Season 1, Episode 1 – Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe
The Wednesday’s premier episode has a lot of heavy lifting to do as it has to re-re-re introduce us to the characters and set up new rules for the world that Addams inhabit.
Wednesday is now a teen and seems to be an amalgamation of her 1960s childlike persona that has a streak of innocence manifesting as a disdains for bullies as well as infinity towers creepy crawlies (in 60s version she had a spider named Homer and in the 2022 show she had a scorpion named Nero.) Those traits are mixed with her dark deadpan persona 90s characterization. I read somewhere that the 2022 show was aiming to not reference the 90s films but instead be more akin to the 60s sitcom but there aspects of 90s version that is so ingrained into the characters at this stage that is would be jarring to omit entirely, like Wednesday’s deadpan portrayal from Christine Ricci. So Wednesday is a more of combo of 90s version with a sprinkling of late 90s sardonic teenage character-type like Daria with some levels of empathy, though in episode one she would be loathed to admit even though the pay back against her brother’s bullies is the inciting incident.
Which brings us to a negative, Puglsy is vastly out of character. As it quite literally the Wednesday show, Wednesday needed someone to save and since making friends is part of her character arc, the only person she can logically save for the narrative to work is her “younger” brother Pugsley. Pugsley acts like a sad weak little boy, not spooky ooky Addams. If he somehow enjoyed the torture and Wednesday still went on the offense it would have been more in line with the character but they didn’t so Pugsley is a causuality. Also worth noting is that Pugsley in the 60s show is order and in the 90s version the order was swapped even though Christine Ricci and Jimmy Workman were born the same year.
Keeping to the other members of the family, lot of people also point out that Gomez and Morticia are also out of character/poorly cast but I’ll just hold off a critical assessment but while I do enjoy Gomez’s terms of endearment and he does look exactly like the 30s comic strip, but he doesn’t really have a vibe with character.
So the plot of Wednesday after getting expelled from her most recent school, Wednesday is set to a boarding school for outcasts I.e supernaturals like vampires, werewolves sirens, gorgon and a catch-all of psychic types, etc . The Addams fall into the Psychic types as Wednesday has visions. This is the first version that overtly states that they family have super powers and it’s a little jarring to give outright superpowers instead of just vague implications that they could be some kind of supernatural being or just witchy.
Another things that is jarring is the outcast school which a magical boarding school which is gives us a large cast of characters one being of note is Wednesday’s roommate Enid who is a poppy colorful maximalist werewolf. It’s your classic odd couple dynamic of the grumpy/sunshine type. They love pairing the Addams against their arch-nemsis bright colorful/pastels.
I think the biggest issue is that school totes being for outcast but Wednesday is the only doesn’t seem like everyone else. It’s just a school for supernatural teens how are they outcasts? Enid also uses the words “freaks, monsters, marginalized” when describing the students body but they just monsters plus psychic types. They say they are not “normie” but they act like it with Wednesday being the only one who an emo/gothic which seems weird for the setting and vibe. But again she can’t fit in yet for her arc.
Also there is a murder mystery with a weird Tim Burton style CG monster, a prophesy about Wednesday destroying the school, family secrets plus a burgeoning love triangle. There are a lot of spinning plates. Basically this show is a teen drama with mystery dressed up in The Addams Family IP. And if it was a little more dialed up on spooky campy levels like the 90s films it might more fun but it feels subdue thus far, quippy and somehow understated. However Jenna Ortega was born to play the role so it’s not completely doomed or without merit. More chances plus there is a spider web rose window and gargoyles so those are major positives.
