Netflix's 3-Part 'The Umbrella Academy Meets Stranger Things' Series Is One Of Its Best Fantasy Shows

Aug 07, 2026 - 01:17

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Netflix's 3-Part 'The Umbrella Academy Meets Stranger Things' Series Is One Of Its Best Fantasy Shows

Published Aug 6, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

Every streaming service worth its salt has cornered a particular niche. Paramount+ and Prime Video are the homes of “dad TV,” with the former carrying the Taylor Sheridan universe and the latter carrying Reacher, Bosch, and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Apple TV has become the go-to streamer for smart, subversive, deeply thought-provoking science fiction, with fiercely original shows like Severance and Pluribus and For All Mankind.

Netflix, the undisputed leader of the streaming wars (unless YouTube counts) is sort of a jack of all trades, master of none. It has some great adult-oriented animated shows, like BoJack Horseman and Big Mouth and F is for Family, but it’s massively outgunned in that arena by Hulu’s legacy lineup of The Simpsons and Family Guy and American Dad! and Bob’s Burgers.

If Netflix does have one particular area of expertise, it’s fantasy. The shiniest jewel in the Netflix crown, Stranger Things, is often categorized as sci-fi or horror, but it was as much of a fantasy show — especially as it went on. Wednesday combined the macabre horrors of The Addams Family with the supernatural teen drama of The Vampire Diaries. Netflix’s Witcher show was met with a mixed response from long-time fans and casual viewers alike, but it still proved to be a huge hit with the Game of Thrones crowd. Netflix has a series based on the ambitious Sandman comic, live-action adaptations of One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the greatest video game show of all time: Arcane, set in the League of Legends universe.

One of Netflix’s best fantasy shows doesn’t get the love that it deserves. Across three seasons, A Series of Unfortunate Events managed to adapt every book in Lemony Snicket’s series, and it proved to be a much more satisfying adaptation than Jim Carrey’s 2004 movie.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events Is A Near-Perfect Adaptation

Count Olaf in front of flames in a laundromat in A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Although it only ran for three seasons, A Series of Unfortunate Events managed to cover all 13 books from the series. The first season, released in 2017, covered the first four books across eight episodes; the second season, released in 2018, covered books five through nine across 10 episodes; and the third and final season, released in 2019, covered the remaining four books across seven episodes.

A Series of Unfortunate Events tells one clear, complete story with a beginning, middle, and end, and that alone makes it one of Netflix’s best shows. There are so few Netflix shows that get to finish their story in an organic way; they either get cancelled much too soon, like Mindhunter, or get dragged out for way too long, like Stranger Things, so Netflix can milk every last penny the show is worth. But A Series of Unfortunate Events isn’t a single episode too short or too long; like the book series it’s based on, it’s practically perfect.

The 2004 movie was a lot of fun, but the Netflix series is a much more satisfying adaptation of the original books. Carrey was a great Count Olaf, but Neil Patrick Harris really put his own stamp on the character, and had a lot more time to play in that sandbox. The inclusion of Patrick Warburton as a fourth-wall-breaking Snicket allowed the TV show to carry over some of the novels’ signature wordplay, and the series format gave the story a lot more room to breathe in this incarnation.

A Series of Unfortunate Events has really sharp writing, really strong performances, it looks amazing, and it’s faithful to its iconic source material. It has the pitch-black humor of Pushing Daisies and the campiness of Adam West’s Batman. It’s a Netflix show with a satisfying ending, and there aren’t many of those.