The second season of Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events recently became available on the streaming service, and for a peek behind the scenes at the series’ original music, OMFGTV, caught up with composer Jim Dooley (TNT’s “The Last Ship”) and picked his brain about his process working on the show.
ASOUE — based on the best selling book series recounting the tragic tale of the Baudelaire orphans and their extraordinary encounters with the devious Count Olaf who will stop at nothing to get his hands on their inheritance — reunites Dooley with Executive Producer Barry Sonnenfeld. The pair previously worked together on the ABC cult-favorite Pushing Daisies.
Dooley hails the EP as his “fearless leader,” and says that since they’ve worked together before, they’re both comfortable enough with each other to the point where they don’t waste any time when it comes to bringing new input on the series’ score to the table. “We can cut to the chase on what is working and what is not,” Dooley tells us. “It’s a wonderful experience.”
Though stylistically both series are similar as they are both dark comedies, Dooley points out the main difference between the two. “At its heart, Pushing Daisies was a love story,” he says. “ASOUE is really about setting the world against the Baudelaires as they try to find identity.”
Of the new season of the Netflix original series, Jim Dooley shares that the score is a mix of mystery and caper with a good helping of hope, and adds that the nature of the book series keeps him on his toes. “Each book in the series allows us to reinvent all the themes to suit the new locations we get to explore,” Dooley says. “For example, in The Carnivorous Carnival, we could bring in a whole world of circus instruments to help define our new locale.”
Fans familiar with the series can definitely agree that the show is pretty dark, but occasionally, a burst of comedy will pop up. Trying to balance and jump between the two genres was not a challenge for the composer at all — in fact, he loves it! “Actually, that is what makes it the most fun,” he says. “This show is uniquely challenged by the oscillations between the dark and the comedic. It’s the center of how these awful events are told through the eyes of children.”
[adinserter block=”1″]
As for the devious Count Olaf, played by Emmy and Tony Award-winner Neil Patrick Harris, Dooley reveals that every disguise and character the Count plays presents him with an opportunity to try something new.
“Each iteration of Count Olaf features new themes or new instrumentation,” Dooley says. “For example, in the vile village, Count Olaf as the Detective will scat. This allowed me to give him a new color scheme to keep him in character as he cons his way through this world.”
Developing a new theme for each of Count Olaf’s iterations was very fun and exciting for Jim, and he had just as much fun creating music for the new characters introduced this season as well! “I had a wonderful time scoring Sara Rue as Madame Lulu,” he exclaims. “Her sense of comedy combined with a healthy amount of sass made for some great scoring moments. Also, Lucy Punch as Esme Squalor was a blast,” he continues. “I used a bit of the habanera theme from Carmen to highlight her momentum and allure. And of course any time you have Neil on screen it’s going to be amazing!”
The second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events is still fresh, with a release date of March 30, but Dooley is already looking ahead for what he hopes to come in Season 3. “I think we all hope that [the Baudelaires are] going to catch a break and find some solace in a world that has been at odds with them from the very beginning of our show.”
And finally, while he can’t give too much away about the current season, we had to ask — will anything actually good happen to the Baudelaires? Will they ever catch a break?
“Well, in season 2, it only gets worse,” he teases. “Way worse.”
A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix.
*Immerse yourself in Jim Dooley’s ASOUE score by listening to two of his tracks from the show below!
