The paper analyses metafictional aspects of the children’s book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket as adapted in a 2017 TV series. Focusing on the metaleptic narrator and the receiver’s role in the story’s interpretation, the analysis shows that the metafiction’s manifestation undergoes certain shifts due to the adaptation’s status as a secondary work and the underlying existence of the primary text, as well as the visual mode of storytelling predominant in film.