James Newton Howard's A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series with additional music by Chris Bacon & Sven Faulconer)

[BloodBoal 7508]

‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ Renewed For Season 3 At Netflix

[Jay 12139]

No surprise there!

[Stefancos 9639]

So even in the Golden Age a show doesnt actually have to be good?

[Jay 12139]

I have no idea what that even means or why you posted it

[Stefancos 9639]

Are you gonna accuse me of postcount padding yet again?

[BloodBoal 7508]

Get a first look at A Series of Unfortunate Events season 2

[Jay 12139]

Season 2 trailer

 

 

 

Looks fun!

[Koray Savas 1466]

Has the music for this released in any shape or form yet? I’m curious to give it a listen. Love me some Chris P. Bacon. 

[Jay 12139]

Yea the score was nice in the show and I'd love to be able to listen to it outside of it; I haven't heard of anything being released, or leaking, unfortunately.

[Koray Savas 1466]

Jim Dooley is scoring Season 2.

[Jay 12139]

Huh.  I wonder what happened to JNH & Bacon & Co?

[Koray Savas 1466]

Well it’s a Sonnenfeld production so I assumed Bacon and the other composer were there just because of Howard. He probably wasn’t very interested to begin with so didn’t want to continue and thus they went away with him. Dooley worked with Sonnenfeld on Pushing Daisies so it makes sense. 

[Richard Penna 935]

Why assume that he wasn't interested? He's just had a new score out, and has that Nutcracker thing soon - might just be scheduling.

[Molly Weasley 53]

Dooley's definitely listed in the credits, at least for Vile Village. So far I've liked season 2's music better than 1. Anyone else watched yet? 

[Arpy 2579]

I was hoping one of the Baudelaire's themes would return from the first season, but I guess they're just throwing continuity out the window...

[Fancyarcher 314]

Watched the second season entirely yesterday. Really fun, captures the dark humorous tone of the books quite well. It was especially great to see The Carnivorous Carnival adapted.

 

As for the music, I quite liked what I heard, sounded dark and whimsical. I wouldn't mind listening to it on its own 

[Jay 12139]

Haven't started season 2 yet, but am looking forward to it.

Glad to hear the score is still good even if it's by different people now.

[Koray Savas 1466]

Dooley is a really underrated composer. Weren’t you a big fan of Pushing Daisies back in the day?

On 3/30/2018 at 7:12 AM, Richard Penna said:

Why assume that he wasn't interested? He's just had a new score out, and has that Nutcracker thing soon - might just be scheduling.

Your assumption is as valid as mine. I just figured that if he cared enough he would have scored all the episodes and that an album would have been produced. Just my speculation. 

[Richard Penna 935]

True, and it is slightly odd to have no music release.

 

Although I realised that the entire season 2 is on netflix (I've watched the first two episodes so far). I hadn't realised the whole lot went on at once, which means all of the scoring must've been completed recently. That makes it feels like a scheduling thing to me.

 

If he didn't do the main theme, and only scored a handful of episodes, I wonder why he bothered doing it in the first place, when Bacon could've done the whole thing? (He managed Bates Motel on his own)

[Jay 12139]

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

Dooley is a really underrated composer. Weren’t you a big fan of Pushing Daisies back in the day?

 

Yea it's a good show, watched it through twice; I don't recall one thing about its original score. 

[Richard Penna 935]

11 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Dooley is a really underrated composer.

 

I think in this case it's not really underrated - just unknown. I've never knowingly heard a note of his music, outside of anything he may have written on a Zimmer score.

[TSMefford 573]

So far...the score for Season 1 was far far superior. I connected to recurring themes and ideas pretty quickly, but here...nothing. The style is pretty much the same, but nothing is standing out really.

[TSMefford 573]

No one has shared this yet, so here we go: 

 

 

[Jay 12139]

That reminds me that I never watched season 2!

[Not Mr. Big 2431]

That reminds me why I've never watched season 2!

[TSMefford 573]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

That reminds me that I never watched season 2!

 

I think it's much better than Season 1. There's some REALLY good moments in Season 2.

 

I had issues with Season 1. I still liked it and enjoyed it, but I feel like the first three books were just far too short to work in two 45-minute episodes each. I will admit they made Reptile Room even better than the book I think. Plus, unlike a LOT of Snicket fans I absolutely adored the movie and found it difficult to not think about how much better I thought the movie did certain things during the first 6 episode, including the score. Thomas Newman's score for the film is wonderful.

 

Anyways, I think the show really started to find it's footing in the last 2 episodes of Season 1. Luckily, this means that Season 2 is basically very well-paced the whole time. In short, I recommend it!

[Jay 12139]

Yea I wanted to watch it, but my wife had given up mid-way through season 1, so I had to find solo free time to watch it, which is hard to find these days as I spent most of it working on HP this year

[TSMefford 573]

17 hours ago, Jay said:

Yea I wanted to watch it, but my wife had given up mid-way through season 1, so I had to find solo free time to watch it, which is hard to find these days as I spent most of it working on HP this year

 

That's unfortunate. I have a couple shows I have to do that with. Luckily I have far more free time than you. Lol. 

 

I only have time on the weekends to watch those kinds of things alone (My partner works weekends). So, I have had to essentially wait a week between catching up on shows though. It's nice though! It's like the days before binge watching.

[Richard Penna 935]

I just finished season 3 which was okay, but nothing particularly special.

 

The score totally blended into the background for me - I noticed it now and again, but there were no points at all where I thought I'd like to hear it standalone. I didn't even bother looking up who scored it.

 

The effects also seemed very ropey for such a major show - mostly the green screen. It''s possible it looked intentionally 'off' because the show is very strange.

[Jay 12139]

Bummer

[Arpy 2579]

I think season 3 definitely attempts to find a way to wrap up this crazy story, and is one of the more entertaining seasons of the three, however, I found myself kinda deflated by the ending and how it all wraps up. So much was building and building and new villains introduced and subplots that it felt like they were rushing to get the story done this season instead of devoting time to the later episodes which is where I think they really needed to flesh things out.

 

I'd say, overall it's a good watch, but I would've liked to have seen the tone a closer match to the books and the 2004 film which found a perfect balance between the dark humor and the seriousness of the Baudelaire's plight.

 

Don't skip it, but don't get your expectations up either.

[Richard Penna 935]

Oddly, given the 'unfortunate' tone of the show, I was rather surprised when

 

everything actually worked out pretty well. The orphans make it off the island to live their lives and Olaf is dead. All that emphasis that this is a story that doesn't end well, when it sort of does...

 

At least we find out what the sugar bowl storyline was about. Just a shame that as Arpy said, it feels like it's building and then gets rushed a bit.

[Alex 1276]

I’m watching this Season 3 now. The score sounds as if it was performed on synths, especially the brass. Does anyone know anything about the scoring sessions?

[Richard Penna 935]

It never really sounded like they'd got an orchestra in. Shame that there seems to be no interest in a score release. I noticed the music a few times in season 1 at least. Unfortunately I don't think I once noticed anything musically interesting in season 3 (ans for a soundtrack fan, that's bad).

 

I guess with this type of show and score it can come down to whether the composer cares about releasing it. I don't even know who composed the last season...

[KK 2251]

Most of it sounded like bland wallpaper in the show anyway.

 

I'll stick with the Newman instead.

[scallenger 173]

Yeah the music was the only thing that was really a step down for the show, apart from some weaker visuals in comparison to the film at times. I also think I liked the film versions of Monty and Josaphine, too. Otherwise, both Carey's and Harris's Olafs were great. I honestly think they tie in performance; and I think Carey could have carried his take just as well if he had been allowed to in future films. I LOVE how this show turned out, and yet I still really enjoy the film version.

[Arpy 2579]

I love the film, and this version I think conveys some of the whimsy of the books, but none of the dark severity that came with Silberling's version. 

 

I had hoped they would make a sequel to the film, but as it stands, it's a good standalone/self-contained story.

 

@scallenger I agree on the points of Josephine and Monty - there's a certain warmth that their characters have that was eschewed in favor of comedic antics. Aunt Josephine was almost a joke in the show!

[Richard Penna 935]

Looked up the music and both 2 and 3 were Jim Dooley. It definitely falls into the wallpaper category of scoring for me. It did its job, but almost never stood out.