The first season of A Series of Unfortunate Events so far was actually really good. Part 1 of A Bad Beginning was decent although not without it's problems, but Part 2 of A Bad Beginning and the later episodes including The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, and The Miserable Mill is where it got better. Part 1 of Miserable Mill was pretty good despite some problems mostly Mr. Poe being very annoying. Part 2, however, is not only an improvement and is one of the best episodes of Season 1, but sets up Season 2 in solid fashion.
My only gripe with Part 2 is that Mr. Poe is once again annoying and K. Todd Freeman is terribly miscasted.
Everything else is done great. The story has more momentum and becomes advanced later on with an even greater balance of dark and quirky, the pacing is brisk and doesn't have a dull moment, the writing did have some exposition that was too much for my tastes, but it's still good and the direction from Bo Welch (known for working on movie productions like Men in Black, and Edward Scissorhands) is really neat. The acting, aside from K. Todd Freeman, is still great and the child actors once again get better. Patrick Warburton once again does some nice deadpan narration, Catherine O'Hara, Rhys Darby and Don Johnson all do great support especially Orwell who gets some more screentime this time around while Neil Patrick Harris continues to steal the show as Count Olaf with the right amount of charisma and menacing fun. The production design is still impressive with solid details on the Mill while the music score is very good (also very fond of the show's theme opening).
Overall, Part 2 is great and and improvement over the first part.