Top Five Casting Decisions: Adult Guest Stars (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

One of the (very) many splendid things about the three seasons of melancholy awesomeness known as A Series of Unfortunate Events is its casting.  The main cast is all excellent – Count Olaf is such a tricky needle to thread, Patrick Warburton is so great as Lemony Snicket, and I adore all three of those kids.  But the casting is terrific all the way down the line.  Today, I want to celebrate my favorite performances among the guest stars, the characters who don’t appear in every “book” but who are no less vibrantly-painted for it (a few spoilers.)

Aasif Mandvi as Dr. Montgomery Montgomery

Man, Aasif Mandvi is so great as Uncle Monty.  As a guardian for the Baudelaires, he brings just the right balance of kooky and caring, while also demonstrating the flaws that will be his undoing.  He has limited screentime but makes a big impact; his little speech in “The Reptile Room” about not fearing every reptile (i.e. guardian) after one terrible experience (i.e. Count Olaf) is lovely.

Will Arnet & Cobie Smulders as Father & Mother

Okay, yes, this is a two-fer, and they also appear in the whole first season, making them feel like a bit more than guest stars, but a) this pair is most certainly a matched set and b) while they appear in a larger number of episodes, their role in each is very brief.  Watching season 1, I was uncertain where the show was going with these scenes of Mother and Father, but the more I see of them, the more awesome they get.  VFD members at their best, terrifically daring and full of esoteric references – although we never actually see these characters in action in the books, Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders are just everything they should be.  And that final reveal with them is just a gut punch.  Wow…

Max Greenfield as the Denouement Triplets

Even though I got it into my head years ago that Lee Pace would be perfect as the Denouements and so was bound to be a little disappointed at anyone else playing them, I can’t deny that Greenfield is pretty great.  He nails that ambiguity over which brother is which, appearing completely neutral even though we know that Frank is noble (along with the secret Dewey) and Ernest is wicked.

Tony Hale as Jerome Squalor

I never would have thought of Hale for Jerome, and in truth, he isn’t quite what I imagine for the character – you don’t see his conflict-avoidance featured so prominently.  However, Hale definitely captures the quality that most Baudelaire guardians share, which is probably the most evident with him:  he’s a decent, well-meaning person, but ultimately useless.  Throughout “The Ersatz Elevator,” it’s clear that he really cares about the children and wants to do right by them, but he consistently lets them down when they need him most.  More than any other, Jerome as a guardian can be summed up by these lines from Into the Woods:  “You’re so nice. / You’re not good, you’re not bad – / You’re just nice.”  That’s what Hale brings out.

Roger Bart as Vice Principal Nero – Bart is excellent in this role precisely because he’s so terrible:  dumb, vain, and above all, petty.  His habit of repeating people’s words in a high mocking voice always felt forced to me in the book, but Bart pulls it off.  His Nero is so base and punchable, and that’s exactly what the character ought to be.