Wednesday Addams (a terrific Jenna Ortega) doesn’t have a comfortable place in the world. She is not interested in having it either. During the first minutes of the series that bears her name, the character makes it clear that she would prefer solitude. At least, in the midst of a normal world in which her exquisite and gloomy figure stands out and intimidates.
The new series of Netflix, which makes Wednesday Addams the center of a tailor-made story, moves quickly. In its first ten minutes, it provides just enough context for the main figure in it. It is also clear that Jenna Ortega, considered the current queen of the horror genre, found a role for her. Wednesday is much more than a version for the new millennium of the classic comic book and movie character. It is actually a curious mix between the macabre and the heroic. Much more, as it ties into the idea that this angry and brilliant teenager wants to create her own view of the world.
In fact, much of the first episode of Wednesday It is a journey through the perspective of reality of its central character. Wednesday, who considers the murder “small errors of justice,” is a rarity even in his unique family. Her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) tries to understand her, to no avail. Her father, Gomez (Luis Guzmán), offers loving support. But Wednesday does not need comfort, much less understanding. “I need space,” she makes clear. Which means allowing this pale, silent girl to build her own version of good and evil. And to the series build a scenario for an atypical character.
With its unique gothic atmosphere and elegant staging, it is Tim Burton’s long-awaited return to production. His influence is notorious, which also gives the Netflix series his unique personality. Not only in the way the narrative relies on the visual section to support a denser premise, but also in the particular use of the visual section. Wednesday Addams has a world to suit him, a careful, enigmatic and well-crafted reconstruction of the way he interprets reality. At the same time, the production is brimming with a mocking sense of humor, with rooms divided between colorful spaces and gloomy chiaroscuro. Even Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday bears the Burton imprintwith his stern face and large deep eyes filled with a rare malevolence.
Wednesday
As a production, Wednesday is more interested in going through the life of his character from various points of view. A way to create a unique space where she doesn’t need her family to be interesting. Little by little, Wednesday Addams ceases to be a substantial variation of an iconic character to reach her own place. So much so that her season finale-of an unusual capacity for fun-is one of her highest points. This girl, allergic to color but with a gorgeous eye for quirk, she doesn’t want to be a hero, but she is even by sheer instinct. She also does not want anything other than loneliness. But, in a new world to discover, she may end up changing her mind very soon. Perhaps the most intuitive and brilliant look at a character so popular because of her rarity that the series can offer her.
Wednesday, that weird girl who only wears black
It is not something simple. Wednesday It comes at a time when stories of weird girls in search of a goal and understanding themselves abound. But, in the case of a member of the Addams family, the premise must also compete with the unique legacy of the character. So Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s script makes the right choice: to explore Wednesday outside of the family core. It is no longer a nuance of all the eccentricity of the Addams as a whole, but a reflection on a unique character.
The plot plays with the idea of marginalization, but on a much more inventive level than its seemingly simple premise promises. Not only does it make it immediately clear that this teenager with a killer instinct and a talent for writing is a multi-layered intellectual and moral figure. also that she is destined to be an antiheroine.
Perhaps the most obvious of Wednesday it is the fact of using the already iconic character to engage in a dialogue about the unusual. The character, who begins his multiscreen tour at the Nancy Reagan school (quite a declaration of intent), is quite an ironic symbol. Sullen, dressed in her usual black attire, rebels against optimism with methodical ease. The character does not need or expect to be accepted. She wants — needs — to be rejected. Which turns her relationship with those around her into a little battle of increasingly interesting witty dialogues.
Wednesday is aware of her intelligence, of the long space that separates her from any other person. The series emphasizes this in her first big scene, in which she throws piranhas into a pool full of jocks who beat up her brother. Wednesday, who considers “emotion a weakness”, outlines one of the few smiles that she will show on the program, while the water bubbles and screams of fear are heard. “You have to prove the point of the strange,” the character reasons aloud.
The haunting schoolgirl Wednesday Addams
Of course, Wednesday’s particular take on revenge carries consequences. Expelled from Nancy Reagan High School, she ends up being confined to Nevermore, her mother’s old school. A venerable institution that educates all kinds of creatures, including, of course, a Wednesday accused of murder. Perhaps one of the lowest points of the series is trying to find a space for the character to express all of her unique personality.
Nevermore bears a more than obvious resemblance to many other out-of-the-ordinary institutes for children and adolescents. From classic Hogwarts to Alfea from the saga winx, going through the School of Good and Evil. The perception of a place where very young monsters can learn about their uniqueness outside the outside world becomes repetitive. In WednesdayIt is even boring, with its spacious rooms, duels between students and the usual hierarchy of school corridors. Wednesday Addams, a strange personality that has already been analyzed in everyday strata, does not need the new high school to shine.
But, without a doubt, it is the way in which the series tries to establish an exclusive space for the character, even outside the realm of his family. Unlike Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 and 1993 version, this time Wednesday wants to be alone. Cold, aloof, multi-talented, and also a very young version of a gifted detective, the character transcends the obvious. The argument decides to build an intellectual and emotional setting that allows Ortega to delve into the role and move away from any comparison. The actress not only achieves it, but Wednesday Addams is, perhaps, the most curious look at a character who tends to the stereotype of the last decade.
A new story for an unmistakable character
Of course, the audacity to rewrite Wednesday Addams involves some changes. The family is no longer the center of the character’s life, nor is their relationship between them. So much so that Morticia and Gomez are characters on the periphery.
Of course, the splendid presence of Catherine Zeta Jones gives the head of the family exquisite dignity. But Luis Guzman’s Gomez seems lackluster and out of place. The couple is far from the brilliant chemistry and complicity shared by Raúl Julia and Anjelica Huston. However, both have a particular tenderness. Especially, this new Morticia is much more a witch than a domestic figurewhich gives you a fresh look at your personality.
In fact, several of the most interesting points in the series have to do with the almost inevitable presence of Morticia. Both in the first episode, and in the small details that are glimpsed in her old school. It is evident that the character also gained a new importance, which has a direct impact on different elements around her. Especially in her relationship with Wednesday.
The teenager looks at her mother from a distance, sulking and enraged. As if they were different points of the same idea, both one and the other try to understand each other without success. The item is perhaps one of the most significant in the series. After all, the love bond between the Addamses, for all its weirdness, was always one of the essential features of their story.
But the Wednesday of the new generation is a set of small contradictions and Jenna Ortega takes the character through a deep dimension of her particularity. It’s not just about the black clothes, her newfound psychic ability, or her prodigious intelligence. Wednesday keeps her distance even from her classmates, but she is much denser and brighter than might be assumed. The script avoids the stereotype —curiously built for and by the character— and turns Wednesday in a novel look at a certain kind of intellectual power.
Wednesday, from brilliant teenager to heroine
As production, Wednesday she is more interested in traversing her character’s life from various points of view. Which is a way to create a unique space where she doesn’t need her family to be of interest. Something that grows as the series progresses and the sinister teenager demonstrates her abilities — intellectual and supernatural — to the fullest extent of her.
Little by little, Wednesday Addams ceases to be a substantial variation of an iconic character to reach its own place. So much so that for his season finale — of an unusual capacity for fun — it is one of his highest points. This girl who is allergic to color but with a gorgeous eye for the quirky, she doesn’t want to be a hero, but she is one out of sheer instinct. She also does not want anything other than loneliness. Although, in a new world to discover, she may end up changing her mind very soon. Perhaps the most intuitive and brilliant look at a character so popular because of her rarity that the series can offer her.