Performances, Writing Elevate Netflix's 'Wednesday' to Binge-Worthy Status

by Tyler Glover

Photo: Netflix

Edward Scissorhands.
Beetlejuice.
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

All of these films are classics that millions of filmgoers love all around the world. They all blend comedy, horror and science fiction perfectly. They are also all directed by the acclaimed director Tim Burton. So, when it was announced that Netflix would be ordering an ‘Addams Family’ pilot with Burton as an executive producer and director, my hopes were incredibly high for it. This is definitely the kind of project right up Burton’s alley. The series called “Wednesday” does not disappoint.

The series follows Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), Morticia and Gomez’s daughter, who is expelled from her school for putting live piranhas in the pool for the boys’ swimming team after they were bullying her brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez). As a result, she is put in her parents’ alma mater, Nevermore Academy, a school for monstrous outcasts. While attending the school, she reluctantly befriends her roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). She is completely different from Wednesday. She is the Galinda to Wednesday’s Elphaba. Wednesday also starts falling for a fellow student, Tyler (Hunter Doohan). Because of her psychic abilities, she starts to investigate a string of murders. Gwendolyn Christie stars as Principal Weems and in one of the best casting decisions this year, Christina Ricci (who played Wednesday in “The Addams Family” films) plays a botany teacher.

The performances in this series are top-notch. Ortega plays Wednesday with all of the gloom and doom you would expect but also makes audiences fall completely in love with her. Christie as the Principal truly shines in a role that is a vast contrast from her previous television role in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” This show allows us to really see more of what Christie is made of and she delivers. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Morticia in a guest-starring role, makes you wish she was on the screen more. Her Morticia is 100 percent spot on. If Zeta-Jones does qualify for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmys, I would love to see her nominated and win that category.

This series also shines from fantastic writing. It truly is a binge-worthy show, and this is coming from someone who has only ever binge-watched two other Netflix shows (“Squid Game” and “Bridgerton”). Some shows can suffer from relying so much on a mystery that you do not get to fully care for the characters, but this is not the case here. The writing allows us to see all of the characters and their complexities. We grow to care for them and become very invested in them. This is definitely something that great storytelling and great television should do.

The show definitely satisfies viewers while also leaving us wanting more.

“Wednesday” is currently streaming on Netflix.