Want to hear more from the actors and creators of your favorite shows and films? Subscribe to The Cinema Spot on YouTube for all of our upcoming interviews!
I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
Wednesday premiered this past week and all episodes are now available to watch on Netflix. Here’s what happens in the macabre world of the Addams family introduced in the first episode:
Let’s first forgive Netflix for the release of Wednesday after the Halloween season, because although it would have made more sense, the Netflix series demands the full attention of its viewers rather than get lost in the over-saturated spirit of spookiness.
Introducing Wednesday
We first meet Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) at Nancy Reagan High School (lol), the school she is quickly expelled from for dumping live piranhas into the swimming pool during an active water polo practice. The reason is as simple as avenging her brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), who was shoved in a locker by the water polo team. According to Wednesday, she is the only one allowed to torture her brother (which is a belief that checks out if you have a sibling).
However, understanding predecessor Wednesdays, it’s still hard to figure out whether it’s born from true sibling love or if she genuinely just deserves the right to torture her brother out of pure malice. Ortega’s version of the character is no different in this regard. An interesting thing to note: Wednesday has the power of psychic visions, which told her it was the water polo team that messed with Pugsley.
The consequence of her actions–which Wednesday feels no remorse for because now everyone knows she failed at murder–is her attendance at Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts and kids just like her. Also, the school where her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán), first met and fell in love. Wednesday is immediately against this idea because she’s fully aware of her parents’ true motives: to mold their daughter with their own blueprint. Wednesday believes she will never turn out like her parents (i.e., married, in love, and a housewife) because she is her own person. Though a school full of Wednesdays, isolating and quiet, may actually seem like the perfect place for her, they really just mean “outcasts, freaks, and monsters.” The school’s social scene consists of Fangs, Furs, Scales, and Stoners. Wednesday seems to fall into her own category, understandably so.
A Mystery is Afoot
It doesn’t take very long for the episode to plunge straight into the first mystery attack that paves the way for the show’s plot. A creature is seen lurking through the forest on the outskirts of Nevermore Academy, killing people and causing stress to the local police department. None of it is of Wednesday’s concern yet because right now she has to keep her focus on escaping Nevermore and ghosting her parents for making her go there in the first place.
And, yeah, I get it. There’s a level of betrayal that Wednesday feels for her parents placing her there, and as a moody teenager with all the power and angst in the world, running away seems like the perfect solution. Just wait, Wednesday, the moment you have to start paying taxes and car insurance in the real world you want to run away to so badly, you’ll be crawling back home wishing you were still filed as a dependent on your parents’ tax forms. Though I wouldn’t hold it against her to find a way of cheating adulthood.
Speaking of crawling, Thing (Victor Dorobantu) makes its first appearance as a spy sent by Morticia and Gomez to keep an eye on their daughter and make sure she doesn’t actually flee. The task doesn’t last very long because cunning Wednesday was expecting something like that to happen, so she holds a helpless Thing captive and demands his undying loyalty to her. One thing (pun very much intended) I have to appreciate is Thing’s very human-like upgrade. Props to the hand actor and the show creators. Thing gave a lot more life to the character and made it just a little more impressive.
Newbies
We also meet the rest of the ensemble, fellow classmates, the high school stereotype Queen Bee, and Wednesday’s vibrant and colorful roommate, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). A very clear contrast to Wednesday’s dark and drab. Enid is unafraid to match Wednesday and get her claws out (literally), which can prove to be an interesting and robust alliance for the future, perhaps?
Christina Ricci also makes her debut as the resident dorm mom and science teacher, unfazed by Wednesday’s taciturn and dark manner but maybe she knows a thing or two about that.
Through an attempt to escape Nevermore Academy during her court-mandated therapy session in the local town of Jericho, Wednesday meets Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), the charming local barista, Sheriff’s son, and someone who finds Wednesday interesting enough to hang around. He’s a “normie” though, and if we’ve learned anything about literature, a forbidden romance/friendship trope is just beginning to bud.
No Way Out?
With the help of Tyler, Wednesday uses the Harvest Festival as a ruse to escape. They are momentarily sidetracked by a nonthreatening group of pilgrim-fanatic boys wielding baseball bats, forcing them to run into the crowd and lose them. In the middle of their run, Wednesday bumps into fellow Nevermore outcast, Rowan (Calum Ross), and is hit with a neck-turning vision. In this vision, she witnesses Rowan being killed and attempts to stop him in the forest before it could actually happen.
Then things take a twisted turn when she learns that Rowan was behind her near-death freak accident earlier in the episode. It’s always the quiet ones, she mutters while telepathically suspended against a tree via Rowan’s will. His mother was a very powerful seer back in her day at Nevermore Academy and created a prophetic drawing of what looks like Wednesday destroying the school. So in an attempt to save it, he must kill her.
Another twist that ends up coming full circle: the creature from before swoops in and kills Rowan, proving Wednesday’s vision to be true, just not in the context she was thinking of. After making bulging eye contact with Wednesday, the creature scurries off, basically rescuing Wednesday from being murdered by Rowan.
Back at her dorm room, Wednesday journals about her odd yet interesting experience as a new student at Nevermore. Then she finally begins to see eye-to-eye with her mother, agreeing that she might actually love it there.
Final Thoughts on Wednesday, Season 1 Episode 1
It’s a bit difficult to condense so much information from one action-packed episode. Another detail to mention: Gomez apparently has a murderous past, and Wednesday doesn’t fail to smirk proudly at the Sherriff’s accusation.
This first episode was an exciting beginning to Wednesday’s adventures. Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday does stay true to the moodiness and broodiness of the character but also branches exceptionally far into her own version. She’s emotionless and cunning, yet we still see glimpses of her vulnerability. The unsolved town mysteries, the students at Nevermore, Edin, Tyler, and even her therapist are all factors in urging Wednesday out of her shell. We all know she likes to remain emotionally static, but now these mysteries and Nevermore’s strange environment are lending her intrigue.
Show creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar really meant it when they said this is not a reboot, it’s a reimagination. It explores a different possibility to the world of the Addams family and graduates Wednesday from the dark child we once knew her to the sinister young woman with more angst and social hindrances. We clearly see a bit of caring and sympathy in her personality, from her sibling-driven vendetta against the water polo team to trying to save Rowan from his death. It’s just a little bit we’re receiving now, but with the rest of the season left, we know Wednesday has the power to eventually grow into herself.
Other Honorable Observations:
- The intro theme song is very Tim Burton-y, inspired by the classic Addams theme song (da-na-na-na *snap snap*).
- Beautiful day means gloomy in the Addams Family Dictionary.
- I cringed at Enid telling Wednesday to get on Insta, Snap, and TikTok as their way of modernizing the show.
- “Drip is for people who hate themselves and know their lives have no real purpose or meaning.”
I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.