The first season of Wednesday, Tim Burton’s reimagined take on The Addams Family, broke Netflix records and made a global superstar of Jenna Ortega who played the deliciously spooky lead. The show even had its own viral moment when millions copied her goth disco-inspired dance – and a fan edit using Lady Gaga’s ‘Bloody Mary’ sent the ‘Born This Way’ deep cut into the charts, 11 years after it was first released. Now, Morticia and Gomez’s eldest returns to Nevermore Academy with all eyes on her.
It’s a new school year and, to her horror, Wednesday has become a beloved hero at the sanctuary for outcasts thanks to her exploits at the end of the first season. To make matters worse, Wednesday’s unpredictable psychic abilities have begun to overwhelm her, meaning mum Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has to be far more involved in the young rebel’s life. After a premonition that shows her best friend Enid’s (Emma Myers) death, Wednesday sets out to prevent the tragedy while trying to unmask her mysterious new stalker.
The first episode starts strongly, with Ortega’s acerbic student spending her summer luring in a serial killer known as The Kansas City Scalper (Haley Joel Osment). The hilarious pre-credits sequence proves this second season hasn’t lost any of its sharp, dark wit and there are big laughs to be had from Wednesday’s interactions with everyday “normie” life. A scene where she sneers frustratedly at airport security questioning the many weapons in her luggage is comedy gold.
Skulking around like a goth version of Murder She Wrote‘s Jessica Fletcher, Ortega’s ability to make Wednesday’s antisocial disposition both funny and empathetic is the show’s biggest strength. Aside from the main mystery, she forms a strong bond with Zeta-Jones’ fabulous Morticia, creating a mother-daughter conflict that adds plenty of emotion without being mawkish.
One of the highlights of the first season was the arrival of Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) and the trouble that he bought with him. The giggling chaos merchant makes a welcome return in season two – while newcomer Steve Buscemi plays Nevermore’s chipper new principal, offering a goofy counterbalance to the more dramatic characters that attend the school.
However, the season struggles to expand the world beyond its lead, resulting in a handful of sluggish b-plots. Wednesday’s little brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) reanimating a body and former queen bee Bianca (Joy Sunday) having her siren powers exploited by Principal Dort drag the pace as we wait for the hero to return.
With plenty of memorable needle drops in season one, Billie Piper feels particularly underused as Nevermore’s new music teacher Isadora Capri. She gets to flex her popstar muscles with a brilliant musical number but there’s not much else for her to do in the four episodes that make up the first half of Wednesday’s second season. Thandiwe Newton also pops up as psychiatric doctor Fairburn. With connections to the events of season one, she provides an ominous presence as the mysteries unravel.
A frantic mid-season finale sets things up for an explosive return in September, which will also see the arrival of Lady Gaga’s Rosaline Rotwood. Perhaps that next batch of episodes will take the beloved series to new places after part one sticks carefully to the familiar, if successful, formula.
‘Wednesday’ season two part one is on Netflix from August 6