Avoid the First Teaser for Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events at All Costs

It’s been nearly two years since Netflix announced it was adapting Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events series, and we finally have our first look at it.

As grim and meta as the books are, the trailer stars Patrick Warburton, doing his pitch-perfect deadpan as the books’ fictional author Lemony Snicket, who urges viewers to not make the same mistake Netflix has and to avoid the show. Though we don’t see Neil Patrick Harris as the villain Count Olaf, we do hear him rejoicing that his fortune is about to change.

The logo on the side of the taxi says it’s in Lake Lachrymose, the setting of the third book The Wide Window. There’s also a clapperboard that lists the movie being filmed as “The Littlest Elf” and its director as Monty Kensicle (an anagram of Lemony Snicket). This is a reference to the fake book-within-the-book that Snicket urges readers to try instead because it’s a much happier story.

Daniel Handler, the series’ actual author, has scripted the Netflix adaptation, which covers the first four books. All eight episodes of the show will premiere on Friday, Jan. 13.

You can watch the teaser above.