My Thoughts on "Wednesday" Season 1
Foreword:
This was originally written on December 28, 2022, and was posted on DeviantART on January 6, 2023. Now I’ve reposted my Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc review, I can now repost my Wednesday Season 1 review. A review that I had been meaning repost back in January of this year after I had reposted my review of Ruby Gloom, which you can go read by clicking here. I thought that I did, but apparently I didn’t.
So, I’m doing it now, and I couldn’t have picked a better since the long awaited sequel to Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came out earlier this month. It’s directed by Tim Burton and it stars Jenna Ortega in the lead role, and Tim Burton directed the first episode of Season 1 of Wednesday and Jenna Ortega stars in the eponymous role of Wednesday Addams. So, it fits.
Jenna Ortega it seems is just going to be in every remotely dark, horror centric, or gothic project all because she was Wednesday in Wednesday. She kind of tried to branch out by doing an erotic thriller called Miller’s Girl ♀︎ with Bilbo Baggins himself, Martin Freeman. But that didn’t exactly pan out since Miller’s Girl ♀︎ bombed at the box office 💣 and received mixed at best reviews from critics. I guess the world wasn’t ready for the return of the erotic thriller genre.
Something I learned a couple of days ago was that Monica Bellucci is actually married to Tim Burton. She’s his current wife after Helena Bonham Carter divorced him, or he divorced her, I’m not sure. That’s why Monica Bellucci is in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice besides being one of the hottest actresses alive 😍 who’s still hot 😍 even in her late 50s pushing 60. She’s 59 years old at the time of me writing this, same age as Kamala Harris believe it or not.
But anyway, the point is that she’s married to Tim Burton and that’s why he put her in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice because he likes putting his wives in his movies. He infamously did the same thing with Helena Bonham Carter, and now he’s doing it with Monica Bellucci. But, I don’t think you’ll any comments from any guys because a lot of guys ♂︎ think she’s one of the hottest women ♀︎ ever 😍.
Guys fell in love with her 😍 after they saw The Matrix Reloaded where she played the Merovingian’s wife, Persephone, and they got all excited when she was in Spectre as a Bond Girl ♀︎. A big deal was made at the time about her being the oldest on-screen Bond Girl ♀︎, but the reason why she got to be the oldest Bond Girl ♀︎ was because she still looked good in her 50s. Like, this woman ♀︎ aged like fine wine 🍷 as some would say. I don’t drink wine 🍷, finely aged or not, so I can’t say. But, I think she’s pretty hot too 😍.
I actually heard that Jean-Claude Van Damme was going to be Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, before anyone knew that was the official title for the Beetlejuice sequel and people just called it Beetlejuice 2. I mean, I still believe call it Beetlejuice 2 would’ve better than calling it Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but you get what I’m saying. I’m all for creative sequel titles and all, but that’s just incredibly stupid, a really terrible title 👎. It just sounds like you’re just saying the first movie’s title twice and not saying the second movie’s title.
People would probably that you’re just talking about the first one. I know some legacy sequels have the exact title as the original like Halloween 🎃 (2018) or Scream (2022) or The Thing (2011), which I know is a prequel but it still counts, but this is ridiculous. It’s like they accidentally typed the same word twice when they typing out the title for sequel, and just decided to stick with because hey, you have to say Betelgeuse’s name three times in order to summon him, just like Bloody Mary 🩸. So, it kind of works 🤷♂️. If there’s a third one, is it going to be called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? That’s just overkill 🤦♂️.
Anyway, I heard that from JoBlo Originals, and I was surprised at that. It was surprisingly to hear that Van Damme was going to star in a non-action movie project, but in some ways it does make sense. Van Damme is getting older and can’t do any of the cool martial arts moves that he used to do in his older action films when he was younger. So maybe he would take a less physically demanding role in a completely different genre than the one that made him a star ⭐️. But alas, he is no where to be seen. He’s not listed in the casting, he’s not in any of the trailers, and he hasn’t been mentioned in any of reviews that I’ve seen of this movie.
Unless he is in the movie, and he was just uncredited and kept a secret by the filmmakers and other cast members, and none of the reviewers who have reviewed this movie haven’t spoiled it. But, I think it’s more likely that he isn’t in the movie at all, and that claim made by JoBlo that he was going to be in it was a bullshit rumor, no more no less. So sorry Van Damme fans, the Muscles from Brussels 💪🇧🇪 isn’t in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
I can’t believe that JoBlo would post a video with such a blatant piece of misinformation and disinformation, but I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that they post a video an obviously bullshit rumor like this since their content has taken a nose dive in recent months. Their current videos are not as good as their older videos from just 5 months ago, and I no longer consider them a reliable source of film information. I mean, they haven’t posted a new installment of their best series by far (or at least their funniest series by far 🤣), Awfully Good Movies. If they posted a new episode of that series, I would forgive them for their otherwise bad recent output.
I haven’t seen Beetlejuice Beetlejuice because I have no interest in seeing it. I haven’t watched the first Beetlejuice movie, so why would I watch the sequel? I have no love or nostalgia, so I doubt that this movie would do anything for me since it seems, at from the trailers, like the movie heavily relies on nostalgia for that first film just like a lot of legacy sequels do. I mean, they wouldn’t have even made a Beetlejuice sequel in the 2020s at all if they didn’t think there wasn’t any nostalgia for it that they could cash in on 🤑. There’s still a lot of Gen Xers and older Millennials around who still love the original Beetlejuice 🥰 and would run out to see a sequel to it made 36 years later.
I don’t really know what the general consensus of this movie is, but I’m going to venture to guess it’s about the same as every other legacy sequel that’s been in the past 9 years. “It’s not as good as the original, it relies too heavily on nostalgia for the original, and the new characters and new elements are stupid and ruin the integrity of the original because of *insert reason here.*” It’s every bit as predictable as Hollywood still making sequels to movies from 30, 40, and even now 50 years ago. People always claim that they hate legacy sequels, and yet the loudest and most critical voices are always the first to run out and see them 🤦♂️.
I think part of them still desires that hit of nostalgia, they still want that nostalgic fix even if they continue they don’t like it. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been pretty successful so far, managing to gross $274.9 million 💵 thus far against its estimated $99 million to $100 million budget 💵. According to Wikipedia, it did receive positive reviews from critics. But, from fans and audiences? That’s a different story entirely, I don’t know what the fan and audience reaction to this movie was, but I’m going to venture to guess that it isn’t as positive as the critical reception.
I guess all it took for critics to like it was Michael Keaton reprising the eponymous role as Betelgeuse and saying the line, “The juice is loose.” Or would it be, “The geuse is loose?” Since Betelgeuse is pronounced “Beetlejuice.” Tim Burton made the title Beetlejuice because he knew people would know how to pronounce it. People wouldn’t know to pronounce Betelgeuse if he made that the title even though that’s the way the character’s name is actually spelled.
But enough about Beetlejuice, I didn’t even see it, what about Wednesday Season 1? Well, I decided to watch it after everyone around me was talking it about, namely my sisters. Usually, I tend to avoid trendy Netflix shows like I avoided Tiger King 🐅 like the plague when that was the big show that everyone was watching and talking about, and then I avoided Squid Game 🦑 back in 2021 because I had no interest in watching it. But, I made an exception with Wednesday because it was something that my sisters were talking about it, and it was something I was more familiar with. It’s a spin-off or reboot of a long running franchise, The Addams Family.
Truth be told I haven’t really seen anything from the Addams Family franchise. I haven’t watched the original 60s TV show, nor I have seen the two Barry Sonnenfeld Addams Family movies in the 90s. I haven’t even seen the two animated Addams Family movies that people are kind of mixed on. There were a few other Addams Family projects that have been made over the years like another sitcom called The New Addams Family, a TV movie called Addams Family Reunion, and an animated series simply called The Addams Family (1992). But, for the sake of brevity, I’ll only focus on the films.
People tend to not like the animated Addams Family movies, especially not the second one, The Addams Family 2 but they do say that Wednesday is the best part of those movies. Just like how people say she’s the best part of the Barry Sonnenfeld movies. So, I guess it was only a matter of time until they made a full series out of the most popular Addams Family character by far, Wednesday Addams.
I said this in the review itself, or something to the effect that Wednesday was basically the Wolverine of the Addams Family franchise because she’s the most popular in that franchise and she completely overshadows everyone, including her parents, Gomez and Morticia Addams. She’s the first thing people think of when they think of The Addams Family, not anyone else.
And it was really the Barry Sonnenfeld films that made her a truly popular character, it was because of Christina Ricci’s performance as Wednesday that Wednesday became the pop culture icon that she became. They wouldn’t have even considered making a Wednesday series if it weren’t for those two movies and if it weren’t for her specifically, which is probably why they gave her such a prominent role in this series. Why they made her the big twist villain for this season *spoilers ⚠️*.
Something I didn’t mention in the review was that Wednesday was developed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Before Wednesday, Alfred Gough was best known for developing the popular Superman TV series, Smallville. So, he was used to taking iconic characters and turning them into angsty teenagers. And of course, Tim Burton executively produced the show, and of course, he directed four episodes including the first episode.
It was a project that seemingly fit him perfectly because he’s known for making gothic movies. Not gothic horror, but rather, gothic comedies and dramas, which is what The Addams Family is. It is a gothic comedy franchise. It started out as a sitcom and then Barry Sonnenfeld made it into two comedy movies. The two animated films were also comedies since most animated films are comedies, or at the very least, dramedies. Every Pixar movie has to make people cry 😭 after all, otherwise they aren’t considered good for some reason. A Pixar movie isn’t considered good or great unless it’s a terkjerker 😭.
Wednesday was first installment or take on the franchise that isn’t a straight up comedy. It’s a murder mystery drama series. Which makes sense, if there’s one thing Netflix is known for its dramas. Another thing that this series did was explain why Gomez and Morticia named Wednesday, Wednesday. They named her after this nursery rhyme that they liked, or Morticia liked, I don’t remember, but it had a line in it that said, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” Okay, well that’s not a new piece of information since that was how the creator of The Addams Family, Charles Addams came up with the character’s name. It’s that the show decided to incorporate that into the lore, and make it a bigger part of Wednesday’s character. It’s also why every episode of the show has the word “woe” in it.
But the biggest takeaway from the series was definitely Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday Addams. She was the one people were talking about the most with this series. People loved her performance as that character and they loved that little dance she did in the prom episode. I know that dance wasn’t actually a prom, but it fit the prom trope, so for all intents and purposes, it was a prom episode.
People like the dance she did in that one episode so much that it went viral, both on YouTube and on TikTok. Mostly TikTok since that’s the website that’s currently within the zeitgeist, it’s the thing the culture focuses on when they talk about trends, and it’s the website where people project their hatred and fears about the Internet 🛜 onto. It’s also the places where dances specifically become viral since it largely rose to prominence because of dance videos and lip syncing videos. People lip syncing songs or TV or movie clips that they heard.
I don’t use TikTok, I know, shocker! A Gen Zer who doesn’t use TikTok? How could this be? Sorry, but I don’t use TikTok because it’s not a website that doesn’t at all appeal to me. I don’t really like short form content that’s only like a few seconds long. My attention span is a lot longer than that, and I want something meatier than just 5 or 10 seconds.
I also think it’s vapid and stupid, like nothing of true worth comes from TikTok. It’s for all vapid nonsense for vapid people with nothing better to do. At least on YouTube, you can learn a thing or two. There are actual videos that are of worth beyond just entertainment. Some of them can be educational, not actually educational. Not the nonsense that gets called educational on TikTok. But now, YouTube’s trying to copy TikTok with those YouTube Shorts. So, I have to dock a few points for that.
All I do is just watch YouTube commentary videos talking about TikTok videos and TikTok trends, even if I do think that TikTok commentary channels on YouTube can be pretty annoying and succumb to the same type of thinking that annoys me about the people on TikTok. I mean a lot of TikTok commentators are on TikTok themselves, so it’s not that surprising. Everything that they talk about and show in these videos reinforces why I don’t like TikTok and why I refuse to use it. I said it in the foreword of a previous post, but TikTok is the place where brains 🧠 go to rot, in fact, the term “brain rot 🧠” was coined specifically to describe the kind of vapid content that’s on TikTok.
Plus, I’m very suspicious of TikTok because of the Chinese connection 🇨🇳. I don’t trust any website that came directly from China 🇨🇳 and has ties to the Chinese government 🇨🇳, specifically the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳☭, even it’s like a little bit. People who support TikTok always say that BitDance, the company that owns TikTok is a “private company,” but the reality is that there is no such thing as a “private company” in China 🇨🇳.
Everything has some degree of state ownership, and businesses can only operate in the country if they have direct approval from the state. Meaning there is no truly “private company” inside of China 🇨🇳. So, everything BitDance does on TikTok has to be proved by the government and by the Communist Party ☭ specifically. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like or trust the Chinese government 🇨🇳 or the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳☭. So, I refuse to use TikTok for those reasons. When Congress passed that bill to ban TikTok in the US 🇺🇸 if BitDance didn’t sell, everyone was saying it was a bad idea because it would cost them votes 🗳️ especially amongst the Gen Z demographic who are the main demographic who uses TikTok and is most associated with the website and app, whether earned or not.
I don’t think it’s entirely fair to call Gen Z the “TikTok generation” because not all of use TikTok or use it as our primary social media or video sharing site. I think people still tend to think Gen Z are still teenagers, when we aren’t. We’re adults in our 20s. But, people still think we’re teenagers and they tend to conflate us from the current youngest generation, Generation Alpha, the generation that my little sister and my nephew and niece are apart of. But, even then, I don’t feel comfortable calling their generation the “TikTok generation” either.
I just don’t like associating any generation with any social media website. It’s completely unfair. But, anyway, people were also saying that banning TikTok would be violating young Americans’ 🇺🇸 First Amendment rights, that’s taking away their free speech. But I don’t really see an issue with banning TikTok. Not just because I don’t use TikTok and I think it’s a horrible website because I think it would be a benefit to our national security.
I don’t want China 🇨🇳 to have access to any American’s personal data 🇺🇸. I know some people tried to minimize this issue by saying that sites like Facebook do the same thing, but worse, but to me, it’s bad whenever anyone does it, and it should be dealt with accordingly. Banning TikTok maybe the only way to ensure people’s personal phone and computer data is safe from the Chinese government 🇨🇳 if BitDance doesn’t sell, which it’s increasingly likely that they won’t.
I mean India 🇮🇳 banned TikTok, and every foreign policy expert was saying that the US 🇺🇸 should follow India 🇮🇳’s lead on any issue when it comes to China 🇨🇳. While normally I would say that taking cues from an authoritarian lite government like India 🇮🇳’s isn’t a good idea, I would say this is the only issue that I agree with the Indian government 🇮🇳 on, and say that we should do the same thing they did. And the US 🇺🇸 has followed their lead, and passed a bill that would ban TikTok if it wasn’t sold to another non-Chinese company, ideally an American company 🇺🇸 that isn’t super far-right or run by a right wing billionaire like Elon Musk, that little muskrat with his musky smell.
TikTok is still here, it hasn’t been banned, and people are still using it, so maybe the bill hasn’t gone into effect or BitDance’s deadline to sell hasn’t passed yet. Maybe they still have time. Hopefully, for chronic TikTok users’ sake, they’re looking for buyers to purchase the app. The last thing we need are bunch of angry teenagers, 20 year olds, 30 year olds complaining they can’t watch videos of people dancing or lip syncing to preexisting songs or clips, or doing whatever stupid is considered entertainment on TikTok these days. I don’t think I can deal with all the whining and complaining online that would result if TikTok was banned stateside 🇺🇸.
But enough ranting about TikTok, let’s back to Wednesday and to Jenna Ortega specifically. So people liked her, and they liked that dance she did. But, while the dance itself went viral, the song that accompanied it in the show did not, “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps. It’s a pretty good song, and it fits perfectly with that dance Jenna Ortega does as Wednesday in that scene. She’s the first truly Gen Z celebrity that I can think of, besides maybe Billie Eilish, who was born in 2001, and is 22 years old at the time of me writing this.
Jenna Ortega was born in 2002, and is 21 years old at the time of me writing this. Younger than me or Billie Eilish. And she is a rising star ⭐️ if there ever was one, she’s appearing in a lot more movies lately and it’s mostly thanks to her being in this show. Even if, like I said before, most of the movies she’s been in besides Miller’s Girl ♀︎ have been either horror or gothic in nature. Like, besides Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the only other movies she’s known are Scream (2022) and Scream VI.
I would like to see her do a different kind of movie in a different genre, like action. I would love to see her in action movie, or sci-fi, I think that she’d great in sci-fi. I mean, if I ever got the chance to work with her, I would. Maybe, I’d cast her in a creature feature of some kind like a killer animal movie, like a killer shark movie 🦈 or a killer dinosaur movie 🦖, which, yeah, those are horror too, but they can also be action too, or they can be a blend of action and horror.
I think that would be a good movie to see her in, an action sci-fi horror movie with a creature feature element. Or maybe, she could in a kaiju movie, like in a MonsterVerse movie or even in an American Gamera movie 🇺🇸, who knows 🤷♂️. She could also do voice work in animated movies, I think she would be good at that too. She can be in a Rayman movie if they ever make an animated Rayman movie.
Her being in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was actually a good thing because it meant we got an update on the status of Season 2 of this show while she was on the press tour promoting the movie. Apparently, Season 2 is still happening, it’s being worked on, and it’s in the process of being filmed or it’s about to be filmed. She hasn’t given any details beyond that, but we do know at the very least Season 2 is still happening.
It was starting to appear as if Season 2 was never going to happen, and that show would get canceled just like every other Netflix original does, regardless of whether it’s popular or not. But, I guess for the time being, Season 2 is still on, and the show hasn’t been canceled. We’ll see if that changes in the future, if it ends up like Euphoria Season 3, where it just gets stuck in development hell for years and years and never actually gets made. I’ve never watched Euphoria just to let you know since I mentioned it.
I mentioned that Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday was praised and catapulted her to superstardom ⭐️, but what about the rest of the show? How was that received? Well when the show initially aired, it was highly praised, and it seemed like most people loved it 😁👍. Like people were saying that it one of the best Addams Family shows, and it was a great and unique take on the mythology and on the characters, particularly Wednesday herself. But I have noticed in recent years that people’s opinions and perceptions of the show have soured a bit since then as more people are more willing to be critical of it and post negative reviews of it now that initial hype has died down.
The biggest complaint that I’ve seen people levy against the show was the writing. They didn’t like the story, and they didn’t like the way the characters were written and portrayed. Particularly, Wednesday, who people say was written badly, and was out-of-character for most of the series. People took issue with how invested Wednesday was in solving these murders and clearing her father’s name, as they insist that these murders and her dad being accused of murder are things that she would actually like and be proud of, rather than be appalled by and against. Others felt that she was too mean and unlikable, even compared to other versions of the character.
People also didn’t like how the main villain was against magic and Outcasts (which are what the non-human magical creatures in this show are referred to as), and yet used magic herself to try to get rid of them at the end of the series. People also had a problem with the love triangle ❤️ which is something I wholeheartedly agree with. I hated the love triangle ❤️ in this season, and I hope that Season 2 leaves all that romance junk ❤️ out 👎.
Indeed, this show does have a lot of flaws, and looking back on it, I’m not sure if this is a show that I would even still like it if I went back and watched it. Whatever flaws that this season may or may not have had, I hope that Season 2 corrects them. If not, and if it doubles down on them or has entirely different flaws, then I’ll be fine with writing off this show entirely. But full transparency, I did enjoy this show while I was watching it, and as you’ll see below, the review I wrote was pretty positive. I was singing this show’s as much as everyone else was at the time.
As far as the whole villain thing goes, this is kind of the problem with trying to write a villain for an Addams Family project, whether it be a movie or TV series like this was. You can't have the villain do typically evil things since those are things the Addams tend to like. Everything that most people would consider evil are things the Addams consider good. That’s kind of the whole joke with them is that they’re the opposite of things people think are good and bad. That’s why the 60s TV series was so subversive in its time because they were a macabre family that found every traditional evil or bad thing good, and yet, were still a pretty healthy and cohesive family that loved each other.
That’s another thing people didn’t like about this show is the relatively dysfunctional relationship Wednesday has with her parents, feeling as if it goes against the core message or theme of the franchise, which is that despite how spooky and kooky they are, the Addams family are a healthy and cohesive family unit that love each other a lot more than so-called “normal” families. But, Wednesday’s a teenager in this show, teenagers tend to rebel against their parents and argue with their parents more, and they always think they know more and know better than their parents even know they clearly don’t most of the time.
So, I have no problem with the idea of Wednesday rebelling against her parents or being more argumentative towards her parents on principle. It’s just that the way she rebels doesn't fit her character that much. The first animated Addams Family movie from 2019 had a decent idea of having Wednesday rebel by wearing more bright colors and being into more typical girly things ♀︎ rather than being dark and gloomy. Maybe if they went a similar direction with this series people wouldn’t have had as much of an issue with it.
Plus, you have to consider that the Addams Family has primarily been comedy based, they’re meant to be funny. These were not dramas or anything. It really wasn’t until the Barry Sonnenfeld movies that they start having villains. Yeah, they were comedies and not dramas, but they still had villains. And each of them struggled with coming up with villains that made sense to oppose the Addams family and for the Addams family to be opposed to. I think in order to come up with a good villain for an Addams Family movie or TV show, it has to be someone is the complete opposite of the Addams family and is against everything they hold dear or consider good or okay. You might say, “well, haven’t they already done that already?” and I’ll say, “Yeah, but it didn’t work.” Every attempt at trying to do what I just said has fallen short in one way or another.
Some people also felt that it didn’t make sense for Wednesday to be sent to Nevermore Academy since there’s nothing that particularly magical or strange about her besides that she wears gothic clothes, has pale skin like a cadaver, and likes hurting and killing people. You know, she’s not a vampire 🧛♀️ or a werewolf 🐺 or a siren 🧜♀️ or anything like that. She’s not even a sorceress like Lucy Loud from The Loud House is.
They kind of try to justify this by revealing in the middle series that she has psychic powers and is a bit clairvoyant, which explains why she keeps having all those visions, but it didn’t enough in people’s eyes. But, I was okay with it. I didn’t mind it like a lot of other people did. Maybe I just liked seeing Wednesday interact with all of these vampires 🧛♀️ and werewolves 🐺 and other mythical creatures, things that we don’t really see in other Addams Family media despite how weird the family is.
I mean, they do have genuinely weird and magical members of their family who’d probably fit the school better than Wednesday like Cousin Itt or Grandmama Addams to name but a few. Even Lurch would better in this show than Wednesday did. I’m sure we’ll see some of those characters in Season 2, like I’m sure we’ll see Cousin Itt and I’m sure we’ll see Grandmama Addams. Those characters are simply too iconic to just leave out entirely, especially Grandmama.
Though, I'm sure they might rename her Abuela Addams since this version of the Addams family is more Latino. Wednesday’s played by a Latina, so they made the rest of the Addams family Latino as well. The only non-Latino member of the family we’ve seen so far is Morticia, who’s played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in this series, and she's Welsh 🏴, so definitely not Latina.
As for the other characters, I’ve heard mixed things about them over the past couple of years since this show debuted. Some people really like the new non-Addams family characters (except for the villains), or they don’t like any of them and just like the Addams family characters themselves. The ones I’ve seen people be the most mixed about are Enid, Wednesday’s bubbly roommate who she hates at first but grows to love as the series goes, and Xavier, one of the two boys ♂︎ in the love triangle ❤️ with Wednesday.
People’s reasons for not liking Xavier are pretty obvious and not hard to figure out, but the reason why some people don’t like Enid are a bit nuanced and varied, some people simply finding her annoying while others things think she’s a bad friend or that she’s a badly written character overall. But regardless of how you personally feel about Enid as a character and how she was written, you can't fault Emma Myers for it. She gave it her all based on what she was given, just as much Jenna Ortega did as Wednesday, and her performance as Enid is one of the other things people remember the most about this show.
Plus, like with Jenna Ortega’s role as Wednesday, Emma Myers’s role as Enid help catapult her to superstardom ⭐️ as she has appeared in many other projects outside of Wednesday. Her filmography is a lot varied in terms of genre compared to Jenna Ortega’s. I mean, she’s going to be in that new Minecraft movie that everyone complained about the trailer for. That’s pretty different and far removed from Wednesday, so that’s something. I actually thought she’d be perfect for a voice role in an American remake 🇺🇸 of the romantic comedy anime series, Komi Can’t Communicate, as the American version 🇺🇸 of the antagonistic character, Ren Yamai. I think she’d be perfect for a more villainous role like that, plus I haven’t seen her do any voice work in any animated project, film or TV.
Oh, and one more thing before I close out this foreword, we finally got our new SUV yesterday (Thursday September 19, 2024). It’s pretty nice so far. When we drove it the first time, it had that nice car smell that every new vehicle has when you first buy it. The outside and inside of it were both pretty seek, even if I don’t really care for the leather seats. Usually I don’t care if a car or truck or SUV has leather seats, but I don't care too much for the leather seats because they do look kind of cheap, the one on the passenger side where I usually sit has a crack, and they’re slippery as hell.
I told my grandma that we’re definitely getting seat covers for the vehicle. Oh, and I don’t like the trunk, it’s a bit small, and it doesn't keep the items secure, like they just slide around all over the place. We had some collapsible portable chairs in the back, and they kept sliding around all over the place. We have to put like a foam cover or something in the truck to keep the items we put there secure while we’re driving around.
My aunt also has a Grand Cherokee, and she has something similar in her trunk. She no longer has the vehicle in her possession, as she gave it to her son, my cousin since he has a baby on the way, and he wants to use it for his new family with his girlfriend. But, that’s what she did with her trunk to make a better place to store groceries, luggage, chairs, or whatever you need to bring along with you for a particular trip.
But other that, I love our new SUV. Grand Cherokee man, it sure lives up to its name. It has a lot of features that our old Chevy Malibu didn’t have. Like, it has a sun roof ☀️, it has four-wheel drive, the clock automatically adjusts to the time of the day, the camera in the back that turns on when you’re backing out is bigger, the Bluetooth automatically connects after you’ve paired with the device, the high beams are a lot brighter than on the Malibu, and the radio can actually read out text messages that are sent to your phone while it’s connected to Bluetooth.
Oh, and Sirius XM is available for the SUV, it’s just that you had subscribe to it and pay for it just like you have to do with the Wi-Fi connection 🛜. One downside is that when we bought the SUV, or Jeep I guess I can say it’s a Jeep, Grand Cherokees are Jeep vehicles, we didn't get two keys. We only got one, and if we want another one, we’ll have to get it from the Jeep Store.
I didn’t even know there was such thing as a Jeep Store, but I guess there is. There’s a bunch of features I didn’t mention, and we’ve only scratched the surface of what this vehicle can do, but we sure as hell love it so far. My grandma and I agreed that we would keep the Jeep for about two years, and see how we feel about it, if we want to keep it or trade it in for a new vehicle. But, based on our experience with it so far, I think this Jeep will serve us well 🙂↕️.
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Well, I finally did it, I took the dive and watched Wednesday, after my sisters kept recommending it to me, and everyone else in my family and online kept talking about it. Usually, I don't go for super trendy shows, like I didn't watch Squid Game 🦑 when it came out on Netflix and took the whole world by storm. I didn't jump on that bandwagon, but I decided to give this a watch after I watched a few clips from it in a couple reaction videos, mainly the ones by Nick & Cory, the YouTuber, Brandon Walsh's two best friends and close working partners. Plus, I'm moderately interested in The Addams Family and the character, Wednesday Addams, and I like what I've seen of the actress that plays her in this show, Jenna Ortega. I've watched some of her interviews, some of the YouTube videos she's appeared in, and she seems very intriguing.
So, what did I think of it? I thought it was pretty good. In fact, I would go as far to say it was damn good. For once, the hype was actually justified. Obviously, the best thing about this show is Jenna Ortega's performance as Wednesday Addams. It was truly next level, she nailed that role. The thing I liked about this version of Wednesday, and Jenna Ortega's performance as her is that it is a new take, but still manages to retain the core essence of the character.
Obviously, Jenna Ortega is Latina, so her version of Wednesday has a bit of a Latin flavor, which also reflected in Gomez as well. Luis Guzman was fantastic as Gomez Addams. Just like with Wednesday Addams, it's a different take, but it retains the core essence of the character. But, what both of them managed to do is give their characters heart and emotional depth.
Gomez is obviously more emotional and warmer than Wednesday, but as the show goes on, Wednesday's cold exterior is pealed away to reveal her warmer and gentler side. You know, we see that even though she is very cold, emotionless, violent, and well, spooky, she is a good person, and she wants to protect the people she loves the most. It's simply that she shows that love in a different way, in a unique way. And I think that nuance and that complexity couldn't have been pulled off without Jenna Ortega. She really is what holds this show together, and if you took her out of it, it wouldn't have worked that much.
The other actors and actresses were pretty good as well. Gwendoline Christie finally got the chance to shine, and really show what she could do, after she was snubbed in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. You don't realize how tall she is until you see standing next to other actors and actresses, but she is very tall. Probably, the tallest one in the cast. But anyway, she was great as the principal of Nevermore, Larissa Weems. She starts out as more of an antagonistic force, a foil to Wednesday and her schemes. But, as the show goes on, it becomes clear that she is not a villain or bad person at all. She has made mistakes, and has done questionable things, but she is not inherently evil and she always did things with good intentions: to protect Nevermore and its students and faculty from being destroyed.
And Catherine Zeta-Jones, need I say more? She was great as Morticia Addams, even if we don't really see her that much. But, she makes every bit of her screen time count, as we see her relationship with Wednesday, which is at the heart of this show, and we see how she fits into the main plot, which is this murder mystery, but I'll get to that in a moment.
And lest we forget that Christina Ricci in this show, and has a major role in this. I bet it was pretty cool for Jenna Ortega to be playing opposite the actress who really made Wednesday Addams her own, and made her popular than she was before. You, Christina Ricci isn't the original Wednesday Addams, but she is definitely the one who revolutionized the character, and she still is a lot of people's favorite Wednesday. It was very cool that they included her in this, and gave her a huge role, and her character in this is the complete opposite of Wednesday (in more ways than one), which is something that I like.
One character that I didn't expect to absolutely love is Thing ✋, the sentient hand ✋ of the Addams Family and Wednesday's closest companion. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to give Thing ✋ so much personality and make him compelling and endearing when he's literally just a hand 🤚. He can't talk, unless it's through sign language, and all he can do is tap the table, tap the ground, move his fingers around, and thumbs up 👍 or thumbs down. And yet, he's probably the coolest and most lovable character in this show. As the kids would say, Thing ✋ is the real MVP (if the kids even still say that anymore). This is a huge spoiler, but I definitely felt bad when Thing ✋ got stabbed 🗡️🩸 in the seventh episode. The fact that they got me to feel sorry for hand ✋ when it was dying, and feel emotional is a huge achievement.
Uncle Fester was really cool too. He's only in one episode turns the end of the season, but he was definitely a scene stealer. He was really funny 😄, and was the thing that was necessary to shake things up after six or seven episodes, and lighten the mood a bit. His appearance is also one of the few times that we see Wednesday smile and be outwardly excited about something. Fred Armisen did a great job.
Now, it does make a lot of sense why they decided to make an Addams Family show that's entirely focused on Wednesday Addams. She is by far the most popular of the Wednesday Addams, she's the one character that people think of first when they think of The Addams Family, she's the character that girls dress up for Halloween 🎃 the most out of all the Addams Family, and she's the one that the previous movies and show focused on. Obviously, Christina Ricci's legendary performance as the character in the two Barry Sonnenfeld Addams Family movies elevated the character to icon status even more than she previously, and Jenna Ortega and everyone else after Ricci is building upon that legacy.
So, it makes sense that Tim Burton, Alfred Gough, and Miles Miller decide to cut all the fat, and just focus solely on the one thing that people love the most about this franchise: Wednesday Addams. It makes as much sense as making movies that are focused entirely on Wolverine. In fact, Wolverine and Wednesday do have a bit in common beyond the fact that both of their names start with a W. They were both iconic already, but that one performance by one actor or actress elevated them to super icon status, to the point where they overshadow the other characters in their respective franchise. Wolverine is by far the most popular X-Men character, just like Wednesday is by far the most popular Addams Family character.
But, that I like about how Burton, Gough, and Miller approached this series is that they put Wednesday in a situation that she had never been before in the other Addams Family movies and shows. She's in high school, and not only that, she's in a high school that's meant for outcasts, creatures and other beings that don't fit into normal human society (or "normies" as they're called).
We're talking vampires, werewolves, sirens, gorgons, telepaths, shapeshifters, and more. A place that you would think Wednesday would fit in like a glove, and yet, at first, she doesn't. The valuable message that this show drives home that even in a school or a place full of outcasts, you can still be an outcast. Just because you put a bunch of outcasts and misfits together, that doesn't mean that every single one of them will fit in as ironic as it may seem at first.
You know, an outcast high school is still a high school, they're still going to form clicks, in groups and out groups. Even monster teenagers and other teen misfit still succumb to tribalism. That's a message that is very much relevant today, and doesn't just apply to high schools for misfits or outcasts like in this show, but also in so-called "nerd spaces" online. Nerds are usually one of the biggest outcasts and misfits, but even in a space full of nerds, you can still be the odd one out (no reference to the Odd1sOut 🙄), you still be an outcast and not fit in, and the bullied and outcasted can become bullies themselves when they're in control or they're the majority.
So, we Wednesday navigate this world as she is just as much of an outcast in this school meant for outcasts as she was in the "normal" or "regular" schools. In addition to this, she's also trying a murder mystery, and uncover the secrets behind the school and the town it resides in, Jericho. This place has a huge and tangled web of dark secrets, and Wednesday seeks to uncover as well. That's another cool thing about this version of Wednesday that I like compared to the other versions is that she has more of a detective. You know, the CG animated version was more of a mad scientist 👩🔬, while this one is more a detective 🕵️♀️ .
So, it's a detective show that constantly gets interrupted by a high school show. You know, Wednesday is trying to solve the murders, and solve the mystery behind Jericho and Nevermore, and yet she's constantly forced to partake in high school activities like doing extracurricular activities, or going to the school dance, or doing "volunteer" work around the town, or socializing with the other students and partaking in some high school drama. Not in that order, but you know what I mean. But, they found a way to make it, to have these two opposing tones and genres mesh together.
And you know? The mystery was genuinely intriguing, and the twists and turns were genuinely surprising. Like, this show definitely throws a lot of curve balls and red herrings at you, and it keeps you guessing until the end. By the time, the seventh episode came along, I thought I had it all figured out, and I knew who was behind it all, but then the show threw another surprise at me, and I was completely thrown for a loop. I didn't know where it was going or what the answers were going to be until the very end.
But, as good as this show is, I'm pretty surprised at how popular it ended up being. Like, a lot of shows on Netflix become popular and trendy online, but this show really blew up. It was #1 show on Netflix for a few weeks, before it was pushed all the way to #10, there was merchandise related to the show, and then they were people left and right making videos on it on YouTube and TikTok; not that I use TikTok. The only other Netflix show that I can think of that blew up as much as this show was Squid Game 🦑, which as I said before, I did not see. I did not buy into the hype for that show, but I took the dive and bought into the hype for this movie.
But, given a show that's as popular as this one, you're bound to get some weird or downright awful takes. Like, what's with everyone thinking that this is a kid's show? Just because it's set in high school doesn't mean that it's for kids. This is clearly not for kids, like it's about murder, it's got a lot of violence, it's got some swearing, it has mature themes, and it's a bit scary at times (not to me, but to some people). It's more like PG-13 than a PG, and its actual rating reflects that, which is TV-14, the TV equivalent of the PG-13 rating.
And what's with all these YouTube "therapists" reacting to this show and psychoanalyzing Wednesday Addams? I know a recurring plot point of the series is that Wednesday is legally required to attend therapy sessions, but still, that doesn't mean we need all these YouTube "therapists" giving their input on this show and this character. Most of their "analysis" of Wednesday is that she's crazy or she's disturbed, or she's messed up. I think most of them completely miss the point of Wednesday Addams as a character. She's a fictional character, not a real person, and on top, she's supposed to be kind of messed up and different. The whole point of Wednesday Addams and the Addams Family as a whole that they're spooky and kooky.
They're not like regular people like you and I, they're very different. The things that we find scary, disturbing, cruel, or painful they find enjoyable, especially Wednesday Addams. She's not just the most popular Addams, but she's also the one that's the most spooky. Obviously, if a person in real life acted like Wednesday Addams, that would be sort of a bad thing, but she's not a real person, and this world isn't like our world. It's a completely fantastical world that operates on different rules than ours. So, all of these so-called "therapists" doing psychoanalysis on this fictional character who exists in a fictional world completely separate from our own, are completely missing the point of the show and the character and making fools out of themselves as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, the therapist in this show literally makes taxidermy dolls out of roadkill in her spare time when no one's looking, and then gives them to a local store to sell; pretty much implying that she's just as crazy and weird as her patients, if not weirder and crazier. Maybe, that's why so YouTube therapists are doing videos on Wednesday, because they feel their profession was negatively portrayed in this show. Just like how lawyers took offense to the negative portrayal of Donald Gennaro in Jurassic Park; the movie version, not the novel version 📖, Donald Gennaro's actually portrayed positively in the novel 📖 and is actually a badass (and he survives in the novel 📖 too). If that's the case, fair enough, but it's kind of foolish.
Regardless of all that, this is still a great show, and I do recommend it. Even if it isn't the new trendy hot thing right now anymore, you should still give it a watch because it is so brilliant. If anything, just watch it for Jenna Ortega's performance as Wednesday Addams because she truly is wonderful. She is definitely a rising star, and she's definitely going places after this, and she fully deserves it. And I'll definitely be watching the second season to this, whenever it comes out.
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