How many young women on TV are unapologetic about who they are? Very few. But Wednesday Addams is. She knows who she is and is not afraid to voice her opinions. We need more variations of this on screen.
A woman that had similar IDGAF vibes was Veronica Mars. And there are very much Veronica Mars vibes in this show. Veronica was a teen private detective trying to solve her friend’s murder and making some extra money from helping her classmates. The difference here, V had to go through a traumatic thing to not care about what people thought about her. It’s just who Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is. As well as Veronica Mars vibes, there are dark Harry Potter vibes, even if the showrunners didn’t intend them.
Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez Addams (Luis Guzmán) send Wednesday to their old school, Nevermore, after she almost killed one of her classmates for bullying her brother. Nevermore is a school for vampires, werewolves, sirens, gorgons and other monsters, and any person society deems too strange to be with ordinary people (which they call normies). It could be compared more to Legacies than Harry Potter, but Harry Potter sticks out more with the old buildings and a courtyard that felt like we were at Hogwarts.
When Wednesday arrives in town, normies are being killed by some kind of monster, which Sheriff Donovan Galpin (Jamie McShane) believes comes from Nevermore and wants to prove it. Not long after the young Addams arrives, the creature starts attacking the outcasts but spares Wednesday. The first student to get killed has a drawing of Wednesday with the founding father of the town, Joseph Crackstone (William Houston), and believes she will destroy the school. Here’s where the Veronica Mars vibes kick in. Wednesday is determined to find the truth. So she investigates Cracksone and the monster. She uncovers her parents have a dark secret while doing research. This sheds more light on her parents’ time at the school. It’s not all awards for Morticia.
Wednesday is such a unique show. It’s got dark humor, horror, drama and a mystery. You can’t categorize this show into one neat box. And you can’t categorize Wednesday into one, either. She’s a morbid character and also super bright. She dedicates an hour a day to writing her novel. She plays the bass. And she has perfect grades. She also knows martial arts. Jenna plays Wednesday to a T. It’s incredible how talented she is at only 20. But Wednesday is also wise beyond her years, so this is a perfect fit.
Wednesday is not the only character you will fall in love with. Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) is the complete opposite of Wednesday. She’s full of color and joy, while Wednesday is black and white and full of gloom. She helps balance the morbidness of Wednesday, and she keeps her on her toes. She’s super cute; all you want to do is cheer her on. While Wednesday may not have much of an arc (since you can’t change her), Enid has a nice one. You’re going to love where she ends up.
Thing is also one of my favorite characters. Who knew a hand could do so much? Wednesday turns Thing and makes him her servant pretty quickly. He helps with the investigation and has manicure hangouts with Enid.
While the show and characters are lots of fun, there’s also an underlining message about outcasts and people wanting to get rid of what they don’t understand. While Wednesday classifies outcasts as mostly different creatures of the night, it easily transfers to every day. There is a mention of the witch trials, with an Addams ancestor getting killed for being a witch. The world hasn’t changed much today, trying to shut out the LGBTQ community or communities of different ethnicities. In reality, this group of kids at the school is no different than the normies. They have their clicks, and there are some kids you want to be friends with more than others. Unfortunately, there’s no changing some people’s minds, but these kids can be proud of who they are. Wednesday doesn’t care what anyone thinks. If only we could all be that comfortable with who we are.
Luckily, the finale leaves it open for more. So, hopefully, we’ll be getting more of Wednesday and these other fun characters in our life. One season is not enough. This is going in my top 10 list of shows for the year.
The entire season of Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.
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