Olaf's role is also expanded a lot in some of the episodes, The Ersatz Elevator was originally one of the books where he appears the least and his disguise "Gunther" only had about two short scenes as I recall, I don't remember him being a huge part of The Hostile Hospital either. I'm not complaining, Neil Patrick Harris is great. Incidentally, so are the actors who play Olaf's henchpeople, they're really fun. Especially the "Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender," who was forgettable in the books but has been re-imagined as some kind of socially-conscious doofus.
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Post by Jeremy on May 1, 2018 14:17:16 GMT -8
They also seem to have opted against killing off the henchpeople, as became a recurring trend in the later books. That's probably for the best, both to maintain the comedy and heighten the drama - the ending to The Carnivorous Carnival is made more dramatic by the fact that Madame Lulu is the only one to fall into the lion pit.
They also find ways to keep Mr. Poe around in some form or another, likely because K. Todd Freeman is under contract. Though this makes me wonder how they're going to adapt The End, which features almost none of the supporting characters from the first 12 books.
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Post by Zarnium on May 1, 2018 14:55:05 GMT -8
Also, this show has a great title sequence and theme song, which is a lost art in American television. The musical interludes within the episodes are pretty great too, especially since the Hook-handed Man is always flawlessly playing a keyboard instrument somehow.
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Post by Jeremy on May 1, 2018 15:33:56 GMT -8
I love the intro, particularly how they change a few verses for each new episode. It's so ironic (and a bit sad) that Netflix is one of the few TV outlets that still lets their shows put real effort into crafting title sequences, yet includes a "Skip Intro" button to let viewers gloss right over them.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on May 1, 2018 16:05:55 GMT -8
Also, this show has a great title sequence and theme song, which is a lost art in American television. You should watch The 100. That sequence is just....*kisses fingers in a chef-like way*.....
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Post by otherscott on May 1, 2018 19:26:28 GMT -8
I love the intro, particularly how they change a few verses for each new episode. It's so ironic (and a bit sad) that Netflix is one of the few TV outlets that still lets their shows put real effort into crafting title sequences, yet includes a "Skip Intro" button to let viewers gloss right over them. For me it was actually auto-skipping each intro and I had to keep rewinding to be able to watch it. Immensely frustrating on a show that does such a good job with them. Something about the line "this show will ruin your evening, your whole life, and your day" just cracks me up almost every time.
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Post by Zarnium on May 2, 2018 5:27:37 GMT -8
The auto-skipping is really annoying since every single episode has a slightly different opening. For me it skipped every other episode, so I had to backtrack to see the versions sung in Olaf's disguise voice.
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Post by Jeremy on May 2, 2018 5:31:35 GMT -8
My experience with Netflix has been that episodes only auto-skip intros when you binge-watch and allow each episode to play into the next. (And as you all know, I don't binge very much.) Maybe it's something you can reconfigure in the settings.
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Post by Zarnium on May 2, 2018 5:37:49 GMT -8
Oh, that would make sense. I watched each two-parter in one sitting and then stopped, so that would explain why it only skipped the second ones.
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Post by otherscott on May 2, 2018 8:27:44 GMT -8
My experience with Netflix has been that episodes only auto-skip intros when you binge-watch and allow each episode to play into the next. (And as you all know, I don't binge very much.) Maybe it's something you can reconfigure in the settings. Yeah I think that was it. Or in my case, I usually am too slow to be able to close the browser before it starts auto-playing the next episode, and then of course it counts the credits as "watched" when you try to pick it back up.
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