There’s no reprieve from misfortune and sorrow for the Baudelaire orphans when this adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events returns for season 2.

Covering books 5 (The Austere Academy) through 9 (The Carnivorous Carnival) of Lemony Snicket's beloved series, this season aims to be more ambitious and complex than the first.

"Tonally, we have more action, and things are little darker and sadder," executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld tells EW.

"Now that we're in season 2 -- and I think the same is true with the books -- now the Baudelaires can start to take some control and try and take more action," says Neil Patrick Harris, who returns as Count Olaf, the villainous man who is after the Baudelaires' fortune. "I think season 2 ends up being a little bigger in its scope and scale, but also allows for a little bit of a more fevered heartbeat from our protagonists."

Picking up immediately where season 1 left off, the second season premiere finds Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes), and Sunny (Presley Smith) at the miserable Prufrock Preparatory School, which is where Mr. Poe deposits them until a suitable guardian can be found. There, they meet their unbearable new classmate Carmelita Spats (Kitana Turnbull), whom you can see in this image.

Click through the next slides for a sneak at "The Ersatz Elevator" and "The Hostile Hospital" episodes.