Count Olaf and the Baudelaire siblings are back in Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events season 2! Season 1 really blew me away so I was highly anticipating the return of this dark and whimsical show. Continuing the television adaptation of the book series by Lemony Snicket (a pseudonym for author Daniel Handler), this new season sees the Baudelaires continue to outsmart and outrun the devious Count Olaf, introduced us to brand new characters, and finally gave us some insight into the mysterious secret society that has been hinted at since the beginning.

Watch my review of Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events season two, below:

Count Olaf and the Baudelaire children

This season started off with more of the same formula as season 1. The Baudelaires would go stay somewhere, Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) would appear in disguise, and the kids would have to escape him and his henchmen. Later on, there’s a bit of a switch up in the formula when the Baudelaires must go undercover after being accused of murdering Count Olaf. I thought Malina Weissman, who plays Violet, and Louis Hynes, who played Klaus, continued to deliver strong performances. I enjoyed seeing them use their wits and resources around them to continue to escape Count Olaf. Sunny, played by Presley Smith, had a much more successful performance this time around because she’s a toddler now instead of a baby. They were able to get rid of the creepy looking graphic effects to make it look like she was talking that just didn’t work in season 1 since she’s now old enough to babble and walk on her own.

Brand new characters

We were introduced to a variety of wacky and fun new characters this season. A few of my favorites included:

The Quagmire Triplets – We met Isadora (Avi Lake) and Duncan (Dylan Kingwell), two of the three Quagmire triplets. The smart and resourceful duo have a similar background to the Baudelaire children and became fast friends with them.

Jacques Snicket – Jacques Snicket (Nathan Fillion) is the brother of our narrator Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton) and a member of the secret society V.F.D. Fillion was great in his role as the brave heroic figure with insider knowledge trying to help the Baudelaires.

Olivia Caliban – Olivia Caliban (Sara Rue) played the Prufrock Preparatory School librarian who becomes a V.F.D. volunteer on her quest to help the Baudelaires. She later returns in disguise as carnival fortune teller Madame Lulu. Sara Rue is a very diverse actress who can obviously tackle many types of roles, especially based off her work in this season.

Esme Squalor – Esme Squalor (Lucy Punch) has a role as one of the Baudelaires many guardians. At first she’s deceived by Count Olaf in disguise and then tells the children that she believes them when they come to her for help escaping him, but in a twist of events it turns out that she’s been in on Count Olaf’s dastardly plan the whole time. Count Olaf had been her former acting coach and taking in the Baudelaires helped her reunite with him. They start a Bonnie and Clyde-esque relationship and they work together as villains the rest of the season. I thought Lucy Punch was fabulous and evil and I loved her twisted storyline.

The Secret Society

As the season went on, we learned a lot about the secret society including its name. V.F.D., or Volunteer Fire Department, is a secret society of volunteers who would extinguish fires – both literally and figuratively. A still unknown issue ends up breaking up the group, leaving them as  two sides that are bitter enemies.

Who survived the fire?

Count Olaf ends up taking a little break from searching for the kids because he had a new dilemma – it looks like maybe someone survived the fire from season 1. Does that mean one of the Baudelaire parents could still be alive? Worried that they could be, he goes on a journey to Madame Lulu’s to figure it out. I’ve seen several different theories around who could still be alive. One is that Lemony Snicket is actually Bertrand Baudelaire which is why he’s investigating the children to find them and why he’s on the lam so no one else tries to kill him — but the Baudelaires have seen videos of Lemony and said he looked like Jacques, not their dad. Another theory I’ve heard is that Beatrice Baudelaire might still be alive. However, I don’t think either of their parents survived. I think it was really Quigley Quagmire who survived the Quagmire fire!

Questions we still need answers to

Some other exciting things that could be coming in the third and unfortunately final season of A Series Of Unfortunate Events: at one point Count Olaf admits that he wasn’t able to kill Beatrice because her costumed wings really worked – does this mean Beatrice is really alive? What is the deal with the sugar bowl that Esme is after? Who is the woman played by Allison Williams that we met at the very end of season 2? (I think it’s Kit Snicket, sister of Jacques and Lemony, and fellow V.F.D. member). And finally will Violet and Klaus be able to save themselves from falling off a cliff and get back to Sunny, will they ever escape Count Olaf, will they ever find happiness?

While this season of A Series of Unfortunate Events was fun and surprising, I’m looking forward to learning more about this mystery and getting all of our burning questions answered in season 3 coming in 2019.

Want more videos? You can watch my review of Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events season one too:

***

Subscribe to Kristen’s YouTube channel for more videos! You can also follow Kristen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!

***