I am going to start by saying that Wednesday is the best Netflix original of 2022! I knew that I would like this, but I was shocked at how amazing this turned out to be. It was the involvement of Tim Burton, who directed the first four episodes that got me really excited about this show.
How to Download Wednesday
You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review. If you like Wednesday as a character, check out also the animated films The Addams Family and The Addams Family 2.
The Movie Review
What I think is very clever about the show is that it is unlike any other Addams Family interpretation we have ever seen. Wednesday Addams is the star and after being expelled from her “normal” high school, she is sent to Nevermore Academy, the same place where her parents went to school.
Nevermore Academy is not a typical school and is a school for outcasts. Outcasts are people with powers, we are talking about werewolves, sirens, witches, and more. It is a fantastic setting and I found myself really interested in the lore of this school. Wednesday is not exactly thrilled to be going here, but as Principal Weems was friends with her mother, she does not really have a choice.
Wednesday has a hard time adjusting and is mad that she has to share a room with a werewolf called Enid who is way too perky, happy, and loud for her liking. Pretty soon, people in the town of Jericho start dying in very grisly ways. Jericho is a town that is not exactly thrilled to have the Nevermore Academy as part of it.
Before long, Wednesday gets caught up in this mystery and starts to try and piece together what the monster is, who it is, and what it wants. That right there is a great premise for a show, but Wednesday has far more than that going on. You see, Wednesday has ties to the town of Jericho that go way back!
Not only that but her mother and father also have a rather sinister and mysterious history with the school as well. The whole mystery aspect of Wednesday is done very well and when the big reveal came, I am not ashamed to say that part of it I did not see coming at all! From episode 1 to episode 8, I was entertained and when it ended, I got straight online to see if a second season was coming.
The performance of young Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams is amazing. I wondered if she could live up to Christina Ricci (who is also in this) and Jenna Ortega did not disappoint. She made the character her own and plays her perfectly. She is dark, moody, and driven and we get to see a lot of character growth for her during the show. Her relationship with Thing is awesome, actually, Thing, in general, is awesome in this show.
We do also get to see Morticia, Gomez, Pugsley, and Lurch as well. I think that Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia was great, but Luis Guzman as Gomez never clicked for me and was the only part of the show, I was not a huge fan of. Speaking of Morticia and Gomez, even though they are not in the show a great deal, Wednesday has a very interesting relationship with her parents that is developed very well in the show.
I truly cannot say enough good things about this show! I actually think this would crack my top three Netflix originals of all time list! It is the kind of show that you will want to binge-watch over a couple of sessions as each episode leads into the next with a fun and exciting cliffhanger.
