Wednesday Review - Emaan's Perspective

The latest hit Netflix Series, “Wednesday,” starring Jenna Ortega as the well known character from “The Addams Family” movies, is quickly becoming one of the most streamed TV shows on Netflix. . . for some reason. The show immediately demonstrates it’s nothing like the original “The Addams Family” movies in terms of character with the relationship (and lack-there-of) between Wednesday and the rest of her family and the overall flatness throughout the series. One of the most important aspects of the Addams is the close, tight knit nature of their family despite what one would expect considering their serial killer-ness. Within 10 minutes of the first episode, we see Wednesday treating her younger brother like a baby who has to be looked after rather than a peer. From the comics to the animated movie released in 2019, Pugsley Addams has never been seen as so little compared to Wednesday. They’re meant to be having sword fights together, not locked in lockers for the other to handle the revenge aspect of the situation. I can’t see an argument of “creative interpretation” for this change in character when they make him more 2D than the animated version. Similarly, Wednesday doesn’t spare her father two glances in the entire series, easily writing him off as irrelevant. The worst aspect of the absence of propinquity between Wednesday and her family is the fact that Tim Burton gave her mommy issues? Wednesday is ubiquitously upset about her parents sending her off to some boarding school and “trying to turn [her] into a version of themselves,” but is that last thing true to the Addams family name. She is constantly seen as upset with her mother because she’s too controlling or she’s not accepting Wednesday for who she is, but where is this prevalent in the entire past storylines between the two? These inventive differences between the classics and modern day entertainment is less taking independence over a narrative, and more stripping a story of it’s core ideals and replacing them with whatever gives amusement value. This de-characterization of people doesn’t end with the Addams. Enter cliché mean girl and two love interests that are just the same guy in different fonts. . . (Team Xavier though). Wednesday asserts herself as “not like other girls” right off the bat and spends the majority of the series displaying no interest in dating anyone, meanwhile, both boys trail behind her like lost puppy dogs. All respect for boundaries disappear when either of these two appear on the screen, and how obviously forced the only kiss scene between Wednesday and the other guy is genuinely makes my eyes hurt. There’s no chemistry among any of the actors and this is obviously reflected through the dull personalities of everyone. Even Wednesday. All she does is glare and act like she’s better than everyone else. All in all, “Wednesday” is not the TV show it’s been all hyped up to be; it lacks personality and depth just like its characters, and like every mystery show nowadays, it is predictable and puts too much emphasis on the little details, making them the big details. 3/10 (2 points for the attractiveness of the cast to be honest).