The master of creepy and horror is back and bigger than ever (at least for 50% of the time) in Tim Burton as he helps bring to life Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s new show Wednesday. There is a lot of secrecy and mystery enthralled in the show, so we will be assured to not spoil any of the plot twists and surprises that come throughout Wednesday. However we will briefly talk about what the show is about and why it is the perfect blend of the original Addams and a new twist that brings new elements of surprise and terror for its audience.
The show focuses on our titular character, Wednesday, played masterfully by Jenna Ortega as she is starting off a new chapter of her life at Nevermore Academy as she is trying to awkwardly fit in to her new surroundings. All while trying to get her grip on her emerging psychic abilities, prevent a tragedy happening to her family, and solve a few decades old mystery surrounding the Addams family themselves. While Wednesday certainly isn’t going through any of this on her own, there is a plethora of supporting characters that help or hinder her challenges in the form of Tyler played by Hunter Doohan, Xavier played by Percy Hynes White, Enid played by Emma Myers, Principal Larissa Weems played by Gwendoline Christie, and Marilyn Thornhill played by Christina Ricci. Wednesday has to manage to attend school, handle her new abilities, and stop a monster from wrecking havoc and keep her father, Gomez played by Luis Guzman, out of trouble as well. The other Addams are also present with Morticia played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Pugsley played by Isaac Ordonez, Thing played Victor Dorobantu, and Uncle Fester played by Fred Armisen.
The show truly is great, even if it has an underlying tone of a young adult CW show at times, just because of the way it is framed and written the show never stoops that level of cheesiness and disparity though. So to be abundantly clear, it is not a Riverdale esque Addams family show, it has that general overtone but it never fully throws itself fully into that YA/CW audience but truly masters itself by avoiding that overdone and cliched architype.
However, any show cannot survive on just fandom and some intriguing story telling on itself, the cast must be excellent as well and mesh with each other. With having a former Wednesday in the cast in the form of Christina Ricci, Jenna Ortega certainly had some shoes to fill and had to bring something new to the role to firstly suit the new stance on the character as well as making the character stand the test of time. Jenna Ortega delivers a masterful performance and is truly incredible as Wednesday Addams and may be the best rendition of the character to date. While the supporting cast, including Christina Ricci and Gwendoline Christie as well as Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White and Emma Myers are all incredible and provide an excellent well rounded cast to create an incredible ensemble for the brilliance and welcomed fresh take on the Addams in Wednesday.
