Often in life, everything beautiful is right in front of us. And yet, we tend to ignore it. And when it comes to dating, it is often the same story — we chase the idea of a perfect romance so far into the distance that we forget to look at the person standing right beside us.

For Kevin, finding love is anything but simple. Between a date who feels straight out of a crime thriller, a mysterious man who disappears faster than he arrives, and one awkward encounter after another, his search for “the one” becomes a hilariously unfortunate adventure. But underneath every bizarre mishap is a hopeless romantic dressed as an online safety salamander, still believing that tomorrow might finally be his day.

Premiering at Tribeca, Kevin’s Series of Unfortunate Events finds comedy in chaos and sweetness in the strangest places. In conversation with director Rex and writer Asad, we explored everything from disastrous dates and modern love and why sometimes the thing we are searching for has been right there all along.

Itti: So, before we move forward, a huge congratulations that your film has made it to Tribeca this year. So just to, like, you know, open it up, how does that feel, basically? How do you guys feel about it?

Rex: Well, I'll start, and then obviously Asad will give you his take. I mean, you know, these things, first of all, getting selected at any festival is actually not that easy these days to begin with. But one of such prestige and world renown as Tribeca is, I mean, I'm still pinching myself to figure out whether this is actually really happening.

I'm actually in New York now. I flew out from London yesterday. And so, I'm here for the festival, and I'm about to go and pick up my credentials.

So I'm beginning to realize, well, yes, this is actually happening. The feeling is great. I mean, you know, one makes movies, or at least one should make movies, without any expectations because, first of all, it would be kind of arrogant to have expectations that everyone's going to love your movie anyway to begin with.

But also, this is such an unpredictable business, and you never know at what point something will catch fire or not. So we had no expectations at all, or at least I didn't going into this. When I got the first email and then the second email confirming the selection, I was speechless.

In fact, I called Asad immediately and screamed to him on the phone because I just couldn't believe what had just happened. And so, that was my take from all of this. Yeah.

Asad: I would echo the sentiment. I think, as Rex was saying, when you're writing a script, you don't think it will go anywhere. You're just thinking, "OK, I have this weird idea in my mind." Let me put it down on paper. Let's see if it becomes something that has shape. And then suddenly, it's filmed. And then even then, you're like, "OK, that's not going to go anywhere. Let's see what happens with that." And then suddenly you hear, "Oh, Tribeca is interested and are going to premiere it."

And I just, without swearing, I'm like, "What the hell is going on? What is this?" But yeah, it's an awesome feeling.

Itti: Moving on, you know, I watched the series, and I enjoyed it a lot. It explores modern dating, but with a hint of humor in it, which is really interesting and fun to watch. Every date Kevin was basically going on was, in a way, its own mini disaster and an unfortunate event, to say.

Yet, instead of laughing at him, it is more or less that we end up sympathizing with the character. That why is it that everything bad is just coming his way? So how did you keep those funny moments without making Kevin feel like he is basically the “butt of the joke?”

Asad: Yeah, I think there's two sides to that. One, I would say Jake, the actor, plays the role so perfectly that you, as an audience, can't help but feel that you want to sympathize with this character because he is so lovable, and Jake plays him so lovably.

And the second thing is all of those horrible, disastrous dates were based on my own experiences. So in a way, the show became, you know, it's terrible. In a way, the show was my own therapy. So I think the way I kind of wrote it was, I wanted people to see the humor in it, but also recognize why you might not have a date where you ended up locked in someone's house.

You probably had your own disastrous date. So you recognize elements of that in there. And so to me, that was kind of important, having that, as you said, element of empathy with the humor.

Rex: What I was going to add to that is, for me, the job is easier than for Asad.

I get handed these beautiful scripts, and then my job as a director, the way I see it, is not to get in the way of the wonderful writing that came to us. My task, the way I saw my task in this particular film, was to make sure we always kept it on the humorous side. Because, I mean, we've all read horrible, horrible news items of things that could go really, really wrong on dates.

And I never wanted there to be a point where people stopped smiling and laughing at what was happening because the line between the laughter and it becoming really serious is a fine one to find. And so, hopefully, I found the line where we could sort of go up, not beyond dangerous. And in this sense, it isn't funny.

It has to always be funny. It's funny, but not beyond the point. So that's what I tried to do, hopefully successfully. I guess only the plot can tell me whether that's successful or not. But that's what I tried to do.

Itti: There was this interesting element of Kevin being the support staff and him being the salamander for the online safety program, which they had. In common folklore, if we look at ancient texts and everything, keeping the nature of the salamander in mind, it basically symbolizes an individual's ability to survive through shame, misfortune, and mistakes.

And Kevin actually does survive a lot of them because, towards the end, we can say, in a way, he does get a fruitful ending. So, just to keep that in mind, was it intentional that, because of this very reason, you made him the online safety salamander and not maybe another amphibian or animal, for that matter?

Asad: That is wonderful. I did not know that it had that historical significance as an animal. I would like to say, yes, yes, I did my research, and that was the case. But it really wasn't. It was one of those cases where, so in schools, you have in the UK and America, you have companies that come in and do performances like, "Kids, stay away from drugs," etc., etc. And so there's an element of that.

But the idea of making him an online salamander, I have no idea where that actually came from. I probably had it in some dream, or maybe it was the universe telling me this kind of cultural tradition of the salamander. But I woke up one day, and I was like, "Online safety salamander. Yep. Those words make perfect sense. Let's just make him that.”

But in order to make me sound smart, let's pretend, yes, it was that reason.

Itti: No, it's good to know. I think everything happens for a reason. Just like Paul McCartney used to dream about songs in his dreams and used to wake up and make music.

Maybe that is what exactly happened with you when you were making him the online safety salamander and not any other animal, for that matter.

Asad: Also, thank you for comparing me to The Beatles. I will take that. And I'm going with, I listened to The Beatles last, and maybe they transferred me to a universe of salamanders.

Rex: I'll chip in with Eleanor Rigby, particularly how it's arranged with a string octet and no drum kit or anything like that. 

Itti: So, another thing is that Kevin, if we see his life in the film, it's restricted to him being just with his colleagues. And when he's there in the school, he's with his colleagues, and in the evenings, he's mostly going out on dates. And there's a lack of social life, in Kevin's life, right?

So is Kevin driven more by a desire for love, or like a psychological need to avoid that emotional loneliness at any cost, no matter what happens?

Rex: Well, I think that's one of the best questions we've ever received on this. Asad, I'm going to leave that one up to you.

Asad: It probably speaks to a very anti-social part of me. No, but I think you're very right there. Kevin, as a character, and whenever we see him later in the series as well, in other episodes, there is that kind of desire to be wanted, to be loved, and to have a partner who is part of his life.

So his main focus, even when he's at work, is still trying to find love, trying to find that partner. In fact, in one of the scenes he has in the school, he mentions Christopher. And in fact, in the series, we do see him with Christopher, and we see the effect that has on him. And I'm really glad you brought up the structure this well. And again, this relates back to the Beatles, and we very intentionally almost made it like a song. So the scenes at the school were like a verse, and then you built up to the dates, and they were the chorus.

And then you had the bridge, and you built up to the big crescendo at the end. So I'm really glad we built that. But yeah, Kevin is definitely built as someone, let's say, love over lust.

That's what he's driven by.

Rex: I agree. And again, you know, from my point of view, you always have to hold that balance. As Asad said, obviously, we see Kevin in other episodes of the series where you don't see him in his love-seeking capacity necessarily.

Asad mentioned Christopher; there are episodes with him where we see him interacting with Christopher, and we do see other elements of his social life. But to be honest, it's not that much. It's always geared, as you say, towards finding that love connection. Maybe it's lust, maybe it's love. Sometimes it's one, sometimes the other. Hopefully, it can be both at the same time.

But Kevin doesn't seem to be very lucky in that respect. So, yes, I think, again, as Asad said, we do see a little bit more of the glimpses of his life in other episodes. But the take that you gave, I think, is the correct one.

Itti: Coming along those lines as well, that even when Kevin is having one misfortune after another, there is still an optimism in him that he's not scared to go on a date with somebody he has not even seen a picture of. So was Kevin basically meant to be this extremely, I'll say, optimistic character, or did that trait come up as and when you started writing those dating situations around them?

Asad: I would say when I was initially writing it, I wrote him more naive than necessarily optimistic. It was Jake who just naturally has a very optimistic outlook, who brought that to the character when he was playing him. But I think seeing him as optimistic rather than naive was the right choice. It allowed you as the audience kind of sympathise with him and get more into his shoes. Because I don't know about you, but I have a problem with TV shows where the plot happens just by characters making mistakes.

But really, if this character isn't driven by mistakes, but is driven by this desire that the next thing will be better and the next thing will be better, then you, as an audience, want to go on this journey with him. And I think I think Jake playing him that way was definitely, definitely the right outlook.

Rex: Yeah, I mean, he has a Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind thing about him that, you know, tomorrow is another day. I mean, her whole city has burned down, her lover has left her, her best friend and sister have been killed, you know, and all that. And yet, tomorrow is another day.

But as Asad said, that was something that Jake brought, his inherent optimism, as I mean, I can't speak for him as a person. He certainly brought that to the character. And, you know, when he and I talked before we started shooting, as to, you know, how he saw the character, he said, "Look, I see the character as always seeing the light at the end of the tunnel." But the tunnel is very, very, very long. But you can still see. And he said, "I want to play him that way."

I said, "Go for it. But, you know, let's see, let's see, let's see how it looks." And I really had very little direction to give to him on that score because I thought he struck exactly the right tone.

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Itti: Right, and I guess what you intended to show with Kevin did come out beautifully on the screen as well. That's why I was able to maybe pick on that and ask you guys along those lines as well. So, Rex, this is for you. I want to ask this of you specifically. I said previously that it's a story which has humor in it, but it is also exploring the downfalls of modern dating.

There are a lot of misfortunes that are happening around Kevin, yet we do not laugh at them, at him; we feel for him. So how did your direction help to protect that vulnerability of the character while still embracing that absurdity around him?

Rex: Again, I think that's an excellent question. My main, well, I would say I had two main tasks when directing this, to answer your question. The first was given the script that I was given. First of all, not to ruin it with my direction, but more importantly, how do we bring out those exact elements of making sure that we're not, in other words, that Kevin is not a clown. So we're not laughing at him the way you would look at and laugh at a circus clown. And, you know, that involves certain technical aspects of how to shoot him.

You know, for example, the extreme close-ups that we get of him when, for example, the second date with the guy who'd been straight out of prison, you know, that allows us to focus really on the minutiae of his physicality, which I think works very well in a humorous sense, particularly, when he turns around and he glances and he sees the ball gag and the hung handcuffs. But importantly, the handcuffs are lined with pink fur.

So it's sort of, as I said earlier, you never want to feel like he's in too much danger because then that's not funny. And then you're making a different piece. You're not making what we're doing.

So as I said, the first thing was not to ruin the script with my direction. But the second one, which was the most important one, which is what you said, was, how do we keep Kevin on our side at all times? Because it'd be easy for the audience to look and to say, "Kevin, you're making the same mistake over and over again." Stop making those mistakes. And then you start losing sympathy for him. Then it's like you're deserving it because you're going on a date with someone whose picture you haven't even seen.

So, you know, why? Well, you haven't seen — you've seen a picture, but you haven't seen a picture of what you should be seeing a picture of. And so how do you get to that point with the audience not thinking, you know, you've already made so many mistakes. We're not on your side anymore. And, you know, as I said, there are technical ways of doing that in the camera angles that you choose, in the lenses that you decide to put in.

You know, you soften lenses when you want, you know, when you want to draw people in, things like that. So there's sort of the technical aspect. But then there is also obviously the creative acting aspect. And I could try and take credit for it. But that's probably mainly with Jake, where there is always this inherent sweetness about him. And I think the naivety that Asad talks about, I actually think it's still present there.

I think the eternal optimism that Jake brings to the character is married to that naivety that, you know, someone who doesn't send you pictures is probably not a famous footballer who doesn't want to be recognized. Right. It's probably a much more obvious answer, which is, of course, the answer that he gets because it's someone he already knows. And so it's essentially to keep the audience on side. That's sort of the main thing that I wanted to do there.

Itti: And I think that came as well, because not at a single point do we start feeling against Kevin, but we always and always feel for Kevin. Why is it that everything is happening to him back and forth? If I summarize the intent behind the series with what I understood, it's basically hints that there might be times when something right and beautiful is just right in front of our eyes and we just end up, you know, ignoring it.

So was that feeling something which was intentional from the very beginning, or was it something which emerged naturally as you guys were working on the series?

Asad: I mean, I can speak from a script point of view. It wasn't something that I was intentionally trying to do. I think what I was trying to intentionally do was kind of just find the human, everyday situations, and those kind of bits and pieces that have all happened to people that we know or to us.

But as you said, it just emerged naturally when we were exploring the themes of the wider series. That was kind of the thing that tied it all together. And while I always like to tell people I'm dead inside, I think there is still kind of some slight sweetness that exists in me. And I guess it comes out through my language rather than me as a human being.

Rex: Yeah, I'm not sure about your inherent sweetness, Asad, but leaving that aside, it's interesting Asad says that because, from my point of view, it was intentional. So when I got the script and I read it, I thought that was exactly the intent and that your question was bang on.

I saw that as actually even being probably more of the main theme, which is, you know, what you're looking for might literally be right in front of you. And it just escapes you because maybe it's just ordinary, and it's something that you're used to. And therefore, you don't realize actually how extraordinary it is because you see it all the time. And it's sort of the search, the search for something that you don't know what it is.

It might actually hinder the fact that what you have is already right in front of you. Of course, we give no guarantees that that date, the relationship with him and the other teacher, goes anywhere. That's, that's, that's, and I will let you know that even in the rest of the series, that is not explored. So you still don't know what happens on that score. Asad, have you mentioned actually how the series works? Have you?

Asad: No, we haven't yet. Yes. So the series, as Kevin said, Fortunate Events is one episode, but it's the title of the episode. The entire series is called Patterns. And the idea is it's a comedy anthology series. So every episode is its own self-contained story. So if you watch one episode, you get a complete story, but they all take place in the same universe. So a character that is a main character in one might be a recurring character in another. So, for example, we do see Kevin in two other episodes. And in only one of those episodes is he the lead.

In the other, he's in the background of someone else's story. And they're all slightly different kinds of stories as well. So, for example, the episode that follows this one is about two older women who decide they have to kill one of their old friends because she's annoying.

Completely different story, completely different scenario. But again, the thing that links it together is that kind of human aspect and the humor that lies within that human narrative. So what we've done is you don't necessarily know everything that happens between the characters when you see them in the next episode.

So the next time you see Kevin, quite a bit happens in his life before you see episode six or seven, I can't remember which one.

Rex: It's episode six. And you find out, for example, that he's left the job as a salamander. So, oh, yes. So he's now employed somewhere else. And that story isn't about him. It's about two other people who are employed in the same place. And it's simply the new place of employment. It's still a school. He's still out of school, but he becomes an assistant physical education teacher.

And he mentions that the salamander was bringing up too many memories. I should also add that we see Ryan Samson again, the guy who plays the geography teacher. We also see him again in a subsequent episode. But in that episode, Kevin doesn't even appear. So again, we sort of like leaving things up, maybe to be explored at a later time or maybe just left up to the audience to imagine, did it work out? Didn't it work out?

And so it sort of has it sort of has that anchor to it, if you like.

Itti: Moving forward, Kevin experiences one disaster after another. It's an established fact, you know, now there. But it's primarily his dating life that we see in this first episode. Right?

I feel that people do not have a lot of patience in general for anything. And when it comes to dating, people are even more restless, and they get turned off just after one bad text. It just takes one bad text for us to ghost someone, to be honest.

So why do you think he still keeps on believing in love even after so many bad experiences?

Asad: I think he's what most of us are, a hopeless romantic. He's seen those Hollywood films. He's seen that kind of dream thing. And there's a part of him that's like, "I want that for myself. It exists. Even though I'm going through all these hurdles, that love is out there for me."

So I think he's just got this vision of this perfect boyfriend for himself out there. And he will not stop until he finds this man.

Rex: Now, I agree. And by the way, I'm stupefied by how much of an optimist he is because, again, I agree with your question. These days, it's instant gratification. It's hence why, you know, platforms like TikTok are so successful because you get what you want in a 30-second soundbite. I mean, it's, it's, it's — what is the current generation? Is it Generation Z?

Asad: Gen Z slash Alpha. There is an Alpha now.

Rex: It's, it's, it's like I don't even know what Alpha means, but I'll continue. It's what you say, like everything is instant and has to happen now. And the sort of instinct to give up if it doesn't happen all the time is probably the dominant instinct.

That's what makes, I think, Kevin so special and so lovable, if you like.

Itti: I guess this is for all the hopeless romantics out there, that you should not give up on romance ever. Something is out there for all of us. We just need to have that tiniest bit of patience, I feel, to figure life out. So as I said the four different kinds of dates he basically went on, first with a potential serial killer, right? And the one with someone who ghosted him over dinner and then with the ex-school teacher he had, which he was not aware of.

So all of those scenarios are a little bizarre to say. And Asad, you mentioned that a lot of the inspiration behind Kevin is basically from your life. So was everything that is there that we are seeing about Kevin something you experienced as well? Were you as well in these scenarios?

Asad: I will say that they are heightened versions of what I have experienced. So I never went on a date with an ex-teacher. That never happened. And I didn't get ghosted at a restaurant. That didn't happen to me. And the other two, you can make up your mind from my response whether they did actually happen in the way that I described or not.

But yeah, in some form or another, things like that did happen to me. And I basically had the option of either crying about them or finding the humor in them. And I'm the generation that grew up on The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy.

So I find the humor in every kind of situation that we probably shouldn't. So I naturally just gravitated to the funniness of it all.

Itti: That is what basically, I feel, makes those four dating scenarios beautifully bizarre. That's the word, right? But there's beauty in it because, on one hand, you feel the bad for him, this is a misfortunate event. But then at the same time, you also see how pure Kevin's soul is.

Asad: Yes. Yes. And I think I think I think that's a really nice way of putting it as well. So thank you for putting it that way.

Itti: So, moving on to the final question. If you want just one thing for the audience to take away from Kevin's repeated misses or “misfortune events”, basically, what do you hope it says about how we pursue love today?

Asad: That's a good, good question. I think from my perspective, it's don't give up and sometimes don't think that the perfect kind of partner is like the overall vision that you have. I think everyone has a Hollywood aspect of what the partner is, but really, we're all humans.

So we all have our own faults. And you as a potential dating partner yourself might have a fault as well that you're not aware of. But it's just try, try, try and see what's out there. I hope that's what people take away from it from a love perspective. And I hope they find it funny. That's the other bit as well.

Rex: I mean, I second everything Asad says. I would just add maybe in your dating life, be a little bit more self-aware. If something looks too good to be true, it probably isn't true. And I use the last date as well. I mean, if someone isn't sending you the picture of their face, it's probably not a good reason for why they haven't done that. It's very unlikely that there is a good reason for that.

And, you know, as much as we all love and adore Kevin, part of me wants to sort of give him a shake and say, “Wake up, man.” But in the end, he finds what he’s looking for. So maybe everything he did was the correct thing that led him to find who he needed to find. But, yeah, the thing I would say to take away with is have your eyes at least a little open. Its okay to be carried away with the sentiment, but don’t let your brain abandon itself completely. Just, you know, use it at least a little bit.

Itti:  I agree with all of that about love and everything because you need to have a lot of patience in that arena because love is the only thing that we all need. Like that’s the universal language and that is also where we need to have a lot of patience as well. 

  Through awkward dates, unexpected twists, and plenty of beautifully bizarre moments, Kevin’s Series of Unfortunate Events proves that finding love is rarely perfect — but sometimes, the imperfect journey makes the best story.  

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What do you think about Kevin’s Series of Unfortunate Events? Let us know in the comments.