Wednesday

I love both Addams Family films from the 1990s as much as I love Tim Burton's work, so Wednesday was a must see for me. I think Burton was a great choice for the director's chair, though it's true that his recent films don't live up to the quality of his earlier work. More than once while watching the series I thought of some of his earlier films – particularly Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Sleepy Hollow. To deflect some of those criticisms right off the bat, I expected Wednesday to be more black-humored and less geared towards a younger teenage audience. But I still enjoyed the eight episodes quite a bit, plus I liked that the series had a slightly crime edge to it, even if the reveal of the perpetrator wasn't as shocking as it was with Sleepy Hollow. Jenna Ortega is cool, I also liked seeing Christina Ricci, the 90's Wednesday, for the first time in a while, and I quite appreciated that the Addams family didn't get much space, as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán are far less appealing than Angelica Huston and Raul Julia. I also enjoyed Gwendoline Christie, while the actors palying the other students and their characters were less memorable. Last but not least, I can't fail to mention Thing and Uncle Fester (though Christopher Lloyd was also more to my liking). Apart from the mystery-fantasy, humour and crime levels, Wednesday also appeals on a social level – that raised index finger towards people who condemn (any) minorities was unmissable. In conclusion, I have to say that I probably expected more from the series, yet I would be lying if I said I didn't look forward to each new episode. A weaker four stars! (2022.12.10)