Wednesday is a Netflix dark comedy created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. They also serve as executive producers along with Tim Burton, who directed the first four episodes of this first season. It reimagines the character of Wednesday Addams from the Charlie Addams sitcom The Addams Family.

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is brought to Nevermore Academy by her parents Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) after she is expelled for releasing piranhas on some of her brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez)’s bullies. When she arrives, she is welcomed by Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie), werewolf roommate Enid (Emma Myers), and normal home-run teacher Mrs. Thornhill (Christina Ricci). Wednesday is frustrated with her new school and plans to escape until she learns that there was a prophecy that she will defeat resurrected town founder Joseph Crackstone (William Houston), who led a massacre against the “outcasts” in the past. This makes her run afoul of the local Sheriff Donovan Galpin (Jamie McShane), who is investigating some gory murders. She becomes acquainted with the Sheriff’s son Tyler (Hunter Doohan) who is disliked by many students in the school including Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White). As Wednesday investigates, she makes allies, enemies, and a helping hand named Thing.

The problem with Wednesday is that they made her so politically correct. She was always a rebel, so hearing her spout these idiotic corporate-generated lines about being oppressed, the patriarchy, and even unironically using “mansplaining” in a sentence was a little annoying. I guess I should not be surprised since the show was created by the same guys who created “I Was A Teenage Superman,” uh, I mean Smallville. These annoying and pandering lines of dialogue and historical revisionism did not totally derail the show, but they did make your eyes roll in the back of your head. At least she got pushback in some scenes.

That being said, the story is actually pretty good. It was the type of story you expect from Tim Burton and while he was not totally involved, it definitely had his fingerprints in it. It had the perfect balance of weird, spooky, and just a little bit of cooky.

Now, the narrative did have some inconsistencies. Wednesday’s relationships with her fellow students were all over the place. In one episode, she was making acquaintances and in the next, they were angry at each other. It was a bit confusing at times.

As for the performance of Jenna Ortega, she did a good job as Wednesday Addams. She had the right amount of disregard, apathy, and determination on her part. The rest of the cast did a good job as well. No one really stood out, but I thought everyone was competent. I liked Zeta-Jones and Guzman as the Addams parents. They were convincing enough, I suppose. Fred Armisen was also enjoyable as Uncle Fester.

Personally, I thought the good outweighed the bad, but I do think that the pandering will hurt the show should they decide to do a second season. It is clearly another example of politically correct writers usurping an existing property and strip-mining it. Netflix is known for this, but Tim Burton is a good enough director to at least make sure the show had some plot that made the woke nonsense not stink so bad.

Check out the trailer below:

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Foul language, Disturbing scenes, Rude humor, Violence, Frightening images

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