The Unfortunate Blogger

The Miserable Mill- Part Two

Well, here it is. The season finale of, well, the first season. I'm not sure when they'll be releasing season 2, but they'd better do it soon because I don't want a second actress for Sunny. And I don't want to have Klaus suffer the same fate as Zach Gorden during the "Wimpy Kid" sequel. (Gosh  was that movie terrible!) That aside, this was, again, an interesting episode. Again, there were some new things that were added and somethings that were changed, but in general, it was pretty decent.

THINGS I LOVED ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

1) Count Olaf's "Shirley" charade- As terribly acted as it was from Count Olaf, (not Harris), that was a rather entertaining scene. Watching him actually play a woman and try to act all girly and bouncy, that was beyond funny!

2) The spyglass returns- Jacquelyn finally gets the spyglass back to the Baudelaires. Not in person, granted, but still...they get something back..... I wonder where she is. She hasn't shown up since episode 4....

3) The 'to shout or not shout fire' scene- The part where Violet and Lemony Snicket shout 'Fire!' was great. Lemony's screaming was kind of humorous and the mob that forms following Violet's public announcement of "Fire!" over the intercom was hysterical. I loved that!

4) How the machine breaks Phil's leg and how the problem gets resolved- In the book, it simply says that Klaus operates the machine and then somehow knocks over something and stamps Phil's leg so that it breaks. Here, it clearly shows that Klaus doesn't know how to operate a machine, hypnotism or not, so when it gets out of control because of misuse, he knocks over debarkers, knocks employees everywhere, and then as Phil falls on the logs, the stamp falls on his leg and then the wires break down. It seemed much more realistic. Plus, the way Violet fixed it quickly, that was great!

5) The confrontation between the Baudelaires and Dr. Orwell- I know this was probably the replacement of the Sunny swordfight, the Klaus inventor scene, and Violet the reader scene, but regardless, this was set up well. The twist at the end with the incinerator was a bit surprising, so...I guess not everything changes.

6) Someone sets the Quagmire house on fire- Again, this isn't nice, but it does seem to connect the children in some way. And since the arsonist has a fancy hat on, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's Esme Squalor. Because if it is...I think I may know a way that the next book, The Austere Academy, is going to make much more sense....

7) The song at the end- Talk about a way to close the scene. Everyone sung a very interesting song that does tie into the story, but the way everyone sings it...wow. Granted, Violet and Klaus' voices did sound slightly robotic, and Sunny's whistling was strange but...eh, screw it. This is going on my YouTube playlist!

8) The other half of the spyglass- As the Baudelaires sit on the bench by Nero's office (while he's playing the violin...not too shabbily, actually...) we see two out of the three Quagmire triplets holding up their own broken spyglass. However, I didn't notice the detail until Lemony Snicket said 'two halves of a spyglass...click" which shows that the spyglass can be divided in half. I sense some exploring and more dangerous corners in the upcoming second season. 

9) Orwell and Olaf's relationship- They're funny, they break-up, they almost try to kill each other...I can't get enough of it.

10) The way Olaf and the Hook-Handed Man escape- This was actually something I saw in the picture on the back of the actual book and I love how this was brought into the series. And Olaf's lines during the escape...priceless!

THINGS I HATED ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

1) Sunny's bi- Oh screw it. You know the drill by now.

2) The way Doctor Orwell dropped Sunny- Like the 'Klaus vs' rant and the 'Sunny shreds wooden leg' rant, this was just poorly done. Now, I would imagine that Doctor Orwell would have dropped Sunny, but would she have really tossed her in the air like a ball? No. If you wanted to have the scene look legit, Dr. Orwell should have fallen back and then had Sunny fly up for a split second, long enough for Violet to run over and grab her before she hits the ground. Don't just have her flip right into Violet's arms! Lazy!!!!!!

3) Klaus' hypnotism- In the book, and with the millers, they have to be re-hypnotized by Dr. Orwell. Here, Klaus just needs to hear the word 'Lucky'. So does that mean this'll be a side effect for life? No! Because he hears Phil say, "You're lucky to be alive!" and he's fine. Come on guys!

4) Phil's last minute statement- I liked the positive outlook in the book when Phil says, "You're alive. Isn't that lucky?". It was good because it tied in with the Baudelaires blaming themselves for the terrible things that happened and it made them feel a bit better. Here, it's very rushed and added in at the last second. Phil has no idea about what happened to them, so when he says that line, it feels out of nowhere and has almost no impact on the kids. So why was it there?

5) The Quagmire parents wait to discuss their life with VFD- What kind of annoyed me was that the dad tells the Quagmire triplets that he hurt his leg while using a grappling hook in Peru (well, he mentioned Peru), but yet the kids don't question it and are like, "okay.". And the parents just leave it there. Instead of discussing it the second they got back, like they said, they make the kids wait. And the kids aren't the least bit curious or suspicious as to why their parents suddenly vanished to Peru and are now showing up. Like...I don't understand that!

Well, that's all I have to say. I'll see you Unfortunates when the second season comes on. And trust me, I won't miss a moment of it! Lets hope things get better from here. The script, I mean. The story. Not..., well, you all know how the story goes.....