We Need to Appreciate the Best Part About Netflix’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’

People of all ages, even those who never read the book series (or, like yours truly, quit halfway through the third one), are happily binging Netflix’ Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Part of what sets the show apart from other kid-friendly entertainment is that A Series of Unfortunate Events is dark. Not funny-dark or camp-dark (though it is those things too), but it is actually dark. Violet is nearly forced to marry an old man. Klaus is struck across the face so hard he falls to the ground. People die. Like, a lot of people die. The events are truly unfortunate.

But in this grisly world, there shines a tiny little beacon of hope named, appropriately, Sunny. Sunny Baudelaire, who exists mostly as a bargaining chip Olaf uses to force the other Baudelaires to do his bidding, is a ray of light on a stormy night, a much-needed charmer in a world gone cold. And even when the show uses an unfortunate amount of CGI to impose a different facial expression on her (though at least they didn’t use an older kid like the movie version), she’s stinkin’ cute. Look at that face!

Part of what makes Sunny so great is that she, unlike other Precocious Kid characters, isn’t written as an adult in a kid’s body (cough, her siblings, cough). Klaus and Violet are charming and clever, of course, but we barely see them express their emotions. They’re certainly not like any kids I’ve ever met, and I was a kid for…some years. Nor does Sunny act like a real baby; she’s more akin to a Disney princess’s friendly-but-unhelpful animal sidekick. She doesn’t talk in any language most people can understand, yet she gets all the best lines, observing everything and speaking the truth. She just gets it, you know?

While Klaus and Violet are distracted by some nonsense, Sunny is staring straight at the spyglass like, “You fools! It is the key to the mystery in which we are currently entangled! If only you would give it to me, I would use my tiny baby hands to work the contraption and uncover the clues that will lead us to safety!”

Sunny’s the sweetest. No wonder the Incredibly Deadly Viper takes an immediate shine to her.

FYI: Sunny is played by teeny actress Presley Smith. Presley, you’re a star, and I love you.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is available for streaming on Netflix now. Go check it out!

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