The Unfortunate Blogger

The Vile Village, part two

The second half, as I said in the previous post, needs to hold the most weight of this episode. The first half was the supporting base. This is the thing that's going to hold it all in a tiny bundle and round-house kick you in the face. Does this second and crucial half do it?

Yes, but not very strongly. 

For an episode that needed to deliver something hard to your gut, (in a good way), it didn't finish very strongly. Instead of a round-house kick, we got a little push. Instead of holding a tiny little package, the knot wasn't very strong and one or two things slipped out. It okay, but not strong enough to be impressive, to give the finish it needed. But that's enough of my general opinion. What was actually decent about it? 

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

1) Better evidence against the Baudelaires- One thing I liked about this episode was that there was better evidence against the Baudelaires. In the book, there's a hair ribbon and a pair of glasses, all things that contradict with the fact that the children had those accessories on them. Here, Olaf is able to snatch a blueprint map off of Klaus and his troupe find Violet's mechanical device in the back which I think makes for stronger evidence against the kids. I know I whined about the breakout idea in the last episode and I still have my issues with that. However, this was a much better set up than the book's. 

2) Mr. Poe was actually on the Baudelaire's side initially- I don't know why, but I was actually impressed by the fact that Mr. Poe actually had some protests up his sleeve when the children were wrongly accused of murdering Jacques Snicket. (Whom everyone is calling Count Olaf. Or Omar at this point). He's known the children long enough to know that they wouldn't stoop to something so terrible, not to mention that Sunny, the baby, is a bit too young to be accused of murder. While he's stupid enough to back down and join the crowd, and I may or may not bring that up later, I thought this initial moment of Wait just a minute! You can't be serious! was a very nice addition and helped to establish that he at least has some common sense! For a half second!

3) Violet singing 'Happy Birthday' to Klaus while breaking out of jail- I'm honestly not really sure how I feel about the invention in this episode, but the way that the kids escaped was pretty entertaining. I actually laughed and replayed the scene; it was that good! I especially loved how the adults heard it from all the way up the stairs and are like, "What in the world-??"

4) Mrs. Poe's picture photoshoot of "Dupin" and "Lucianna"- I don't know. I just thought that was a pretty fun scene. She really wants all kinds of photos for her magazine. 

5) Mrs. Poe- Speaking of Mr. Poe's wife, I've actually grown kind of fond of her. I know I wasn't such a big fan of her in the beginning, but her role in the story and just her general persona is a lot of fun, if not a little self-absorbed. I definitely think that Unfortunates coming into the series are going to be taken aback by her new personality, but once you get used to it, she's actually an interesting character. 

6) Escaping VFD on the firetruck- I definitely think this beats out six measly children outrunning an entire village with freaking pitchforks and knives and torches!!!!!!! I mean, they're obviously no Count Olaf! They can keep up with the kids. It's a little weird to see a firetruck in the town, but it's also by the fire station that's closed down, so it's understandable. It was definitely a pretty fun scene to watch. Especially since the ladder comes in handy with reaching the self-sustaining hot air balloon.