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Wednesday centres around the daughter from the Addams Family, played here, by Jenna Ortega, and as she walks into school in a pre-credits scene, she deals with bullies who tie-up Pugsley in a manner that has to be seen to be believed (and which I won’t spoil), albeit one she describes with her steel-eyed expression, as it “feels like electroshock therapy but without the satisfying afterburn”.
This leads to her getting expelled, and she’s off to Nevermore Academy – a place of cliques built for the ‘freaks and monsters’ (including vampires, werewolves, sirens known as ‘scales’ aka fish), and once attended by her mother, Morticia – played here superbly by Catherine Zeta Jones, and even 10-15 minutes in, I’m thinking – stuff the 1990s movies, THIS is how it should’ve been, with Wednesday’s no-nonsense style!
Before long, her parents say how they fell in love, causing Wednesday to admit “That makes me nauseous… but not in a good way”. Plus, when she meets roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), Enid states of our titular heroine, she’s “in black and white, the perfect Instagram filter”. Plus, wen told to get on Tiktok etc, Wednesday replies, “I find social media to be aa soul-sucking void of meaningless information”. Well, TRUTH!
In fact, already, this show is proving to be brilliantly witty throughout, and that continues!
So far, I’ve only seen the first of the eight episodes, and there’s so much attention to detail on the Addams Family schtick. With the perfect black eyes (not dark brown, but actually black) to go with her dark character, her goal is to escape Nevermore, even though her parents have forbidden this, and all relatives have been altered, so what will her plan be?
And along the way, Wednesday plays a cello version of the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, like a virtuoso; as well as having strange flash-forward visions showing when people are going to die, also getting them when she bumps into people, which reminds me the 2007 drama, Empathy, sadly just a one-off, since its star, Stephen Moyer, was quickly snapped up for True Blood, which was a mega success.
Let’s hope the same for Wednesday, and your eyes are not deceiving you: If it looks very Tim Burton-esque, that will be because he directed some of the episodes, as well as being involved in the series’ creation. Plus, in a link back to the 1990s movies, their heroine was played by Christina Ricci, who’s in this series as Marilyn Thornhill, their “dorm mom”, who’ll help them through any problems they have. Well, maybe not ALL of their problems, given how Wednesday is a bit on the odd side.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Wednesday is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from… Wednesday, November 22nd.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 40-60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: November 22nd 2022
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Tim Burton, James Marshall, Gandja Monteiro
Producer: Carmen Pepelea
Characters: Charles Addams
Creators: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Writers: Miles Millar, Kayla Alpert, April Blair, Matt Lambert
Music: Chris Bacon, Danny Elfman
Cast:
Wednesday Addams: Jenna Ortega
Principal Larissa Weems: Gwendoline Christie
Dr. Valerie Kinbott: Riki Lindhome
Sheriff Donovan Galpin: Jamie McShane
Tyler Galpin: Hunter Doohan
Xavier Thorpe: Percy Hynes White
Enid Sinclair: Emma Myers
Bianca Barclay: Joy Sunday
Ajax Petropolus: Georgie Farmer
Yoko Tanaka: Naomi J Ogawa
Marilyn Thornhill: Christina Ricci
Divina: Johnna Dias-Watson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.