Wednesday is a coming-of-age supernatural, and comedy-horror series which is all the rage on social media. It is a live-action series created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with Tim Burton as an executive producer, along with Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman, Kayla Alpert, and others. The series debuted on November 23.
Wednesday, unlike many of the previous Addams Family iterations, revolves around Wednesday Addams as she attempts to solve a murder mystery at her bizarre boarding school, Nevermore Academy. Throughout the show there is tension between her and her parents, Morticia and Gomez, who previously attended the school and met each other there. This review will contain spoilers.
Jenna Ortega, a Latine actress of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, who plays Wednesday, carries the series. She is known for her performances in live action series like Jane the Virgin, Richie Rich, and Stuck in the Middle, as well as her leading role in Scream, the fifth entry in the Scream film franchise. She also played protagonists in Elena of Avalor and Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, two animated series, and a recurring character in Big City Greens. This previous acting experience informs her role as Wednesday, who is part of a multiracial Latine family.
Wednesday is joined by her partner in crime, Thing, a disembodied hand sent by her parents to watch over her. Thing is sentient and serves as her best, and sometimes only, friend. Wednesday arrives at Nevermore after causing problems at other schools, including dumping bags of piranhas into a school swimming pool to get revenge on kids bullying her brother.
Like leads in other supernatural series, Wednesday has latent magical powers. Specifically she has psychic visions that take her into the past, seeing her ancestor, Goody Adams (also played by Ortega), as well as precognition, allowing her to see future events before they happen. This is akin to the powers of Bond, the dog in Spy x Family, who has visions of the future.
The school she attends is filled with other societal outcasts like Xavier Thorpe (played by Percy Hynes White), who can make his art come to life, a siren named Bianca Barclay (played by Joy Sunday), and a student named Eugene Otinger (played by Moosa Mostafa), who can control movements of bees. Wednesday’s roommate, Enid Sinclair (played by Emma Myers), is a werewolf, who has yet to “wolf out”. Vampires, witches, faceless monsters, gorgons, and others also attend the school.
Wednesday often clashes with those in authority, whether the Nevermore principal, Larissa Weems (played by Gwendoline Christie), Donovan Galpin (played by Jamie McShane), the sheriff of Jericho, the nearby small town, and her court-ordered therapist, Dr. Valerie Kinbott (played by Riki Lindhome). All the while, she tries to solve the series’ central mystery about a monster attacking students at the school, sometimes with help from others, and other times, by herself.
Ortega makes Wednesday into a character you can empathize with. This is even the case when she challenges established histories by pointing out the genocide of Indigenous people or how child slavery was used to make chocolate, while working at Pilgrim World. She remains committed toward sharing the reality of what is going on, rather than sugarcoating anything.
Along the way, she faces villains such as Joseph Crackstone (played by William Houston), the Pilgrim forefather of Jericho, who wants to kill every outcast, and a student named Rowan Laslow (portrayed by Calum Ross) who almost kills her with his telekinesis. She fights to defend herself by any means necessary, even through sword fights.
Wednesday’s gothic appearance is likely intended to express her own sensitivity, self-confidence, rebellious nature, and be a wall to protect herself. It also serves to make her distinguished and mysterious, more than any other character.
This is heightened by the difference from previous adaptations. For one, the series is more mature, with blood, gory violence, murder, and gruesomeness. Secondly, in the Addams Family movies in the 1990s and the two animated films in the 200s, Wednesday is a kid and while she does not have independence, she always ends up coming back to her family. In this series, she shies away from her family, fully embracing her independence and becoming a singular character before coming back to them later.
In the words of Ortega, the series is “Nancy Drew–esque”, with Ortega saying she was inspired by Christina Ricci’s performance in the Addams Family films of the 90s, and emphasizing that she didn’t want Wednesday “to be nasty”. She also described the performance, often on location in Romania, as very stressful, and noted Burton’s role in how Wednesday looked on screen, even suggesting changes to the braids Wednesday used, and the style of her bangs.
In Wednesday, there are many callbacks to the films and original television series, including finger snapping to open a secret vault and ringing a bell at the coffee shop in Jericho where Tyler works. Even so, it is different than those previous versions, as Wednesday is much more assertive, even more than when she left her family in The Addams Family 2 and believed a demented scientist was her father.
Apart from Morticia and Gomez, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, other characters make a brief appearance in Wednesday. This includes the younger brother of Wednesday, Pugsley (played by Isaac Ordonez), the Addams family butler, Lurch (played by George Burcea), and Uncle Fester (played by Fred Armisen), the uncle of Wednesday and brother of Gomez.
In a somewhat surprising twist, the school’s botany teacher, Marilyn Thornhill, who is revealed as a villain, after Wednesday suspects her, is played by Ricci, the Wednesday in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). It’s a nice Easter Egg, particularly in light of how Ricci’s performance inspired Ortega’s in the series.
But there are some missteps in the series. Apart from non-existent LGBTQ representation in Wednesday, despite some arguable same-sex romantic vibes and promotion, and undertones of negative representation towards Black people, the series tends to fall into the use of oft-known tropes, caricatures, and archetypes. At times, the series falls into formulaic mystery and teenage romance. An improved show would have expanded representation, perhaps even with Wednesday as asexual, bisexual, or lesbian, or allowing another protagonist to lean into more queer characterization. It’s simply unreasonable that, in this day and age, there wouldn’t be more LGBTQA+ representation at a school like Nevermore.
Despite this, Ortega’s performance gives the show its charm, especially with her deadpan humor. She pulls you in and hooks you until the end, enticing you into following her from abandoned houses to hidden libraries as she tries to figure out who the monster is, and why it is targeting specific people. Ultimately, without Ortega at the helm, the show would fall apart.
More specifically, while the other actors in the series are talented and skilled, their performances pale in comparison to Ortega. None of them measure up to her, not even Thing. As such, the other performers are underused, or even worse, miscast. This could have been remedied if the series had busted apart genres, rather than complying to them. Perhaps it could have been set in a college environment, rather than a boarding school which almost seems akin to Hogwarts in more ways than one.
The next season of the series has been hinted, but has not been confirmed. Apart from any possible LGBTQ storylines, it would be good to see more world-building outside the town of Jericho and into the wider world. Otherwise the show would feel like High Guardian Spice or Little Witch Academia, in that it would be set in a magical school. While neither series is bad, if Wednesday followed the same path, the show could become too stale and uninteresting.
Furthermore, the series would be weakened if it continues to emphasize heterosexual teenage romance, especially involving Wednesday or Enid with the various teen male characters that surround them. It’s already leaning heavily into a possible love triangle for Wednesday, something the show should lean away from as fast as it can. Such as focus could result in the show becoming like Twilight, and become an unfortunate detriment to the series as a whole.
Despite my criticisms, I tentatively recommend the series, mainly due to Ortega’s acting performance, the role of Thing, and the macabre and horror vibes from the show. I hope the show improves in the future.
Wednesday’s first season is currently streaming on Netflix.
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