As a child, I loved watching the two Addams Family movies that came out in the 1990s so when I heard that a new version came out recently, I decided I needed to watch it. It takes a lot for me to want to watch a new tv show but something I liked about Wednesday was how unique it was and how I wanted to see the similarities and differences from an earlier version that I liked as a child.
Netflix’s show, Wednesday revolves around a sadistic teenage girl named Wednesday Addams who is sent to a school full of outcasts called Nevermore Academy, the school where her parents attended and met each other. Her parents sent her there after she dumped piranhas into her previous school’s pool while the water polo team were in it because they were bullying her brother Puglsey. During the car ride to this new school, she is angry with her parents but her mom thinks she will finally fit in and make friends because the school is specifically for outcasts.
This show is not a remake of the earlier versions of The Addams Family but more like a spinoff as there is a whole new setting that Wednesday’s character is in. She was always my favorite character from the series so I’m glad they were able to do a spinoff on her.
I love Morticia’s new look. Every actress who played Morticia did a wonderful job where they had their own way of portraying the character and how she is depicted. In the 1991 and 1993 versions played by Anjelica Huston, she is seen with red lipstick and wearing heavy eyeshadow. In the 2022 version, Morticia who is played by Catherine-Zeta Jones wears purple lipstick and the eyeshadow she is wearing is not as vibrant.
I liked getting to know the characters at the school. We are introduced to sirens, gorgons, werewolves, vampires, and other mythical creatures. There are also students in the school who are humans but have special powers like Xavier who is an artist and is able to make his art come to life.
They also brought a cast member from a previous version of the Addams family which was Christina Ricci who played Wednesday in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). This time she plays Mrs. Thornhill, a science teacher who seems very nice at first until we find out that she had a whole revenge plan and was actually named Laurel Gates. After she faked her death, she then went by Marilyn Thornhill. This change was something I was not expecting at all and I thought that part made the show even more interesting.
When we first meet Wednesday in the 2022 version, we see that she doesn’t worry about anything. Later as the storyline develops we see that she does show how anxious and worried she is when bad things happen to the people she cares about. She might not admit she cares about them but she does heavily imply it.