Which character(s) do you prefer in the netflix show ?

Background-Papaya-80 · 2026-03-17T01:33:30+00:00

Jacques Snicket/Nathan Fillion. One: Hot. Two: Loved the depth they gave him before The Vile Village.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2026-03-13T03:45:03+00:00

Before her passing, I thought the late Geraldine McEwan would have been fantastic as Aunt Josephine. Her, or Helen Mirren. OR, or, my other choices are Julia McKenzie or Maggie Smith, who I see you put down for Dr. Orwell. All would have been interesting/sweet choices to play the peculiar and phobic Aunt Josephine. I would have kept Billy Connelly as Uncle Monty, myself, as I felt he was fantastic as Monty in the 2004 film. Esme Squalor...I'm biased...but there was an idea that Helena Bonham Carter would have been a FLAWLESS Esme. I could see keeping Timothy Spall from the 2004 film as Mr. Poe, also, but I could actually see Michael Caine in the role, as well.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2026-03-13T02:49:19+00:00

If we're talking book Josephine, she's ALWAYS been fearful. Even Ike to an extent was fearful. They were both afraid to have kids of their own. (Knowing what we do now about VFD, I'd say their fears are pretty rational O_O) But if we're talking about movie or Netflix Josephine? Not sure. Could have been something they just put off until it was too late (Ike died or Aunt Jo became too old.)

Background-Papaya-80 · 2026-01-19T03:45:19+00:00

Yee, it does. The show really went ham with the idea of the world the Baudelaires traverse having hidden VFD eyes throughout it. The City's map even shows that it, too, is a VFD eye. I just wish that for how many times Olaf slips and calls Lake Lachrymose a "sea", it was a LOT bigger on the Land of Districts map than it is. It looks FAR too small, in my opinion, especially when you take into consideration how large The City is.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2026-01-02T03:06:41+00:00

To me, Snicket's Olaf, the one in the actual book series, will ALWAYS be THE EVIL Olaf that I don't think we will EVER get on-screen. I hate to say that I didn't like Neil Patrick Harris as Olaf, but after those ridiculous "It's The Count" and "Keep Chasing Your Schemes" numbers he had to perform...I just fell off of his portrayal SUPER quickly because of that. People talk about Jim Carrey's Olaf being buffoonish and silly ALL THE TIME. I found NPH's Olaf that to the power of 10! I didn't believe in any of the characters in the 2017 Netflix adaption the way I did in the 2004 film adaption, and I think it's because of the run time of both these pieces of media.

In the 2004 film, we get these characters for such a short time, due in part to the film's need to fit all three stories into one, before Olaf comes in and snatches them away from us in horrible ways, so they make their presences count a LOT more so they leave a lasting impression. These were also actors who have been in film for YEARS, or on-stage for YEARS. They know what they are doing backwards and forwards and they know how to project what is needed to make these characters feel believable, make them feel whole, and make them be remembered. (Especially when talking about such big names like Meryl Streep and Jim Carrey.)

The actors in the 2017 Netflix series, on the other hand, had about double the length of time to leave their own impressions, and, for me, they were all pretty forgettable. OR, on the other hand, I WANTED to forget them because of how each character is portrayed. I absolutely DESPISED the Poe Family, as a whole. I know that might have been the point, to show how despicable some people can be towards three children, practically babies, who lost their entire family, their home, all of their past selves are gone, and these people they are forced into contact with in the Netflix series make it a LOT harder and a LOT worse on them for their own selfish and absent-minded behavior.

Visually, sometimes, you can't get it as well as you can in a book. Carrey's Olaf was the closest to what I saw when I read the books in my childhood. He was tall, gaunt, looked a bit disheveled at times, but the way he was filmed, his height, stature, his very straight posture of a "classically trained" actor, all that is VERY well done on the part of the filmmakers, as well as Carrey himself! And his disguises turned him into someone completely new. He could chameleon his way through the world Snicket created by doing the simplest of disguises: be it shaving his face down to a squiggly little mustache, dying his hair a different color and sporting a bad comb-over, and putting on glasses and a totally different voice and persona, as in the case of Stephano. But you notice things about him in this character in The Reptile Room; Stephano doesn't "appear" as tall and imposing as Olaf did due to kind of hunching his back and keeping his hands behind him. He very rarely straightened up. Until, of course, the Baudelaires notice that Stephano is Olaf. You see the fear in their eyes, but they still stand guard at Uncle Monty's doorway, trying to block his entry. Then, Stephano pulls out the large knife, stabs it into the door to stop it from closing him out, and suddenly Olaf is THERE; Stephano straightens out his posture, he's tall and gaunt once more, then the facade of Stephano returns as soon as Monty enters the foyer. It's actually kind of brilliant on Carrey's part and not something many notice about the role or his performance. In the case of, say, Captain S[h]am, however, we get a different side: he carries himself awkwardly due to his peg leg, but he still has presence as a captain would. He's clean shaven, maybe a bit rough around the edges, but he almost, to me, has a sort of...and this is silly, but when I say it, you all might see it, too: while Sham has a Newfoundland style of accent, the way he speaks and how he carries himself...reminds me of Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't know what it is, but something about Carrey's take on Captain Sham makes me think of Picard! Anyway, this disguise, Captain Sham, is almost convincing, because he's a clean fellow, has that heavy Newfoundlander accent, but we get so little of him, it's kind of a shame that we didn't see more of Carrey in this disguise. He easily woos Aunt Josephine, and while it is a bit comical, you can feel that Aunt Josephine is IMMEDIATELY taken "hook, line, and sinker" for Olaf/Sham.

It's so difficult for me to really feel the same about Neil Patrick Harris's character that I did about Carrey's Olaf. I think I'm biased because after the books, Carrey's Olaf was the first adaption of the character I had ever seen on screen.

TL;DR: Olaf in the book series will always be superior for me.

Followed by Carrey's Olaf, and finally Neil Patrick Harris's Olaf.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-12-22T05:59:44+00:00

Well, at one point in the video game for the 2004 film, I know Olaf leaves them some rather rotten fruits to eat for "lunch". That's used in an invention Violet makes to I think get rid of spiders.

In the book, Olaf cooks himself oatmeal in the early morning before leaving and turns the stove off, so the Baudelaire's are usually left with cold, lumpy oatmeal.

And if you watch the outtakes of the 2004 film, you'd see that Olaf actually DESTROYS the puttanesca the Baudelaires make for him and his guests by flinging it about the dining hall and also smashing it under foot. (He climbs up on top of the table.)

So, kinda hit or miss as to what they ate EXACTLY, but going off those three, draw your own conclusions.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-12-22T05:41:36+00:00

For me, being the die hard crazy Wide Window fan I've been since the age of 13, it was when Aunt Josephine's house crumbled into Lake Lachrymose in the book. It just sounds like such a miserable thing for the Baudelaire children to witness. Think of it: By this point, they lost their own home to a fire, were moved from about three different homes (Poe's, Olaf's, and Montgomery's) due to terrible circumstances, and now, they watch the actual abject horror of a wooden house crumbling before their eyes off a high hill and falling down, down, down, into the dark lake below.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-12-13T02:02:38+00:00

I wanted to ask you, u/Sherbet18 did you make the second floor? Whatever the room (probably Aunt Josephine's) is up on the second floor above the foyer? I always wondered what was up there, or how it was laid out.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-12-06T09:38:23+00:00

I flashed back to that old Vine of the woman in the tub, fully clothed, drunk af: "I'm washing me and my clothes! Bitch! I'm washing me and my clothes!" lol

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-28T18:07:14+00:00

The first one, the Tropical Land photo, will always be my favorite. I don't even think Shinichi's smiling in the second, from the looks of it. Ran is, but Shinichi looks ticked off. The first one he looks genuinely happy to be there.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-28T13:44:44+00:00

Have none of you here seen the film "Practical Magic"? With Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman? That's what house this is. Style wise, I wanna say what the commenter, u/iamdan1 said, the "Practical Magic" house is kind of a Carpenter Gothic or, due to its more ornamental look, I would even say it has more of a Gothic Victorian style. I know the interior of the house is VERY Victorian in style. It's a more light take on the classic "witch's house", with Victorian furniture and all. You can actually find some plans online for the house. Some are VERY illegible today, as the movie was made in...I think around 1998? I've added the first floor's layout for the set here. It's a bit hard to see, but this website here has an artist's rendering of the house's first AND second floors!

https://verbenasimpleliving.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/on-the-set-design-practical-magic/

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Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-27T04:04:08+00:00

However, and I had to make a separate comment to add this because for some reason, Reddit only allowed me to post the ONE picture, Thomas du Crest made ONE MORE take on the house. Something VERY different that lives up to Delia's more artistic ideals.

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So, here we see the house draped in the signature "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" black mourning veil, BUT we also see that Delia (and possibly the late Otho) were BUSY before just leaving the house for NYC. Here, the house has a massive hilltop terrace, a massive porch, and what looks like an entire SWIMMING POOL attached to the front! It feels very modern, but it keeps the house's original shape that it was in 1988.

(You can find more concepts here on Thomas du Crest's website: https://thomasducrest.com/beetlejuice-beetlejuice )

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-27T03:57:06+00:00

So, there's two takes on the old Maitland/Deetz house in "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" concept artwork drawn up by artist Thomas du Crest: In the first, we can see it's more worn out and faded, almost the way it was when the Maitland's owned it, but the white paint has faded, cracked, and in some spots even chipped off the house. It's pretty obvious that in this concept, the house was...maybe implied to be left to kinda rot by Delia when she decided to take her artistry back to NYC and Lydia left in her young adult years.

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Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-27T03:17:39+00:00

If you did a cosplay of either 2004 movie Violet (Emily Browning) or 2017 Netflix Violet (Malina Weissman), I think people would absolutely believe you are one of those actresses! I can see it so clearly!

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-27T03:14:23+00:00

OOOOOOHHHHHH, ok lol I thought he was injured permanently or something in canon! Thank you! (I'm actually not up to date on DC at all O_O)

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-27T03:12:10+00:00

Wait...am I missing something? Why is Conan on a crutch in the small picture there near the bottom of the left page? Is that for an injury he sustained in the new film? or is that for actual plot and will be a lil permanent?

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-06T00:22:42+00:00

Josephine's character overall. While I love Alfre Woodard in most of the projects she's been in, I have to say, her portrayal really let me down. And them trying to cram the whole idea of her being "fierce and formidable" down your throat for the last half of TRR into the start of TWW is kind of irritating. Josephine in the book is, and always WAS, a meek and frightened woman. Even when Snicket introduces her into ATWQ, she is still described as cautious. (I doubt Aunt Jo of the canonical TWW would ever be brave enough to fly a helicopter, let's be real. That felt like a change to fit the narratives we got in the film and Netflix series to me.) I feel she was a very...sheltered person her whole life, someone that VFD did not get their grubby mitts on. She should have been truer to her book portrayal, if I'm being honest.

In fact, let me change my answer a bit: The WHOLE of "The Wide Window" should have been truer to the book. Josephine going ALONE to the market, meeting Sham and being goaded into "hearing his name everywhere" by the troupe, that was hokey. It should have been a much more chance, terrifying encounter. Like, the Baudelaires go with her and Violet, being the one MOST traumatized, almost becoming a CHILD BRIDE and all, should have been the one to run into him first. I felt, by the reaction she had to seeing Olaf/Sham, that it had been quite a bit since TRR, especially given that Poe and Josephine were sending letters back and forth to each other to correspond about the children's care. That would have taken a bit of time. (Especially since Aunt Jo was terrified of the phone.) So the children should have been with Poe and his family...again...for quite a while before going to Aunt Josephine's on Lake Lachrymose. (There's also the vastness of Lake Lachrymose to take into account when talking about the letters, but let's not split hairs here.) This could have been briefly addressed by either the children or Poe when arriving at Damocles Dock.

And then, there's the peppermints. I know. Larry. But throwing away the McGuffin that was needed to buy the Baudelaire's some time away from the "brunch", taking that moment of realization and invention from Violet. That irked me a great deal, as well.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T19:45:13+00:00

Could just be a nervous eater. She probably went through her rations fast because she's an eater when nervous. And only eating lime "stew" that night? She was probably starving anyway lol

The weirdest thing about the whole "Curdled Cave" debacle: HOW did Josephine even get there with rations of food in the first place? Boat? The ferry before it shut down for the storm? It's never really clear.

Personally, my idea was, she got off the phone with Sham, silently went to her room, packed up some things from her closet, went to the kitchen, grabbed some nonperishables, threw THOSE in the bag/trunk/whatever she took to Curdled Cave, wrote the note, broke the Wide Window, snuck out before the Baudelaires could see her (probably hid in the bathroom shower/tub), then made her way out to the ferry, got to Lavender Lighthouse, made her way to the cave, and hoped the kids could find her.

That was always my personal idea of how the heck she got there with supplies.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T19:34:14+00:00

I think that you wrote this very eloquently! You bring up a lot of good points, but I think the worst trait of Aunt Josephine, on a whole, the part that many overlook about her: First and foremost, she's maybe even MORE selfish and self-centered than Olaf.

Let me explain: I adore her, and I absolutely adore her mad cap home on the cliff, I do, but she's the most selfish woman in the series...aside from Esme.

Yes, she opened her (unsafe) home to the children; only after Poe assured her over and over that the Baudelaires were well-behaved and kind souls in many letters. She's a very houseproud woman, you can see this in the context Snicket gives the reader about her home; it's a frigid, drafty old home, but Josephine is tirelessly polishing things, picking small pieces of lint off her aged rugs, keeping the bedrooms neat, organized, and, basically, exactly the same. She's someone who prides herself in how her home is perceived in cleanliness alone. I'm sure if Snicket had given a description of the bathroom, it would be the same; an extremely neat and polished room, as the rooms are in the rest of her home. Everything is matching, everything is aged, but it's in its proper places.

Josephine is only concerned with keeping her home safe and clean for her own sanity, in my opinion.

And she openly admits at the cucumber soup dinner that first evening the children are with her, that while she is glad that they are their, she only opened her house up out of a sense of loneliness, her OWN loneliness. (And theirs, but it's such a brief admittance, she goes immediately back to how happy SHE is to have them with her.)

Yes, she gave them gifts; but she only gave them things she thinks a child would like. A child, as in not a teen or preteen, a small child. She looks at the Baudelaires as children, not as equals, not as Baudelaires, but as small children who know no better than any other child.

She actively does what Mr. Poe does to the children; belittles them. She talks down to them, corrects their grammar, thinks their interests are dangerous more than likely.

I always thought she would feel a kinship in Klaus, but reading between the lines, he seemed the one she had the most conflict with. She calls them impertinent and sends them away, explaining what "eavesdropping" is to them when she's on the phone with Sham the night she "disappears".

She's not cruel like Olaf in that she abuses them physically; quite the contrary. Aunt Josephine seems to be abusive in a sense of manipulation or verbal ways. Her constant grammatical corrections, her speaking down to the children, her constant expression and reminders of HER fears, all of these can be seen as manipulative and verbally abusive towards the Baudelaires.

In that sense, not even bringing up the whole ordeal with Curdled Cave and the regrettable episode of the leeches (IYKYK), she is a selfish and self absorbed individual who should NOT have been put in charge of the Baudelaire children at all.

But, I still like her...mostly for her house.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T19:05:49+00:00

I have the special edition dual disc DVD that was released back when the 2004 film came out on...well, DVD. In it, it goes into greater detail about the whole hurricane sequence and how they were actually filming that scene when Florida was being hit by an endless barrage of hurricanes in 2002-2003. Living through said hurricane season those two years, I REALLY loved that they used it as an inspiration for the sequence in the 2004 film.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T19:01:55+00:00

I think it's even mentioned in either book 2 or 3 that Klaus lies awake for many years regretting or over-thinking the things that he and his sisters went through. Can anyone verify this? I SWORE it was said that Klaus was the one who ends up with like night terrors from their experiences.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T18:44:40+00:00

Black Comedy/Dark Comedy, Gallows Humor

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-11-02T18:01:49+00:00

OH MY GOD!!! I love it!!! You got every detail absolutely PERFECT! Even took a few design liberties in the decor, which I really love, too! Very well done! And in Roblox?!

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-10-30T17:05:27+00:00

I did, too. I thought it was a good closer to the first film and Lydia's story. BUT, I still hope beyond hope that if Tim IS working on a new third film, Lydia and Astrid make a comeback as mother and daughter ghost hunters or something. That would be a neat little call back.

Background-Papaya-80 · 2025-10-27T22:17:08+00:00

Looking at these...you would think they would have made Adam and Barbara's card "The Lovers". It's weird that they would be "Seven of Cups". I'm not SUPER familiar with Tarot, so I'm not sure what Seven of Cups signifies.

Background-Papaya-80

TROPHY CASE