UPDATE: Turns out, this video was fan-made. Netflix should take some pointers from Ms. Poe.
ORIGINAL: Lemony Snicket’s delectably dour A Series of Unfortunate Events will be coming to Netflix somewhere down the line, and though the streaming giant’s announcement that it would be adapting the property only came in November, there’s apparently already a teaser trailer for the show – and it’s unnerving in all the right ways.
There’s some question of whether the teaser is fan-made or an official tease from Netflix, but the professionalism of the video strongly suggests the latter to me. Additionally, uploader Eleanora Poe shares a name with the fictional editor-in-chief of The Daily Punctilio in the Unfortunate Events universe, lending the video further legitimacy.
Regardless of where it came from, though, the first look at the series is truly fantastic, a deeply atmospheric and unsettling peep inside a mysterious packed with references to Snicket’s book. Sharp-eyed fans will spot Mushroom Minutiae on a table, Violet Baudelaire’s marriage license, an article about the death of the Baudelaire parents, blueprints and embroidery related to the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, a book called How to Start Fires, a horrific-looking Lachrymose Leech in a jar and imagery of an eye (the series version of the VFD symbol?). Did I miss anything? Oh yeah – the shadow of a very familiar count looming over the proceedings.
Whenever A Series of Unfortunate Events comes to Netflix, it’s going to be high on my watchlist based on this trailer alone. Snicket excelled at creating a detailed, imaginative world around Count Olaf and the Baudelaire children, and it looks like the streaming giant is aiming for an evocative Tim Burton-meets-American Horror Story vibe that actually seems pretty pitch-perfect.