As a huge fan of the books I think part of why Netflix A Series of Unfortunate Events is so successful is that it does something that requires a VERY delicate balance & that’s getting Count Olaf right. Like this scene right here? This is Book!Olaf at his scariest.
The show leans heavily into the over the top comedy of Olaf & I think that makes perfect sense in a visual medium utilizing an actor like Neil Patrick Harris to show Olaf’s over the top theatre obsessed personality with musical performances & outlandish visuals like his crazy costumes.
But unlike the Jim Carey movie which relied SO heavily on Carey’s comedic & over the top style that it forgot the emotional heart of the story, the show never does that.
Even when Olaf is at his most ludicrous, he’s still terrifying. Even at his most idiotic he still has power over the much more intelligent Baudelaires. The show never loses sight of that from the very (bad) beginning & that’s a huge reason why it works.
Getting that balance of morbidly hilarious & absolutely terrifying (& even vaguely tragic but we’re not there yet we’ll talk about that if I get that far this rewatch) is SO so crucial to getting Olaf & thus the entire tone of the series right.
