Wednesday Season 1 Netflix Series Review

Wednesday (2022-)
Season 1 - 8 episodes

Watch Wednesday on Netflix
Created by: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Starring: Jenna Ortega, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Emma Myers, Christina Ricci, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán
Rated: TV-14
Watch the trailer

Plot
Smart, sarcastic, and a little dead inside, Wednesday Addams investigates a murder spree while making new friends and foes at Nevermore Academy.

Verdict
This is dark comedy, teen drama, and murder mystery in one. The smart thing about this is the core plot is a murder mystery that serves to keep pushing the show forward. This isn't a show just about the daily lives of the Addams family or Wednesday. The momentum of the plot combined with the focus on Wednesday and her macabre style and dark humor makes this engaging. What this does right is not just focusing on the character but also gives her something to do. That is something so many nostalgic properties get wrong. The ones that fail try to rely solely on the character. This provides a focused narrative, character development, a mystery, and it has fun while doing it.
Watch It.

Review
This starts out wild. Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) unleashes piranhas on her brother's bullies. That's what gets her sent to Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts that happen to be monsters. This isn't far from a monster version of Harry Potter's Hogwarts.

This is certainly tongue in cheek. Wednesday likes everything dark, dreary, and macabre. It's certainly a dour performance, but Ortega does such a great job, doing a lot of acting without any words. Even in a school of outcasts, Wednesday stands out as incredibly dark. Ortega does an amazing job with the character.

Jenna Ortega plays Wednesday

The driver of the plot is a series of murders that Wednesday commits to solving. This gives the season a solid foundation and momentum, as with each episode we get closer to answering the mystery. It's a great way to root the season, and thankfully the season does answer the mystery at hand instead of telling us to log in next season. Though the series is clear, that there are more mysteries for Wednesday to solve.

This is a school and that makes up the teen aspect of that. There are guys interested in Wednesday though unsurprisingly she does not return their affection. Wednesday's roommate Enid (Emma Myers)
is practically her complete opposite. If that weren't enough there's a principal that doesn't like Wednesdays parents, local townsfolk who don't like outcasts, and a cop that holds a grudge against Wednesday's father. There's no shortage of drama in this series and that's why there is never a dull moment.

Emma Myers, Jenna Ortega play Enid, Wednesday

This is a teen drama with the twist of a very strange protagonist. It's almost satire as what the average person likes, Wednesday is averse. Solving a murder mystery is nearly the perfect task for this character and that keeps the story moving while providing a destination. I was curious about this show after reading about how popular it's been on Netflix. It set the record for Netflix's most watched series in a week, and that's what caused me to tune in. This isn't my favorite show ever, but it's certainly a lot of fun.