16 huge changes Netflix's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' TV show made from the book

Warning: This post includes spoilers for "A Series of Unfortunate Events" on Netflix.

• Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is adapted from the book series of the same name.
• Some of the show's changes are minor.
• But other changes deviate from the book entirely. 

Like all screen adaptations, Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" takes some liberties with the book series.

Fortunately, though, the series is partially written by Daniel Handler, the author of the books. So they're all at least a part of the original author's vision.

Many of the changes make sense to grow the universe of the series, keep the plot moving, fill out more character detail, or make the show easier to understand. In many cases, they're a great opportunity to revisit what's so special about the books in the first place.

Here are 16 major changes between the books and Netflix's version of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

SEE ALSO: Here's what the cast of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' looks like in real life

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Lemony Snicket's character is way more involved.

Lemony Snicket is the series's narrator and pen name for Daniel Handler. He's also a minor character in the books and a member of V.F.D.

And while he's a prominent authorial voice in the books, his character is way more important on the Netflix series. He steps in onscreen every few scenes to explain to the audience what's happening, and to fill in more details and context the Baudelaires might not yet know.

His prominence onscreen raises questions that were largely unaddressed in Handler's books. Overall, he seems to exist some time after everything happened with the Baudelaires and retracing their steps. On the second season, his brother, Jacques, becomes a character. 

Lemony finally interacts with the orphans on the third season after his sister, Kit Snicket, takes the children to the Hotel Denouement. He later meets Beatrice Baudelaire the second, his sister's daughter, and she starts to recount the story of how the Baudelaires got off the island on "The End." 

You won't read about the spyglass in the books.

The weird metal V.F.D.-monogrammed spyglass Klaus picks up is a totally new invention on the television show.

On the first season, the spyglass helps decode messages written in Sebald Code, a secret code developed by V.F.D. members to communicate with each other. But in the "Reptile Room" books, the characters just decode messages manually.

On the second season, the spyglass reveals more purposes. It connects with a similar one owned by Duncan and Isadora Quagmore in "The Austere Academy" episodes, suggesting their fates are connected with the Baudelaire orphans. It also helps the Baudelaire orphans escape from an elevator shaft in "The Ersatz Elevator" by creating heat, which Violet fashions into a hot air balloon-like contraption. In the books, they just climb up.

The spyglass returns on the third season.

The inventor of Sebald Code, Gustav Sebald, is mentioned only in passing in the novels.

On the show, though, he's a fully-fledged character.

Gustav is mentioned as Montgomery Montgomery's herpetological assistant in "The Reptile Room," who Count Olaf drowned in The Swarthy Swamp so he could be replaced by Olaf himself, under the guise of "Stephano" (on the show, Gustav drowns in a "reflecting pond.")

He is also a filmmaker, directing "Zombies in the Snow," which the children, Uncle Monty, and Count Olaf watch in "The Reptile Room." In addition, he invented Sebald Code.

On the TV show, he and Jacqueline, another character who isn't in the books, are both V.F.D. members who try to help out the Baudelaire orphans without bringing attention to themselves. 

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