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The 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books, ostensibly penned by one Lemony Snicket but actually the work of childrens' author Daniel Handler, have been hugely popular with readers since they were first published in 1999. In fact, these tales of plucky orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire and their clashes with the evil Count Olaf were so successful that they already scored a mega-budget Hollywood adaptation back in 2004 starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep. However, that film proved to be a fairly unfortunate event in its own right, so here we are 12 years later eagerly anticipating a new small-screen version presented by those canny souls over at Netflix. And judging from this first trailer, it might be pretty darn good.
Like the ill-fated 2004 movie, the look is pure Tim Burton with a dash of Wes Anderson whimsy and the plot looks like a whole lot of bumbling and running about. But Neil Patrick Harris is a reliable frontman - if you haven't seen him as a love-struck supervillain in Joss Whedon's amazing web short 'Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog', stop whatever you're doing and download it right now - and some of the gags are genuinely funny: Harris's disguises look like they'll be a consistent amusement in every episode.
All 10 episodes of 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' will be available on Netflix from Friday Jan 13 - perfect for seeing off the new year's blues.