Tim Burton’s “Wednesday,” starring Jenna Ortega, has become a cultural phenomenon. With millions of fans recreating the titular character’s dance or dressing up like the characters, the show has garnered a massive fanbase in its short air time so far. Although I was hesitant about this new interpretation of the Addams family, “Wednesday” has exceeded all my expectations, with charming characters and an intriguing mystery at the heart of its story.
Based on the 1933 cartoons by Charles Addams, the show follows Wednesday Addams, who is now a teenager, as she is sent to a boarding school called Nevermore, the school that her parents, Gomez and Morticia, also attended. While navigating through her new school, she discovers that she possesses psychic powers inherited from her ancestors, which allow her to uncover a murder mystery involving her parents and the school.
Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday Addams is the highlight of the show. Her take on the character is new and feels refreshing, perfect for a modern-day interpretation. Along with this, She still calls back to the previous iterations of the character, most notably Christina Ricci’s iconic performance in the 1991 film, which is what most people associate with the character.
Ortega also portrays a character named Goody Addams, one of Wednesday’s ancestors who often appears in her visions. Although they are portrayed by the same actress, both Goody and Wednesday feel like different characters, which I particularly noticed whenever they interacted in a scene together. The fact that Ortega is able to play two characters at the same time and have them feel different from each other is a testament to her ability as an actress. Without her casting, I don’t think the show would have been as enjoyable.
Other notable performances include Emma Myers as Enid (Wednesday’s friend and roommate), Hunter Doohan as Tyler (Wednesday’s love interest), Joy Sinclair as Bianca (Wednesday’s rival), Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, and Luis Guzman as Gomez. Christina Ricci also returned to the Addams Family franchise as Marilyn Thornhill, a teacher at Nevermore who is keeping a dark secret, which is revealed towards the end of the first season.
The show also has a lot of coming-of-age tropes and corny teenage drama, such as Wednesday’s two potential love interests, Tyler and Xavier, who are played by Hunter Doohan and Percy Hynes White, respectively. Although I understand that, with a coming-of-age show the corny drama and romance are inevitable, I feel like it took me out of the main mystery and intrigue that the show builds up to, and at times, it feels a little jarring. One moment Wednesday could be just on the tail of a potential culprit, and the next she could be asking Tyler out to the dance.
Another aspect of the show that I felt could’ve been included more was the members of the Addams family. Even though the show primarily focuses on Wednesday, I would have appreciated if the other members of the Addams family had more appearances. Gomez, Morticia, and Pugsley only appear in two episodes, Uncle Fester and Lurch never appear again after a short cameo in one episode, and Grandmama Addams doesn’t make an appearance in the series at all. The only recurring character from the family is Thing, a disembodied hand. With the absence of these characters, it’s easy to forget that the show is based on the Addams Family. It was their close-knit relationship that brought a lot of charm to the original comics, and something I wish could have been explored more in this series.
As of January 2023, the show has been renewed for a second season, and I am excited to see how the story progresses. If you have not had the chance to watch “Wednesday” yet, I highly recommend that you do. Although the show is not perfect, and there are plenty of aspects that I wish could’ve been handled differently, it is an engaging and enjoyable show if you’re looking for something new to watch or want to put something on for background noise.
