Netflix Original, Wednesday, Rises in Popularity

Heaven Woldai, Entertainment Writer

The new Netflix comedic horror series Wednesday is a reboot of The Addams Family and displays the main character Wednesday, daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams, solving a murder spree. She moves to a school named Nevermore, where her parents were alumni since they sent her to Nevermore, because they wanted her to have a community she could fit into and it was a school for “outcasts”. During her time at Nevermore, she befriends Enid Sinclair. Enid is an important character in Wednesday’s journey of becoming more expressive and social. Along with befriending Enid, Wednesday searches for a murder suspect and starts accusing her classmates. As she investigates for the murderer she unintentionally gains two love interests, Tyler Gaplin and Xavier Thorpe.

Jenna Ortega, famously known as a Disney Channel star in Stuck in the Middle, and various other famous shows and movies plays as the main character, Wednesday. Jenna Jenna Ortega fulfilled her role through her ability to display a non emotive character while still having audiences love her character. Her facial and body language were very similar in comparison to the original Wednesday Addams, Christiana Ricci, Ricci and Ortega played Wednesday with a blank stare showing her nonchalant character.

Though Wednesday is a great comedic horror show, it is lacking in the aspect of being similar to what Wednesday was based on, The Addams Family (1991). Wednesday’s character versus her character in The Addams Family (1991) is different in the sense of Wednesday now having psychic visions. Netflix’s Wednesday shows Wednesday creating her own novel, while in The Addams Family, there were no hints or implications of her being an author. The new Wednesday plays the cello, the original Wednesday does not. While this seems like a small difference, it is not. The cello is a major part of Netflix’s Wednesday and helps display the plot. The small differences slowly add up and help show a new version of Wednesday, one created by Tim Burton. These differences do not decrease the film’s enjoyment level but provides a new feeling to Wednesday Addams’ character and changes viewers’ perspective to The Addams family (1991).

The show has one season and has 8 episodes with 50 minutes each, a perfect length for this kind of story. A new season is predicted to come soon. Wednesday is rated TV-14 and it is an understandable rating. The series shows gore and blood, the series also has explicit words and a dark theme. Wednesday uses a lot of violence and implies many explicit subjects. This series should be fine for anyone over the age of 13 but it isn’t a family show. However, the series does show some light hearted scenes as well as humor to offset some of the creepy scenes.

Overall, Wednesday is an exceptional series but doesn’t fit the standards and same theme of the original, The Addams Family (1991).There are multiple unsettling scenes that can upset young ages but it is a great series for older audiences. The acting is excellent and so is all of the characters’ character development. Wednesday is highly recommended.