The Woe’d Warrior: a review of Wednesday

Wednesday

Created by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar

Based on Characters created by Charles Addams

Starring

Jenna Ortega

Gwendoline Christie

Riki Lindhome

Jamie McShane

Hunter Doohan

Percy Hynes White

Emma Myers

Joy Sunday

Georgie Farmer

Naomi J. Ogawa

Christina Ricci

Moosa Mostafa

Composer Danny Elfman (theme also) & Chris Bacon

Production

Executive producers Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, Tim Burton, Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman, Gail Berman, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman, Tommy Harper, Kevin Lafferty, Kevin Miserocchi

Producer Carmen Pepelea

Production companies Millar Gough Ink, 1.21 Films, Glickmania Media, Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, The Jackal Group, Tim Burton Productions, Toluca Pictures, MGM Television

Distributor MGM Worldwide Television and Digital Distribution, Netflix Streaming Services

I wasn’t really sure how a series revisit to the Wednesday Addams character would work. The defining version of the character was done by Christini Ricci, of course, she of the flat aspect and incisive morbidity, with a psychotically cruel affinity for logic and justice—her logic and justice. Dead-eyed, pasty-skinned and monotonic, Wednesday provided one of the most chilling moments in movie history by trying to smile.

Tim Burton was making this new series. Given his penchant for the macabre, he seemed a good fit, and indeed had been mooted to direct the 1991 movie (he eventually withdrew) and a stop-action animated series that died still-born in development hell.

Two computer animated movies kept Wednesday (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz) in the public consciousness, resulting in nightmares for millions, and that version was essentially a distillation of the Ricci version.

Oh, and Christini Ricci was going to be in the new series, as well. Not as Wednesday, of course; she wouldn’t be convincing as a 13 year old psychopath. But she might be a good adult foil for Wednesday, given Ricci’s formidable acting skills.

When I saw the first episode, I was taken aback by Wednesday herself. Oh, the Jenna Ortega version was instantly recognizable as the title character; the black braids, the impossibly perfect part in the center of her hair, and the fashion sense, black and white, and if she was feeling festive, an accent dash of boiled liver gray. But this version had luminous, glowing brown eyes and perfect golden skin. Her voice, while still odd, was much more human and didn’t sound like she was the offspring of HAL and Liz Truss.

But subtleties abound. It wasn’t until about the fifth episode that I noticed that those beautiful eyes never blink. While her voice was more human, much of what she was saying was just as disturbing as the original.

But straightaway I realized this wasn’t a remake; it was a reinvention. This Wednesday was a high schooler, and she does things like dance at a school ball (Ortega’s got some MOVES!) and kiss a boy! Wednesday of yore wouldn’t kiss a boy unless she was taking a blood sample.

The series reminded me of other sort-of of teen Gothic horror shows, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Locke and Key.

Wednesday is consigned to Nevermore Academy, an institution for outcasts—werewolves, sirens, vampires and other monsters. It’s a bit of a mystery why she wasn’t there to begin with, what with her parents being alumni and after an unfortunate incident involving piranha in the school swimming pool. (Chlorine would have killed them almost immediately, but never mind). She fits in there about as well as you might expect, remote, defiant, and scornful of human interactions.

The principal, Larissa Weems, is a formidable woman (Gwendoline Christie) who might present a plausible challenge to our heroine. Enid (Emma Myers) is her chirpy outgoing blond roommate, Enid is going to be a werewolf, but she hasn’t gone into heat yet or something. Dr. Kinbott (Riki Lindhome) is her therapist (yes, Wednesday in psychotherapy. Goes about as well as you might expect.) Her botany teacher, Marilyn Thornhill is a nerdy bespectacled and retiring sort (Ricci). Any of them would seem candidates for immediate emotional and psychological evisceration by Wednesday.

Does this new version work? Audience reaction says yes; it’s already the most popular Netflix show ever, with nearly a half a billion viewer-hours racked up already. And it does have a lot of amusing twists and turns, and Ortega and the supporting cast are all solid. It’s worth watching. It’s enjoyable, and it has a good reinterpretation of a modern classic character that holds up quite well.

I did figure out who the Big Bad was by the fifth episode, but it wasn’t due to clumsy story telling or lack of subtleties. If you want to know how I did it (yes, I was right) highlight the text below. But it contains massive spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the show, don’t do it.

Now on Netflix.

The Big Bad, the controller of the monster that is ripping apart people, is Marilyn Thornhill, I knew—I just KNEW—that Tim Burton would be unable to make the foe of Wednesday Addams the same woman who defined Wednesday Addams thirty years ago. Burton didn’t cheat; there are clues amongst all the red herrings and misdirection that will lead the viewer, if adequately astute, to the right answer. But I cheated instead. I went outside the story to figure it out. Suck on it.