Article by Laura Wortman
Just two weeks after debuting on Netflix, “Wednesday” has become the third most-watched English-language show in the streaming platform’s history. Since its premiere on Nov. 23, fittingly a Wednesday, it has ranked number one on the platform and has stayed there since.
The Tim Burton series, starring 20-year-old Jenna Ortega, reimagines “The Addams Family” through the lens of Wednesday Addams. She attends Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for misfits, and gets involved in solving a murder mystery surrounding her parents. Throughout her time at school, she also grapples with a newfound psychic ability and many intertwined relationships.
Ortega’s Puerto Rican and Mexican heritage makes her the first Hispanic actress to portray Wednesday. In a recent interview with The Wrap, Ortega was pleased that Netflix allowed her character and family to fully embrace their Hispanic heritage.
“…When I was younger I had a really hard time embracing certain qualities about myself, and I do think a big part of that is because I didn’t see myself represented on screen or the field that I wanted to participate in,” Ortega said, “I think it’s incredible that she has a Latin face and that young Latinos can watch and relish in and identify themselves, not only with someone’s personality but their looks.”
While previous versions of the canon slightly alluded to the family’s heritage, Netflix’s rendition not only featured more actors of Hispanic descent but also featured more culturally specific elements.
With the haunting rendition of “La Llorona” and other Latin classics, the show displayed its nods to latinidad without overplaying its elements. Viewers were met with fitting mentions of Dia de Los Muertos, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the dead. Pugsley, Wednesday’s brother, eats Flautirriko Tarugos Tamarindo, a well-known Mexican tamarind candy.
In contrast, the 1960s ABC sitcom version of the family, only Gomez Addams was noted as having a Castilian Spanish heritage. The 1991 and 1993 movie versions of the family saw Gomez portrayed by Puerto Rican Actor Raul Julia, who accentuated his accent to theatrically play his character.
Will Flores, junior legal studies major at American University, praised the show for not only being able to include these cultural elements that have been alluded to for so long but also doing so without including overused tropes the media uses with Hispanic characters.
He says, “The show doesn’t apply sexual connotations or Latinx tropes in every character. While it adds the element of culture which is interesting, it’s not applied to their storyline in any way. She’s just Latina in her own right.”
Wednesday’s dark and pessimistic outlier identity caught the attention of Dr. Diana Leon-Boys, an assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of South Florida’s Department of Communication.
In an interview with Pop Sugar, she explains that while representation has greatly increased in the media, repetitive Hispanic girl tropes such as quinceaneras and overachiever archetypes are still common and harmful.
“It’s still very repetitive, it’s still very similar, it’s still very much part of this economic risk-averse strategy that media conglomerates use because they know it’s safe,” Leon-Boys said.
Sandra Freno, a freshman letters and sciences student at the University of Maryland, explained her familiarity with many of the drawbacks Wednesday faced in the show. Freno related her own experiences of being in an American school and being intentional about not forgetting your roots and where you came from.
“Even though Wednesday goes off to a boarding school, she is still very much rooted in her ‘Addamness’ and what makes the Addams unique, that is something that is still part of her identity and is something that never leaves her,” Freno explains. “Sometimes the expectation is that when you leave your family, or when you go off to be more independent, you’re supposed to put your own individual self before your family, but that unity is seen of what makes the Addams family so special.”
Netflix has not announced a renewal of “Wednesday”, but the record-breaking show is sure to impact not only charts but viewers who can now relate to her heritage without having to look past overused stereotypes.