Its darkly comic fantasy about child endangerment and timely evil that adds up to a miserably pessimistic philosophical statement.

Somehow, its not thoroughly depressing, but an entertaining screwball fable for these topsy-turvy,post-truthtimes.

Theyre impeccably cast and well played.

Klaus (Louis Hynes) is a lover of books and knowledge.

Violet (Malina Weissman) is a natural-born engineer.

They are blessings in bloom, the incarnate promise of all that children are the future pop song jazz.

Breathless, big-boobed secretary.

Hes assisted by a troupe of goons who serve as muscle and extras in his vaudeville of evil.

His shtick and schemes make an absurd mockery of the truth.

But it resonates as all-too-believable in this alarmingly gullible, fake news age.

What will these kids lose who will they become?

I know the answer to the question; Ive read the books.

Adapted from the13-volume cycle of slender, densely clever tomes written by Lemony Snicket, a.k.a.

Sonnenfeld directs five of the eight installments, and he tackles the lost opportunity with a vengeance.

Its his best work in years.

Theres someCabinet of Dr. Caligariin Olafs mansion, someWhite Zombie!in the plot of The Miserable Mill.

The sets are massive, expressionist expressions of personality and chockablock with details.

Olaf makes cracks about binge watching and TVs displacement of cinema as the medium of our times.

He nurses a broken heart; he addresses his missives to a lost love, Beatrice.

and prove himself an unreliable narrator, but hes not.

The episodes I liked best were the ones that had a lot of him in it.

Harris, absolutely marvelous as Olaf, embodies the effortless ease of that tricky navigation.

Hes having a blast, and we share in his delight.

(I dont wish to overstate the edginess, though Im not sure how to calculate it, either.

Theres no blood, no cursing, no sex, nothing unnecessary.

Parents, if your kid could handle the books, they can handle the show.)

The Baudelaire kids are admirable yet static, limited in their expression of virtue and weakness.

Not all of them do.

Still, the difference is palpable.