Being a part of the Netflix #StreamTeam has been awesome. Netflix has become a huge part of our family’s entertainment. Allison and I have found a number of Netflix originals that we enjoy together including Travelers. This show is about a group of time travellers who have returned to the past to prevent a major disaster. What they find is cause and effect aren’t so cut and dry and may things don’t go the way that they expected. For the kids we have been watching Trollhunters, Voltron and Project Mc2. The kids gave Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events a try but didn’t care for it. I watched the first episode so far and it was pretty entertaining. The subject matter is a bit bleak but it puts things into a more humorous perspective. I don’t think that my kids are quite there yet for the subtle humor around such a dark premise.

However, some kids are getting to that point where their shows are dealing with more adult subject matter. Kids are starting to gravitate towards more grown up stories. With a show like A Series of Unfortunate Events the kids can still be kids and deal with difficulties instead of seeing something that they just aren’t old enough to be exposed to. We’re still enjoying mostly cartoons but moving towards those that have larger more grown up stories.

We recently finished Trollhunters which dealt with responsibility, death, betrayal and friendship. It is truly a family show but can still tell a grown up story set in this fantasy world. It was wonderfully done and we ate up the first season with gusto. When we got to the final episode my daughter experienced the loss felt from loving a character only to see it perish. There were real tears at that moment, and not just hers and Andrew’s. I got choked up, too. In real life, people die, no matter how much we love them.

we’re now watching the second season of Voltron and the paladins are growing and changing while the threats from Zarkon are becoming more real and terrible. We don’t know what the rest of the season will bring but I have a feeling that nothing will be the same once we get to episode 13.

With Eva we are had a very special experience together. We shared a love for the show Girl Meets World which ran for 3 seasons, two of which are on Netflix. We watched the series finale today and were both in tears. There were so many different episodes with important themes in this show. While it was almost always kept to a light tone there were more grown up topics that came up in the series. It gave us an opportunity to talk about things that will come up in life. It gave us something to bond over and a mutual starting point for conversations. Good TV can do that.

So, we may get back to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and see if they enjoy it a little more as they get older. But for now, I appreciate that they aren’t growing up too, too fast to still enjoy a good cartoon with maybe a little bit of grown up stories mixed in. Here are some of Count Olaf’s (from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events) picks for you and your family to watch this month. His comments are below each one.

“Witness the greatest act-OR of all time, obviously.”

“I thought those Baudelaires were pesky twerps, but they don’t hold a candle to Degrassi: Next Class.”

“How treacherous must the alien world be to want to leave Earth. I must visit.”

“A jungle where everyone fends for themselves or dies. Sounds like a great place for the kids to visit.”

“Any show where cats are eaten must be a good thing.”

“The Galra Empire is almost as dreadful as I am… almost.”

Have you made your Netflix resolutions yet? Better do it quickly before the year is over. I suspect that you’ll be able to keep these ones. Download the Netflix Resolutions Pad.