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It looks like most critics don't find Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events that unfortunate.

The Watch Too Cute! Super Rare! She Was Crazy About The Cats On A Date At A Cat Cafe OnlineNetflix show, which launches on the streaming service on Jan. 13, is an adaptation of a series of books penned by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler).

It follows the Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus, and Sunny and their evil guardian, Count Olaf, who stops at nothing to get their inheritance. The siblings have to outsmart Olaf to discover clues to their parents’ mysterious death. 

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The eight-episode series stars Emmy- and Tony Award-winner Neil Patrick Harris as Olaf. Co-stars include Patrick Warburton (Snicket), Joan Cusack  (Justice Strauss), Malina Weissman (Violet Baudelaire) and Louis Hynes (Klaus Baudelaire).

It is executive produced by Emmy Award-winner Barry Sonnenfeld and Daniel Handler.

SEE ALSO: Alfre Woodard, Joan Cusack pop up in new 'Lemony Snicket' trailer

Here's what some critics had to say:

The Hollywood Reporter

Keith Uhlich expressed high praise for Harris' depiction of Olaf, calling him the series' "trump card."

"He's the eternal thorn in the Baudelaires' side, obsessed with laying his hands on the massive fortune willed to the children by their parents (who may or may not appear, perhaps or perhaps not played by a pair of familiar faces — Netflix demands we remain coy). In the first two episodes, the hook-nosed, devil-bearded Olaf (a failed actor by trade) suggests Nosferatu resurrected as a snobbish sociopath who could stand to brush up on his Stanislavski. In subsequent installments, he adopts a series of disguises (a peg-legged sea captain, a comely female secretary) that point up the character's uproarious lack of talent while revealing Harris' consistently ingenious artistry, here kin to Alec Guinness in his Ealing comedy prime. The former Doogie Howser knows how to expertly milk a laugh from a mugging glower, a sarcasm-tinged line reading, or an extended bit of physical comedy (there's some especially funny work with O'Hara in this regard). And none of that counteracts the slight twinges of pathos he allows to break through the cartoonish veneer whenever the series tantalizingly references Olaf and the Baudelaires's backstory—something about a globally connected secret society that plays like a Jacques Rivette fantasia for kids."

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The A.V. Club

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Erik Adams wrote in his review that the books were better executed as a series than the 2014 movie adaptation.

"Thirteen years later (an appropriate number), A Series Of Unfortunate Eventsmakes a smooth transition to Netflix, with help from Handler and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, both of whom were involved (and then not involved) with the movie version. To paraphrase the series’ own tongue-in-cheek metacritique of the cinema, 'It’s so much more convenient to consume entertainment from the comfort of your own home'—and it’s so much more convenient to retell Handler’s epic tale of woe and whimsy when each novel gets two 42-minute episodes to set the mood, to steep in the wit, and to integrate the interjections of the tangent-prone Snicket (played here by Patrick Warburton). Turning a series of popular books into a TV series might not have been the obvious route in the ’00s, but in our Game Of Thronesera, it’s the smartest."

TV Guide

Liam Matthews also felt the show pulled off the adaptation better than the film, noting that Warburton's narration helped set the right tone.

"The thing the movie got wrong was Lemony Snicket's tone. The books are filled with the narrator's morose digressions and word-defining asides. The language and style are such a huge part of the books' success that they're necessary in a screen adaptation, but so writerly that they're a huge challenge to show. The movie didn't try hard enough, and Jude Law wasn't right for the part. He was too soft and too serious, and he only appeared in voiceover. The show has righted this mistake and then some with Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket. Warburton, best known for his clueless characters like the titular hero from The Tickand Seinfeld's David Puddy, is perfectly cast against type as the erudite Snicket. His deep, resonant voice conveys solemnity, but there's something in it that ironically undercuts his seriousness. He's world-wearily authoritative, but in a way that oh-so-subtly suggests it's totally ridiculous to be so world-weary and authoritative. He nails the tone of Handler-as-Snicket marvelously well."

Collider

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Aubrey Page called the show "not so miserable after all."

"The scripts leave intact some of the most charming elements of the book’s verbal eccentricities, including Snicket’s macabre letters to his now dead lover Beatrice at the outset of each episode, as well as plenty of sly dictionary talk from narrator Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton). It’s very often funny and very often quite sad, and masterfully sets a dreamy, screwball tone that allows the increasingly mad series of events to unfold with an implicit wink."

IndieWire

Ben Travers pointed out the show comes at exactly the right time for kids.

"Although it promises tragedy at every turn, Lemony Snicket's Netflix series proves hope can trump hate — at a time we need to hear it as much as our children.

"The Baudelaire kids persevere using reason, logic, truth, and kindness as weapons against the ignorance and anger that oppress them; ignorance from those meant to protect them, and anger from those meaning to do them harm.Could children watching at home ask for lessons more suitable, skills more pertinent, or an allegory more fitting for the world facing them in 2017? I think not."

Topics Netflix Reviews