“Standing on a precipice is better than slipping on a precipice.”
I want to admit to being in the wrong when I doubted A Series of Unfortunate Events. This won’t be the first time I flagellate myself for this, but it was pretty dumb of me to think that the constant motion of the characters would be a bad thing for the show. If anything, it’s the best thing for the show; as the Baudelaires have moved from Count Olaf’s mansion to Dr. Montgomery’s mansion, to, now, Aunt Josephine’s mansion, the show gets to use new locales, introduce new characters, and feel more like a travelogue and an adventure.
Lake Lachrymose, aptly-named home of Aunt Josephine, is a stark change from Lousy Lane. The colors are muted and washed-out. Josephine’s house teeters on the edge of a cliff. There’s a restaurant called the Anxious Clown (my favorite sight gag this episode). The brightest color in the episode comes from clothing, not from people. And it is here that Violet, Klaus, and Sunny have come to seek refuge.
They make their way to Josephine’s house via a very talkative and literary taxi driver, who talks to them of the use of symbolism in Melville’s work. I love that the importance of reading is such an important theme in Unfortunate Events, and it’s no secret that all the best people in this world (like Justice Strauss and Dr. Montgomery) have extensive libraries. Aunt Josephine is no exception. As played by Alfre Woodard – steely and terrifying in Luke Cage, warm and vulnerable here, and never less than gorgeous – Josephine is not quite the “fierce and formidable” woman they’ve heard about. She’s afraid of everything: she won’t use the phone or doorbell in case she gets electrocuted, for instance, nor will she eat hot foods because she doesn’t want to turn on the stove. And in a very nice character touch, she’s an amateur grammarian. On paper, Josephine is a very broad character, but Woodard mines her for maximum sympathy and, yes, laughs. She’s one of the funniest, saddest characters on the show thus far, and Woodard’s performance helps with that enormously.
(Side note: I appreciate how this series tries to get its viewers/readers to read more and to use proper grammar, and obviously I know that’s the point of everyone defining words for the Baudelaires. I get it. But I still don’t think it’s funny. So get off my nuts.)
For all the world-building that Unfortunate Events gets right, its narrative is always more or less predictable, so it’s just a matter of time before Olaf shows up, this time disguised as the crusty sea dog Captain Julio Sham. (Olaf can never quite grasp that he’s near a lake, not the ocean, which leads him to proclamations like “I am married to the sea, but my girlfriend is a large lake.”) Captain Sham is a great disguise for Olaf, and for Neil Patrick Harris, who affects a voice that sounds so much like Jim Carrey that it must be an homage. Also, Olaf can apparently remove his left leg at will, because Sham has a peg-leg. This is never commented upon, and to me that makes it very funny. Even in fake sideburns and an eyepatch, Harris can project real menace; just listen to him drop the accent and purr “Don’t wait up, orphans” on his way out the door.
Olaf asks Josephine on a date while she’s buying, in her words, “an enormous amount of limes,” and while the kids see through his disguise right away, once again a supposedly responsible adult is fooled. It’s here that a crack finally appears in the siblings’ confidence, as Klaus laments, “The world is scary, and we should be afraid.” For all the Baudelaires’ misfortune, they’ve persevered, so this might be the most human moment any of them have had. That said, I do love that they always have each other’s back, and they make for a great team as they set out to rescue Josephine from her fried-egg sandwich date with Olaf. (Looking at a map, Klaus remarks that “there are a half-dozen egg sandwich restaurants within driving distance,” which reminds me of Denver, which has three egg-themed restaurants that I can think of at the moment).
In the end, Josephine is gone – but not, according to Lemony Snicket, dead – having seemingly jumped out the titular window of her library, leaving, naturally, a hole in the glass shaped like herself. It all looks pretty hopeful, but it’s good to remember what Josephine, that fierce and formidable woman, said: “I realized, with my arms full of limes, that you can’t be terrified forever.”
A Few Thoughts
- “Who is this Count Omar? He sounds handsome.” “Perhaps we should sail this fragile and flammable world together.” “We’ll discuss what sort of pygmy she is later.”
- Josephine tied Olaf for great lines this episode. My favorite: “You never know what can happen in a small town. You ever read Thornton Wilder?”
- Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders are so great together. I would watch a whole show about their adventures.
- I love the notes of compassion and regret audible in Patrick Warburton’s narration. If this show gets any recognition from the Academy, it will likely be in the form of a nomination for Harris, but I’d like to submit Warburton as a dark-horse candidate for supporting actor.
- The repetition of the phrase “fierce and formidable” just reminded me of Julianne Moore repeating “He’s a good man, and thorough” in The Big Lebowski.
- Sorry this review is light on pictures. I usually throw in one or two, just so you’re not looking at big wall of text, but, and I’m sorry to pull back the curtain too much, this show is an absolute pain in the ass to find pictures for.
4.25/5
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