All you need to know about Netflix's 'Wednesday'
Netflix's supernatural teen comedy Wednesday was released today, also a Wednesday. The creepy Addams family first came into existence in New Yorker comics with Charles Addams. The on-screen debut took place in the 1964 TV series The Addams Family. This new series focuses on the teenage daughter Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) and also stars Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Why does this story matter?
The versions of the Addams family were different in the 1992 animated series and the 1998 live-action series. The new series does not follow the problem-of-the-week format. Instead, they follow a season-long supernatural mystery along the lines of Stranger Things or The Hardy Boys. Hence, this new take would attract newer viewers to the franchise. The perfect horror quotient makes it a family watch.
Plotline and Tim Burton's return to TV
The story is set at a time when Wednesday is expelled from her school and her parents Gomez and Morticia (Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, respectively) send her to Nevermore Academy where they fell in love. This is director Tim Burton's first TV work in four decades and he does justice in bringing the characters alive on screen.
More about Ortega's portrayal
Director Burton collaborates with Smallville producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and sets the correct visual tone for a teen dramedy. Ortega's portrayal manages to be strange, a portrait in unblinking intensity and also endearing. Her blank expressions at times are impeccable. In a nutshell, this series is darker than usual and the three H's—Horror, Humor, and Heart— are in the right place.
Highlight of the show
The highlight of this series is Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday's role in the '90s. Ricci plays the role of Ms. Hornbill, one of the teachers at Nevermore. She is adding the nostalgia quotient to the Burton-directed series. The present and the former Wednesday share a few scenes but there are meta references to the wider Addams family throughout.
