A Series of Unfortunate Events S2: The Austere Academy Parts 1&2 Recap + Review

Look Away? NO WAY. A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 Is Now Streaming! 

The Baudelaire siblings are back for a second season of sorrow and woe in Netflix’s  A Series of Unfortunate Events. This time around 4 of Lemony Snicket's miserable middle grade books leap from page to screen: we follow the trio as they head  to a strict school, to a posh penthouse, to a cultish village, then a hospital, and finally in the last two episodes a creepy AF carnival.


Series season 2 begins with the adaptation of book 5: The Austere Academy. As Lemony  Snicket (Patrick Warburton) reminds us after the gleefully grim opening credits song “Look Away”, the Baudelaire trio haven’t just lost their parents first to a fire, and then their proceeding guardians to horrific deaths...but they’ve been traumatized and dogged by the terrible thespian Count Olaf over and over again. As if that’s not enough, without anyone else stepping up to take Sunny, Klaus and Violet in, Mr. Poe breaks the news that they’ve been banished to -- I mean errr… enrolled in-- a boarding school. 


That school is Prufrock Preparatory School with it’s unusually bleak motto “Memento Mori”-- translation: remember, you will die. Secondary translation: Baudelaire’s get the hell out of there!!! Prufrock isn’t exactly cozy... especially because they trio haven’t had tuition paid for a room. Sooo Sunny, Klaus and Violet are shoved out and into the ramshackle, tin-roofed, crab infested and fungi ridden Orphan Shack. Hooome sweet hooome. 

Neil Patrick Harris  is back as the ubiquitous unibrowed schemer Count Olaf.  In keeping with his tradition of trailing the trio wherever they go he dons his latest disguise: Prufrock’s new gym teacher. One that wears a jeweled turban wrapped around his head and liberal amounts of guyliner. As Coach Genghis, Olaf lays it on thick with a twangy accent and manages to still be both totally dim and totally diabolical thanks to Harris’s campy bad “acting” ‘Cuz let’s be real. To act like a dreadful actor is acting in and of itself.#skills 


In keeping with each new book each pair of episodes brings us an assortment of new characters. Take the balding, wannabe musician Vice Principal Nero (Roger Bart) who forces the students to watch his nightly violin recitals--  aka keeping his students captive to watch and cringe as he strangles his instrument into shrieking out not-so-sweet symphonies. Disobedient pupils get put on toe-nail clipping duty (Nero’s toes) or in the case of Sunny, Klaus, and Violet are forced to report to Coach Genghis, (because who else?!) for  S.O.R.E: “Special Orphan Running Exercises.” 

The one who wields most of the power in Prufrock though is the pint-sized schoolgirl and the Baudelaire’s classmate Carmelita Spats. Carmelita (Kitana Turnbull) is a vain, poofy pink dress wearing, pouty prat who tap dances her way through the halls calling the shots because she’s the Principal’s and VP Nero’s  favourite. This petulant little queen bee is one part Veruca Salt, one part Pansy Parkinson and a whole lot of annoying. Her song and dance insults and her trademark burn (“CAKE SNIFFERS!”) makes her bullying act even more ridiculous and humorous. This is a girl that’s so exaggerated and so one-dimensional that we can’t help but laugh and see her for the shallow antagonist she is. 


But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a few new allies that come into Sunny, Klaus and Violet’s life. At the end of season one in the closing minutes of the Miserable Mill we were teased with the appearance of the Quagmire siblings by watching their happy family go up in flames. 


Literally.


Isadora (Avi Lake) and Duncan (Dylan Kingwell) the lone survivors of the inferno that tore through the Quagmire estate have also been dumped on Prufrock Prep’s doorstop. With their parents and triplet brother gone Izzy and Dunks are having a heck of a time adjusting to being orphans and well...being reduced to two. As fate --and plot devices-- would have it Sunny, Klaus, Violet, Isadora and Duncan really hit it off. Evading psycho fortune hunters and losing loved ones to crazy arsonists ought to do that. 

Then Violet and Klaus realize that the peculiar spyglass they inherited actually attaches to the one the Quagmire’s have. Bonus! When they bronze halves are snapped together there’s a kind of twisty turny cypher-- letters and symbols-- that can be clicked and clacked to reveal….something. We don’t exactly find out because it’s a Series of Unfortunate Events and Duncan and Isadora are intercepted before they crack the code, and a kidnapped by Count Olaf and his awful acting troupe lackeys.  


Another ally sweeps onto the screen like an action hero, mustache, bow tie and mad taxi driving skills and all: Jacques Snicket (a dapper Nathan Fillion). Lemony’s bro has an in with Jacquelyn (possible relation? Friends, those names are NOT just a coincidence!) and Larry the waiter (not to be mistaken with Larry the Cable Guy) who had a brief stint in a clown themed restaurant. No joke. 

Jacques joins up with those two to secretly lend a hand and drop some hints (or an especially heavy book about the history of secret societies) to help the Baudelaire’s get a step closer to discovering the truth about the enigmatic VFD organization their parents were part of. I am SO excited to see how his character is connected and how is story plays out. 


The absurdity in this season’s opener of A Series of Unfortunate Events is just as in-our-face as Count Olaf’s signature scowl-sneer. The school library is only allowed to be open for 10 minutes a day. Carmelita calls the shots while class is in session (and even when it’s not). There's a talking computer that's wheeled around Prufrock with the ability to "recognize" Olaf. While the Count's acting troupe goes undercover as cheerleaders (the white-faced women who are about a million years old) a wandering nurse, and the head and butt halves of Prufrock's mascot: a dead horse! But the low budget costume which is basically a bedsheet with a sloppy paint job doesn't exactly stir up any pep in the evening 'Pep Rallies'. 


Sunny (Presley Smith) is forced to become Nero’s secretary: clicking away at the office typewriter and other clerical biz that ought to be out of reach for bite-happy infants. Klaus (Louis Hynes) is in a math class where he has to measure the circumferences of expired half-eaten  jars of mayo, while Violet (Malina Weissman) is enrolled in English classes where her teacher drones on endlessly about all his hapless life: one full of food disappointments, sweater stains and other bumbles. It’s irresistibly funny dark comedy and escapist escapades. 

The puns and offbeat sense of humor continue to set Series apart and give it a distinct flavor that rings true to the books and sets it apart from other offerings on cable and streaming. As Lemony Snicket Patrick Warburton’s deadpan is as pronounced and dry as ever. The young actors who play Klaus, Violet, and Sunny, are awkward and plucky underdogs who keep getting screwed over by well… serieses of unfortunate events. Once again they’re stellar on screen with believable performances. 


Seeing them overcome the insane and totally cray drama and conflict that's hurled their way is so compulsively watchable. It’s unreality TV. And I can’t get enough of it. Watching the interactions between  the trio and Olaf is hilarious and effortlessly entertaining. They exchange such a contagious energy and generate such vibrancy it reinforces the COM half of this Dram-Com. Chemistry? Why yes they do have it. A LOT of it.  


So if you’re sick of schmaltzy family shows or over it with soapy teen murder mysteries (*cough* Riverdale *cough*) A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 is your oasis from the meh and mundane of the mainstream. Ignore the warning to look away. All 10 episodes of season 2 available and streaming on Netflix and you do not want to miss it!   

Images from IMDB and Netflix 

Season 1 Reviews + Recaps 
1. The Bad Beginning
2. The Reptile Room 
3. The Wide Window 
4. The Miserable Mill