While it’s nearly as frustrating to review a half-season of mediocre television as it is to see it solely as a fan — especially if you were anticipating its return for the better part of three years — “Wednesday” Season 2, Part 1, at least makes it easy to investigate the lingering questions in its mundane murder-mystery without verging into spoilers.
Showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar continue to map a conventional teen drama onto the ostensibly unconventional Addams Family I.P. Their star, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), may be allergic to colors and obsessed with the macabre, but she’s handled like any other identifiable introvert who doubles as a reluctant hero. Behind her dark wardrobe and dour demeanor lies benevolence and bravery. She solves mysteries! She makes friends! She cares, despite insisting she doesn’t!
Good for you, kiddo. Keep wearing that goth getup as long as you want.
One can guess whether all of the above will happen again in Season 2, and Part 1 shows no signs of diverting from the formula that made “Wednesday’s” initial debut the most-watched Netflix series ever (not that those regularly adjusted metrics mean much of anything). That’s OK. Really. Normalizing the outcast is a staple of teen stories, helping angsty adolescents recognize and accept their own strange behavior by spotting it in their cool onscreen stand-in. If “Wednesday” helps the gloomy Guses out there feel seen, then I hope Netflix pumps out 10 seasons over the next 30 years, split into churn-preventing chunks, that I can then review 20 times (or more).
Still, a TV show inspired by Charles Addams’ rich cartoons, whose work has already been adapted with memorable verve by various screen artists (including TV creator David Levy and film director Barry Sonnenfeld) — not to mention a TV show directed by the legendary Tim Burton and afforded a streaming budget reserved for top-priority projects — should be able to overcome any nagging feelings of familiarity and thrive on its visual splendor, talented cast, and distinct sense of humor.
“Wednesday” does not. Each of these would-be assets are lacking, to one degree or another, in a season where Wednesday returns to Nevermore Academy a beloved (and famous) figure, struggles to deploy her psychic powers, and tries to protect her BFF Enid (Emma Meyers) from a raven-wielding killer (who may also be stalking Wednesday).
Burton directs Episodes 1 and 4, but aside from a black-and-white stop-motion sequence featuring his signature animated style — and the subsequent creature design that stands in stark contrast to the goofy CGI Hyde monster first seen in Season 1 — there’s little evidence that the maestro of gothic melancholy is inspired by this material.
His crafts team fairs better. Longtime costume designer and four-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood, alongside her Emmy-winning partner from Season 1, Mark Sutherland, continue to cut striking garments for the sprawling cast. New Nevermore principal, Barry Dort (a delightfully jaunty Steve Buscemi), arrives with an impeccable collection of purple suits, and the student uniforms have a little extra pop to match. Credit DP PJ Dillion for a bit of that flash, given the vivid color palette brightening up a show whose central characters prefer everything in black. Mark Scruton’s Emmy-winning production design gets a chance to flourish, as well, in episodic arcs involving a school-wide bonfire party, camping trip, and prank day extravaganza.
Still, their contributions don’t carry the necessary heft when the story they support is so ordinary, and the same can be said for a game cast. One focal point is the evolving relationship between mothers and daughters, meaning not only that Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Morticia Addams gets more to do, but her mother (and thus Wednesday’s grandmama), Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley), also joins the family fray. Far be it from me to complain about Zeta-Jones picking up a sword again (go watch “The Mask of Zorro,” young’uns and enjoy your formative experience in hotness), and Lumley remains as fabulous as ever, but there’s still not enough for either of them to chew on through four episodes, although there’s certainly more to come.
‘Wednesday’Courtesy of Jonathan Hession / Netflix
Fred Armisen livens things up in his brief return as the unhinged Uncle Fester, Billie Piper sings a lot as Nevermore’s new head of music, and Christopher Lloyd’s Professor Orloff manages to grab goofy laughs while still exerting teacherly menace — despite consisting of nothing more than a disembodied head confined in a giant glass jar. Amid the passing guest stars, Ortega remains the show’s only sustaining highlight, giving a performance that’s as precise as her character is pliable. After a season and a half (plus her other projects), it’s already clear Ortega’s star power could be better utilized elsewhere.
“Wednesday’s” dry, morbid humor is, at best, noticeable, but too often forgettable and sometimes actively lazy. When Wednesday spells out her name for a newcomer, she quips, “It’s Addams with two D’s — like ‘padded room.’” Her chosen example is aptly bleak, but it’s also incorrect. “Padded room” has three D’s, not two, which is something a smart student like Wednesday should catch.
While arguably inconsequential in the long run, the faux pas exemplifies “Wednesday’s” priorities: all looks and little else. The absent attention to detail beyond what’s stylish, combined with the neat-and-tidy aesthetic mandated for broadly appealing teen dramas, puts the focus back on what Season 2 is trying to say, which isn’t much.
There’s the aforementioned disagreements between mothers and daughters, but Wednesday and Morticia’s ongoing battle of wills is too vague and toothless to expect anything beyond an amicable resolution (by Addams Family standards, at least). There’s also a recurring acknowledgement that Ortega’s Wednesday’s relationship to fame is annoying and bad, but hey, it still has its perks, and she’ll use those to her advantage (just like Netflix will).
More substantive text could be found in Principal Dort’s amped-up support of outcasts (as a means to bolster fundraising). Maybe there’s a meaningful critique coming, focused on educational institutions’ self-serving support of LGBTQ causes and DEI initiatives — that are happy to fly the rainbow flag when it’s making the school money, but less inclined when it could cost them federal funding — but I’m not sure that’s where his arc is headed.
Also curious: Wednesday repeatedly insists that “people don’t change,” a claim that should butt up against her teenage perspective considering how much is constantly changing for her and her classmates. The cynicism suits her as well as her hand-tailored uniform (presumably with stitching by Thing), but it’s yet to be seen if it’s an earned perspective so much as a handy one. After all, what’s the easiest way to set up a surprise killer or last-second twist? Just insist, from start to finish, they aren’t going to happen.
Certainly, this kid will never change. Not Wednesday. She’s different.
Grade: C+
“Wednesday” Season 2, Part 1 premieres Wednesday, August 6 on Netflix. Part 2 premieres Wednesday, September 3.
