Adaptation

Perhaps the biggest televisual surprise I've had in a long time was with the A Series of Unfortunate Events Netflix series, which unspooled the events of the thirteen books over three seasons. I watched all of them for the purposes of nostalgia, given the series' prominence in my younger self's book reading and the continued purchase it holds in my mind. While the events are largely reproduced faithfully, it's the surrounding material and added wrinkles that gave the show much of its heft. The creators, in essence, fleshed out and clarified the background, introducing the mysterious organization VFD in the first few episodes and putting Lemony Snicket as played by Patrick Warburton front and center. It's very much a series made for fans and those with a moderate to deep knowledge of the books, but at least from my perspective, it never felt like it distracted or hindered understanding of the most important parts, instead enhancing the sense of the strange world.