Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Wednesday, Netflix’s long-awaited series centering the titular character from The Addams Family, is not putting its best foot forward. This is a project that is right up Tim Burton’s alley, and the acclaimed director helms four of the eight episodes, but there is a distinct lack of imagination and style when it comes to Wednesday’s story. Jenna Ortega is wonderful in the title role, but she is often better than the underwhelming material she is given to work with and the other characters are sidelined in service of the rather hollow mystery at its center.
Wednesday Addams (Ortega) is content to terrorize the students of her high school for daring to mess with her brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez). After an incident that gets her into a lot of trouble, Wednesday’s parents — Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) — think it’s best she finally attends Nevermore, an academy for outcasts. Wednesday hates that she’s being sent to the very same school her parents, and especially her mother, once attended, intent on carving out her own space instead of living in Morticia’s shadow. Soon after arriving at Nevermore, however, Wednesday is thrust into a crime mystery: An unknown monster has been killing students and local “normie” townspeople, and she teams up with the Sheriff Galpin (Jamie McShane) to stop anyone else from getting hurt.
There is much to enjoy about Wednesday — namely, Jenna Ortega’s fabulous performance as the titular character. The actress masterfully pulls off Wednesday’s stand-offish persona and her delight at exacting revenge on cruel students. Ortega’s perfect casting is often the saving grace of the series, which doesn’t have the style, spunk, or creativity of the 1991 film. It adapts certain elements, idiosyncrasies that retain Wednesday’s connection to The Addams Family, but it falls more in line with series like Nancy Drew and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but without specific flourishes that set it apart from either. Wednesday becomes another mediocre, unmemorable series that can’t rise above the teen angst the writers saddle her with.
Aside from Ortega and Nevermore’s staff, including a delightful Gwendoline Christie as the school’s principal and Christina Ricci as a “normie” teacher, there aren’t very many standouts. The students of Nevermore are thinly drawn characters who barely have an effect on the series’ narrative. They interact with Ortega’s Wednesday on a regular basis, and yet they don’t make much of an impression. There’s even a love triangle thrown into the story (despite having so much going on already), but its inclusion is poorly handled. It’s hard to care about it when both of the boys who are interested in Wednesday — Xavier (Percy Hynes White) and Tyler (Hunter Doohan) — are lacking in character development.
Wednesday’s crime mystery can be intriguing at times, but it never fully lands. The decision to focus the story on the murder mystery takes away from exploring the characters and their relationships with Wednesday. The world-building is there, but there could have been so much more of it. What’s more, having Wednesday feel isolated from the very place where she shouldn’t be falls into the trend of maintaining the character as being “different” and “unique” compared to everyone else. It’s meant to distance Wednesday from her peers, to make her feel misunderstood and even misplaced. It’s a tired YA trope that isn’t necessary to distinguish the story’s main character.
While the series isn't a complete misfire and there is enough for audiences to enjoy, especially after the midway point when the story finally picks up its pace, Wednesday lacks creativity, finesse, and true excitement. Its reliance on certain tropes, and the focus on a mystery that fails to be fully immersive, leaves a large gap in its storytelling. Wednesday herself might be a standout, but her show is rather drab and fits too neatly into the box carved out by other YA series to be its own thing. Some fun and even chilling moments aside, Wednesday isn't as unique or as engaging as it aims to be, and it's a shame the story can’t escape its own confines, especially when Ortega’s performance is delightfully memorable and strong in a series that is not.
Wednesday premieres on Netflix Wednesday, November 23. The series consists of eight episodes and is rated TV-14.