TV Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017)

I thoroughly enjoyed this 8 part series taken from the Lemony Snicket books.  the first two episodes are entitled, the Bad Beginning.  And it really is a terrible beginning.  While at the beach, the Baudelaire children, Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louise Hynes), and Sunny (Presley Smith)  discover that their parent have perished in a fire, and they are farmed by the bank to Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris), who is their closest relative (lives closest) rather than a relative they may have actually met.  Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket narrates.  Count Olaf is not a good man, and he will stop at nothing to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune which is  tied up in trust until violet comes of age.  The Count figure to outwit the banker, Mr. Poe (K. Todd Freeman).  He has had his way so far with his terrible acting company (henchmen).  In the first episode Joan Cusack guest stars as the neighbor who is a judge.  The children wish she could rescue them.  The schemes cooked up by the Count are terribly devious, including his marrying violet, while he holds Baby Sunny as leverage.  Plenty of unfortunate events take place in this movie to keep it entertaining.  The "Turn Away" song at the beginning of each episode is quite entertaining by itself.  Neil Patrick Harris sings the theme song for each episode in the character he has taken.  The Count is like a bad cat that keeps coming back.  In the first he plays himself, an actor, the second he portrays a scientist's assistant, and actually murders the scientist.  the third he is a sea captain with a peg leg, and the fourth he is in drag as the secretary to an optometrist, who is a former love.  There adventures carry them through a lizard room, a cliff by a lake, and finally to a factory where the worker work for nothing.  This is very entertaining.  It is available through Netflix and appears to be a made-for-Netflix series.