The second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which is based upon the novel series of the same name, adapts the next five books. Each book is allocated two episodes, which allows plenty of time to flesh out their contents and themes. It begins with The Austere Academy, which follows the ending of last season. The Baudelaires, trying to discover the secrets their parents were holding, enrolls in The Prufrock Preparatory School. There, they meet a few important characters.
First off, we are introduced to the typical A Series of Unfortunate Events adults, unlikable and ignorant. This time, it is Vice Principal Nero who is self-absorbed with awful violin skills. While on the Secret Organisation's side, we're treated to another useless character that accidentally loses the very thing he was supposed to give to the orphans.
Carmelita Spats is also instantly unlikable being a big bully and being too self-absorbed. However, the silver lining is that the trio finally meets the Quagmire triplets. They instantly click and discover that they each have half of a spyglass that decodes. Count Olaf predictably appears in a disguise and it seems initially that he has run out of plans and is just winging it. Once he does come up with a scheme, it is actually simple but fairly clever. Unfortunately, the only reason that his schemes works (and you'll see this again and again), is that all the adult characters of this world are stupid and blind, which is extremely frustrating at times.
In The Ersatz Elevator, the Baudelaires are adopted by yet another guardian. This is an interesting one because Jerome is every bit the loving father while his wife, Esme, cares too much about what's fashionable. Sadly, as with all the other "good" characters in this series, they will always somehow fall into Count Olaf's schemes. It gets really old really quickly when it presents hope for the Baudelaires only for the adults to not listen and misfortune to fall upon them.
The Ersatz Elevator is when the key concepts of the Secret Organization and the various items that everyone is looking for comes to the forefront. While it is tantalizing at first with its teases, it reveals them gradually and the members of the Secret Organization are shown to be doing at least something to help with the Baudelaires' plight. It is at this point that you will come to realize that the show will never give you answers while piling on question after question.
In The Vile Village, the Baudelaires are sent off to the Village of Fowl Devotees with the whole village as their guardians. By this point, it becomes even more predictable with Count Olaf appearing in disguise along with the rest of his gang. The twist here is that the other Volunteers that were helping the Baudelaires up until this point are a lot more visible to them and Count Olaf's plan is quite dastardly. Sadly, all the new characters introduced in The Vile Village are unlikable and extremely annoying with their eccentricity, stubbornness and stupidness. While this is a theme of the novel series, it is even more obnoxious here and very hard to stomach. It's at this point that everything becomes silly from the machines to Violet's schemes.
The Hostile Hospital changes things up a smidge so that it isn't as mind numbingly predictable as previous episodes. For one thing, the Baudelaires aren't thrust into the care of a useless and clueless guardian. On the other hand, Count Olaf is becoming even more ruthless (if this was possible). There were a few tough scenes to watch where betrayal happens. The episodes end on a pretty significant cliffhanger as somehow, the Baudelaires find themselves in an even worse situation than what they had started with.
The last part is The Carnivorous Carnival which follows in a similar vein to The Hostile Hospital in that the Baudelaires are not dependent on any guardians. It is a cruel world and this episode has some of the best costumes and make up for the various characters. There is some stupidity in the characters for laughs but it feels like it is trying too hard to be funny and can backfire as a result. The ending is a big cliffhanger and with the two episodes clocking in at around 40 minutes each, the plot moves briskly along and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Overall, the second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events is still really for those who had read and loved the book series. It is in this season where while the majority of episodes fall into the same predictable pattern, it starts to diverge and bring about a heap of teasing, foreshadowing and red herrings. The music and the costumes are impressive but it can be hard to watch when you know that no matter how hopeful the situation may be, the Baudelaires will never ever come out on top and that is truly depressing and unfair.
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