Little did I know I would be stepping into a nightmare. Full of mystery, mayhem, and murder. I think I’m going to love it here
– Wednesday
Wednesday was one of those Netflix shows that I was aware of, but only in a distant, not remotely interested way. The very thought of a gothic Wednesday Adams show sounded like something that was decidedly not me.
This meant when it hit Netflix I shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Then the internet reacted. Then Netflix announced the watch hours.
I gave it a go and boy was it nothing like I expected.
What is Wednesday?
If trouble means standing up to lies, decades of discrimination, centuries of treating outcasts like second-class citizens or worse…
– Wednesday
It’s a new Admas Family show? But is it really? You see I had no interest in an Adams Family show that’s why I’d given the show zero thought and it snook up on me. I wasn’t interested in the original show. I am generally perplexed by the fascination with the subsequent films.
While I’m not an expert on the history and different incarnations of the Adams Family, Wednesday feels different. That’s because Wednesday is partly: –
- Related to the Adams Family
- An urban fantasy show
- A ‘magical high school’ show
- A mystery series
It’s hard to snappily describe Wednesday, it’s sort of a mix between The Adams Family, Harry Potter, Veronica Mars, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and a touch of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It sounds like a mixture that should be one horrendous mess, but it isn’t, they’ve merged it all together perfectly.
Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday
I know I’m stubborn, single-minded, and obsessive. But those are all traits of great writers… And serial killers.
– Wednesday
I want to be clear on something first. If Jenna Ortega was playing a similar character outside of a genre show she’d be up for awards. Fact. She puts in a performance that is completely and utterly enthralling and controlled. It’s a masterclass in subtlety and brevity. She has this whole style of approaching the character that involves never blinking and just doing slight shifts in her eye position that reveals more about her feelings than paragraphs of text.
Just imagine this neurodivergent, introverted, socially reserved performance was taking place stripped outside of the urban fantasy elements that will work against it when awards come up? Imagine it, just for a second. It is an exemplary and enthralling performance. The writing deserves credit as well, but Ortega is brilliant.
Miss Addams, you certainly have had a very interesting educational journey
– Head Mistress
Outside of the performance, Wednesday is a delightful pulp character. An engaging, enthralling pulp character. Yes, a pulp character. She literally has one of those pulp backgrounds where she has mysteriously done a lot of stuff despite being fifteen. She is a teenage Sherlock-level detective, who has studied hand-to-hand fighting with monks (and her elite assassin Uncle Fester?) and can fence.
This is why the character is clever. Despite these pulp skills. Despite always having the best lines. Despite being a figure of goth, sartorial elegance. She is always engaging, and endearing and you connect with her. Wednesday has all the tick boxes that risk her falling into the ‘Mary Sue’ trap that many a female protagonist of style, wit and brilliance risks getting put into these days (often incorrectly, but still), but the performance and writing avoids it.
It works because all the elements are character elements, rather than just doing them because they are awesome.
The writing is spot on
Anytime I grow nauseous at the sight of a rainbow or hear a pop song that makes my ears bleed, I’ll think of you.
– Wednesday (on friendship)
The writing is sharp. Deadly sharp. While many won’t like this comparison it’s very much like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer in that regard, but the nature of the insight, wit and cut of the blade has moved considerably with the times.
I also thought it was really clever how they used Thing, the animated hand. Not the most interesting of characters, but they use it in a very clever way on Wednesday. Thing is essentially Wednesday’s familiar which opens up options in the script for Wednesday to verbalise thoughts and ideas without needing another speaking character in the same scene. A very clever choice.
Use the words ‘little’ and ‘girl’ to address me again and I can’t guarantee your safety.
– Wednesday
The script also does a great job of balancing the need for Wednesday to move forward as a character without trashing her character in the process. They worked that fine line over having Wednesday realise she does need and have a use for friends without totally breaking down the walls of her isolationist and individual world view which was a very clever line to tread.
It looks gorgeous
You’re in black in white, like an Insta filter
– Gorgon
We often say TV shows are like films and it’s often true from the writing and acting talent that flocks to TV, but the truth is the money per minute available to TV shows is substantially less than a film.
Wednesday is gorgeous throughout.
The first thing they do is something really clever, the world is more colourful than Wednesday Adams. They don’t necessarily keep this going to the stark degree they do in the first couple of episodes, especially the first, but she literally walks around a more colourful show like, as one of the characters says, she has a real-world Instagram filter. This sets her apart, it makes her stand out, essentially giving her a ‘sort of super suit’ despite her costumes changing. She stands out against the world due to her more muted colours while not diminishing her presence in the slightest.
The production delivers Jericho, with its small-town, Buffy-esque Sunnydale streets, a spooky forest straight out of Hogwarts and a dynamic, urban fantasy high school that both echoes its age while offering a riot of colour when needed. The high school itself has a great contemporary adjacent quality doing the whole British boarding school vibe without falling into any of the genre traps.
Harry Potter? You’re too late
There are many flavors of outcasts here, but the four main cliques are Fangs, Furs, Stoners and Scales
– Enid
This is both contentious and not contentious at the same time. I realise that magical college stories did not start with the Harry Potter novels but you can’t ignore the elephant in the room and compare Wednesday to Harry Potter.
Wednesday is literally a magical college show, shaped more by urban fantasy roots rather than teenage wizards. It’s such a good magical college show they’ve literally driven a stake in the heart of any concept of a Hogwarts show.
If anyone had some vague idea of doing a Hogwarts show in the future they’re going to be partly looking at Wednesday and thinking hot damn.
You think that is where it’s going when you start watching it. She literally goes to a school for werewolves, sirens and vampires. Then you hit the second episode and they literally have a full-on ‘magical high school’ sports day with all the associated urban fantasy hijinks.
The high school dance episode is also…everything.
And, Finally…
I don’t believe in mandatory volunteer work, sugar-coated history, or happy endings. But most of all… I don’t believe in coincidences.
– Wednesday
Wednesday exemplifies what I find Netflix does well. They release so much, often with limited advertising, that occasionally something comes along that surprises you. Wednesday surprised me. It’s a lot different than I expected. It’s substantially better than I ever thought it would be. It’s now one of the series I am most looking forward to future seasons of.
Since it seems to be the second-place genre hit on Netflix behind Stranger Things we can be thankful it’s almost certainly going to get one.
If you have any doubts I recommend you watch Wednesday.