In the outlandish premiere trailer for Netflix's new series Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, brother and sister Violet (Malina Weissman) and Klaus Baudelaire (Louis Hynes) happily ride a tram along an idyllic, lilac-filled street, making it appear as if their lives are picture perfect. But as Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton) soon informs us, pretty much everything that happens to Violet, Klaus and their baby brother Sunny (Presley Smith) is actually "rife with misfortune and despair."
First, they are cruelly informed by Mr. Arthur Poe (K. Todd Freeman) that their parents have "perished a horrible fire." Next, they are sent to stay with the wretched Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris), who immediately makes them complete a near-impossible list of chores. Lastly, they discover that their new "guardian" seeks to murder them in order to inherit their parents' fortune. Faced with one unfortunate event after the other, Violet and Klaus, along with the help of Uncle Monty (Aasif Mandvi), must fight back against their bad luck in order to escape the evil clutches of Count Olaf.
