Wednesday (2022) Review: Deadpan Rules Nevermore

Is Wednesday worth watching?

Yes. Wednesday is a sharp, stylish gothic comedy-mystery, and Jenna Ortega’s unblinking performance as Wednesday Addams is reason enough to watch. The Netflix series gives a famous character a teen-detective makeover and mostly gets away with it, thanks to its deadpan wit and handsome production design. The reservation is that the mysteries themselves follow familiar young-adult patterns, and the love triangles and school politics are far less distinctive than the girl at their centre.

What is Wednesday about?

After an incident at her latest school goes too far, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is sent by her parents to Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts such as werewolves, sirens and psychics, which they once attended themselves. Wednesday wants nothing to do with the place and plans to leave as soon as possible. Then a string of monstrous killings near the school, and some unsettling psychic visions of her own, give her a mystery she cannot resist.

Her roommate is the relentlessly cheerful werewolf Enid (Emma Myers), and the rest of the student body is a mix of rivals and reluctant allies, with Joy Sunday as a queen-bee siren. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán play Morticia and Gomez; Gwendoline Christie and, from the second season, Steve Buscemi play members of the Nevermore staff.

Wednesday was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar for Netflix, with Tim Burton directing several episodes and serving as executive producer. It is an American series in English. This review covers the two seasons released so far, 16 episodes in total; the show is continuing.

Jenna Ortega makes the character new

The Addams Family has been adapted many times, and the smartest thing about this version is that it builds everything around Wednesday herself. Ortega plays her with almost no visible blinking, a clipped monotone and a gaze that makes classmates visibly uncomfortable. Her line readings turn even throwaway insults into jokes, and she gives a potentially one-note character small, well-judged moments of feeling that land precisely because they are rare.

Emma Myers is her ideal opposite. Enid is bright, emotional and dressed in every colour Wednesday rejects, and their prickly friendship is the show’s warmest and funniest relationship. The first season’s viral dance scene is a good example of the series at its best: completely in character, strange and oddly joyous.

Burton’s gothic in a teen-drama frame

Visually, the show is a treat. Nevermore is all stone arches, candlelight and stained glass, and the production design leans into gothic excess with real affection. Burton’s influence is clear in the macabre humour and the storybook shape of the town, and the monster sequences have enough bite to give the mystery some menace. Thing, the family’s disembodied hand, is a small triumph of effects and physical comedy.

Where it feels less original is in its structure. Beneath the black clothes, Wednesday is often a conventional teen mystery, with suspicious suitors, red herrings, secret societies and school events that exist to stage confrontations. The second season widens the canvas and brings in more of the Addams family, but also more subplots, and the balance between weekly whodunit and bigger mythology can feel strained.

Who should watch Wednesday?

It suits teenagers and adults who like gothic comedy, supernatural school stories and a heroine with a sharp tongue. Addams Family fans will enjoy the nods to earlier versions, though no knowledge of them is needed. It is rated for older teens in most territories: expect monster attacks, some gore and dark themes, but little that goes beyond mid-level horror. Two seasons of roughly hour-long episodes make it a comfortable binge.

If Wednesday works for you:

• Widow’s Bay for a newer comic horror series that mixes laughs with creeping dread.
• Poker Face for another mystery show built around a singular, very funny investigator.
• More deadpan sleuthing in our mystery section.

The verdict

Wednesday succeeds because of its star: Jenna Ortega’s precise, funny performance turns a well-worn character into something fresh, and the gothic production design is a pleasure. The mysteries are more ordinary than the heroine solving them, but the show is stylish, entertaining and easy to recommend.

Rating: 4/5