The Unfortunate Blogger

The Wide Window-Part One

As we approach the third book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, we slowly begin to move out of the territory of the film and into completely untouched territory. I'm not sure how I'm feeling, but I suppose for anyone reading this, it'll be a nice change from me simply comparing this series to the film. (Which I still love, by the way). But onto the episode.

I would say that this episode was...interesting. It wasn't my favorite episode, but...there were some cool stuff in it. Obviously, of course, there are a few things that bothered me, but as always, I can live with it.

THINGS THAT WERE GOOD ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

1) Aunt Josephine- Well, to be honest, I was worried about this Josephine. However...I kind of like the way the actor portrayed her. Josephine has become an extreme worrier following the death of her husband, Ike, and can't do any of the brave things that she once did. She isn't fierce. She isn't confident. She's terrified of everything! She wants to be as safe as humanly possible. And this is something that the Baudelaire children are a little weirded out by. (Not that they don't like her, but they do find a lot of her fears ridiculous). What I liked a lot is that they do show that she has some bravery in her somewhere. When she meets "Captain Sham" she does seem to be a little bit more confident, though not by a lot. But, all in all, it was a great performance.

2) The troupe trying to pretend Captain Sham is a thing at Lake Lachrymose- Yeah, as strangely as it was done, I actually thought that this concept was quite clever. Instead of having Josephine believe Captain Sham the second they meet, there are...subtle...conversations about him and his character. Could they have stood a bit farther away when the conversation between Olaf and Josephine occurred? Yes. But all in all...I loved this idea.

3) The Secret Codes- I love that the secret code book seems to appear in this series more than once. It implies that this was an extremely coded system. On top of that, there are pictures in the safe that lead to long ago events, inlcuding a reference to the Lucky Smells Lumber Mill which everyone knows is coming up within the next two episodes.

4) The whistling crackers- As stupid of a detail as this may seem, I loved this and only because it was the perfect bonding moment. Something as silly as whistling a Beethoven song with crackers in your mouth is something that Ike and Mrs. Baudelaire had in common and it bonded the kids with their aunt, which was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Okay, I lied. It's a close third.

5) Count Olaf is recognized as a VFD threat- The man in the beginning of the episode...is his name Larry? I can't remember.... Anyway, when he sees Count Olaf out of costume, he clearly recognizes that he's a threat which nods towards the whole "Count Olaf and VFD have history together" issue.

6) VFD is out of touch- On top of it, the scene between Larry and Olaf shows just how out of touch the VFD members are with each other. It implies that something happened that has them now scattered around, which would explain why the Baudelaires never even heard of VFD or Uncle Monty or their Aunt Josephine. Because of that, Larry doesn't realize that Josephine isn't the strong and confident woman she used to be, resulting with him making the mistake of leaking the information of Josephine caring for the Baudelaires to Count Olaf. This actually makes a lot of sense.

7) The peppermint candies- I love how the Baudelaire allergy is brought back in. Not that I'm saying it's good to be allergic to something, but the peppermint candies played an important role in the original story: it was a distraction to buy them time from Count Olaf and find Aunt Josephine. I liked how it was added in again. Heh. Listen to me. Talking about like there's another series. I think you guys know that by this point I'm referring to the movie. Which Daniel Handler also worked on.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

1) Count Olaf's acting- As much as I've mentioned how Count Olaf and his disguises are funny, I wasn't a huge fan of the Captain Sham one. He didn't seem to know what he was doing, which alludes to his bad acting, but he made a lot more mistakes than usual. And on top of that, his conversation with Josephine was just kind of awkward. Not the scene with the candles. That was funny. When they first met.

2) The troupe stands too close during the conversation with Olaf and Josephine- I briefly mentioned this earlier, so...I think you get the idea.

3) Josephine doesn't recognize Count Olaf- I know I've mentioned this before as well, but it kind of baffles me that the VFD members, or former VFD members anyway, aren't wary of Count Olaf's stupid disguises. Like...this guy was once a member of the team. The children recognized him! How do you not?! I don't know. Maybe it's been too long, but...you would think....

And that's about it. I think this episode was fair, but it wasn't all that spectacular.