A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning: Part Two Show Only
January 14, 2017 7:03 PM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
While Mr. Poe's secretary works overtime, Count Olaf casts Violet and Klaus in "The Marvelous Marriage," a work of theater with alarming implications.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies
Defined by Lemony Snicket this episode: flashback, standoffish, literally versus figuratively, aberrant
Inventions of the episode: grappling hook, Molotov cocktail
Plot developments: The Baudelaires foil Olaf's marriage plot, and are being sent to a new mysterious guardian, Dr. Montgomery. Mr. Poe's secretary, Jacquelyn, is about to tell Gustav (who is observing the Baudelaire children's arrival) the location of the not-dead-after-all Mr. & Mrs. Baudelaire, but their walkie-talkie conversation is cut short when he is felled by a dart to the neck, and presumably killed.
***
Quotables:
Poe: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely not.
Poe: Seven. Seven. Seven. Seven. Anything but seven.
Count Olaf: As I believe Mr. Poe has explained to you, I can act loco parentheses.
Klaus: In loco parentis.
Count Olaf: Poco De Laurentis.
Lemony Snicket: Marriage is like sharing a root beer float or agreeing to be the back half of a horse costume. Even when it's happening onstage, you should only do it with the people you love. I have never been married myself. I once desperately loved a remarkably brave and bravely remarkable woman, who when I asked her if she would be my wife, found, for complicated and unfathomable reasons, she could give me no answer.
Justice Strauss: You are so lucky, Violet. All my life I wanted to be a bride, but it seems all the men I meet are intimidated by my law degree, or obsessed with model trains.
Justice Strauss: Carpe diem!
Count Olaf: Seize the children!
Justice Strauss: Seize the day.
Count Olaf: I said day.
Count Olaf: You know, some people say that the hardest job in the world is raising a child. But it is nothing compared to conceiving, writing, directing, producing and performing in a theatrical presentation for the purposes of stealing their dead parents' fortune. It's a very difficult job, and I will not have any orphans mucking it up!
Klaus: You'll never touch our fortune.
Count Olaf: Klaus... [creepily stroking Violet's shoulder] I'll touch whatever I want.
Lemony Snicket: Some things in life are difficult to understand, even after years and years of thinking about 'em while wandering alone through desolate landscapes... usually during the off-season. [scene] The Baudelaires did not understand why they were now off toward an unknown relative instead of living with Justice Strauss, but as with so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't so. [scene] It seemed to the children that they were moving in an aberrant, a word which here means "very, very wrong, and causing much grief," direction.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies
Defined by Lemony Snicket this episode: flashback, standoffish, literally versus figuratively, aberrant
Inventions of the episode: grappling hook, Molotov cocktail
Plot developments: The Baudelaires foil Olaf's marriage plot, and are being sent to a new mysterious guardian, Dr. Montgomery. Mr. Poe's secretary, Jacquelyn, is about to tell Gustav (who is observing the Baudelaire children's arrival) the location of the not-dead-after-all Mr. & Mrs. Baudelaire, but their walkie-talkie conversation is cut short when he is felled by a dart to the neck, and presumably killed.
***
Quotables:
Poe: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely not.
Poe: Seven. Seven. Seven. Seven. Anything but seven.
Count Olaf: As I believe Mr. Poe has explained to you, I can act loco parentheses.
Klaus: In loco parentis.
Count Olaf: Poco De Laurentis.
Lemony Snicket: Marriage is like sharing a root beer float or agreeing to be the back half of a horse costume. Even when it's happening onstage, you should only do it with the people you love. I have never been married myself. I once desperately loved a remarkably brave and bravely remarkable woman, who when I asked her if she would be my wife, found, for complicated and unfathomable reasons, she could give me no answer.
Justice Strauss: You are so lucky, Violet. All my life I wanted to be a bride, but it seems all the men I meet are intimidated by my law degree, or obsessed with model trains.
Justice Strauss: Carpe diem!
Count Olaf: Seize the children!
Justice Strauss: Seize the day.
Count Olaf: I said day.
Count Olaf: You know, some people say that the hardest job in the world is raising a child. But it is nothing compared to conceiving, writing, directing, producing and performing in a theatrical presentation for the purposes of stealing their dead parents' fortune. It's a very difficult job, and I will not have any orphans mucking it up!
Klaus: You'll never touch our fortune.
Count Olaf: Klaus... [creepily stroking Violet's shoulder] I'll touch whatever I want.
Lemony Snicket: Some things in life are difficult to understand, even after years and years of thinking about 'em while wandering alone through desolate landscapes... usually during the off-season. [scene] The Baudelaires did not understand why they were now off toward an unknown relative instead of living with Justice Strauss, but as with so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't so. [scene] It seemed to the children that they were moving in an aberrant, a word which here means "very, very wrong, and causing much grief," direction.
Does anyone know how close these episodes are to the books? I tried one once but couldn't stay with it. These episodes are kind of delightful.
posted by gt2 at 8:53 AM on January 15, 2017
posted by gt2 at 8:53 AM on January 15, 2017
Also, in the books, do they do the translations of what Sunny is saying or is that just in this series. That keeps cracking me up.
posted by gt2 at 8:59 AM on January 15, 2017
posted by gt2 at 8:59 AM on January 15, 2017
So far, the show seems to be fairly close to the books. (Mr. Poe's wife & the whole newspaper thing doesn't show up in the books, but that's the only thing that has stuck out so far.)
Sunny's gurgles are sometimes translated:
Sunny's gurgles are sometimes translated:
Except when she used the few actual words in her vocabulary, like "bottle," "mommy," and "bite," most people had trouble understanding what it was that Sunny was saying. For instance, this morning she was saying "Gack!" over and over, which probably meant, "Look at that mysterious figure emerging from the fog!"posted by belladonna at 11:42 AM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I am absolutely loving the sugar gothic vibe, a la Edward Scissorhands and Pushing Daisies. This show is just so, so clever. It straddles the line between "absurd so it's not actually a tragedy" and "blunt and straightforward account of things which are otherwise sugarcoated".
It crossed the line a little bit and got a lil too rapey, imo, with the child bride thing, and "I can touch whatever I want". Yikes.
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:57 AM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
It crossed the line a little bit and got a lil too rapey, imo, with the child bride thing, and "I can touch whatever I want". Yikes.
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:57 AM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yes, per belladonna's comment, Sunny's noises are sometimes translated in the books, but they tend to be more matter-of-fact and rarely snarky like they commonly are on the show.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:14 AM on January 16, 2017
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:14 AM on January 16, 2017
Mod note: One comment deleted. This is a show-only thread, so please don't include spoilers for things that haven't happened yet on the show.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:04 AM on January 17, 2017
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:04 AM on January 17, 2017
Book readers - having made it to the end of the season, some of you have been posting a spoiler inadvertently, because it appears as if the thing you're posting about has already happened, and there is no non-spoilery way for me to point out the misinterpretation.
So, please just keep the book-to-show comparisons minimal/general. (Devil's Advocate plans on posting the books-included full-season thread when they finish the season in a couple days. If anyone wants it posted earlier please coordinate with them.)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:18 AM on January 17, 2017
So, please just keep the book-to-show comparisons minimal/general. (Devil's Advocate plans on posting the books-included full-season thread when they finish the season in a couple days. If anyone wants it posted earlier please coordinate with them.)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:18 AM on January 17, 2017
No need to seek permission from me — anyone who wants to start a books-included full-season thread is welcome to. Only reason I haven't done it yet is that I still have two episodes to go, but with my schedule it may take me a few days to get to them.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:04 AM on January 17, 2017
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:04 AM on January 17, 2017
This was so good, but I actually felt pretty sad for Strauss in the end. If we weren't being seen the parents alive, it would be really bad.
posted by corb at 8:18 AM on January 18, 2017
posted by corb at 8:18 AM on January 18, 2017
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There was also definitely a moment where Count Olaf talked about the merits of theater versus streaming television, too. Cute.
posted by sleeping bear at 1:11 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]