For his first series, Tim Burton delves into the world of the Addams family and focuses on Wednesday, the rebellious and morbid teenager. In the title role, Jenna Ortega reinvents the character. A nice success to discover on Netflix.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT ?
Now a student at the quirky Nevermore Academy, Wednesday Addams tries to fit in with the other students while investigating a series of murders that terrorizes the town…
Wednesday, a series created by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and co-directed by Tim Burton.
WHO IS IT WITH?
The year 2022 is very busy for Jenna Ortega. After the horror films Scream and X, she plays Wednesday Addams in this series centered on heroin. The actress appropriates the character, succeeding brilliantly to Christina Ricci. The latter returns to the universe of the Addams family with a more important role than announced.
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán play parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams. Uncle Fetid is played by Fred Armisen, a comedian well known in the United States for his appearances on Saturday Night Live.
Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) uses her imposing figure to portray the director of Nevermore Academy, while Hunter Doohan (Your Honor), Emma Myers, Percy Hynes-White and Joy Sunday play the rebellious and macabre teenager’s comrades.
WELL WORTH A LOOK ?
If they had never met before, the universe of the Addams family and Tim Burton still share many points in common. Among them, a sensitivity for the macabre and black humor. Failing to have made an adaptation for the cinema, the director produces and signs his first series centered on Wednesday.
In 1986, the author had already gone through the television box by directing an episode of the soap opera Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Here, under the leadership of Netflix, he is in charge of 4 out of 8 episodes.
Still, his style is visible throughout the series. It is not for nothing that the filmmaker fell in love with the heroine. Wednesday represents the teenager that was Tim Burton and it is himself who says it.
netflix Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams.
The plot begins as she enters a new school, Nevermore Academy. A unique establishment that accommodates marginalized people with extraordinary abilities. Very quickly, things degenerate, enough for the young Addams to lead the investigation.
Written by the creators of Smallville – yes, really -, Wednesday is a series connected to 10,000 volts, which keeps changing shape and genre. When it takes on the appearance of a drama for teenagers, it suddenly turns into a detective and fantastic thriller before turning, for our greatest pleasure, into a horrific ballet.
netflix
Luis Guzmán, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Isaac Ordonez as Gomez, Morticia and Pugsley Addams.
The universe built around Wednesday Addams is populated by wacky characters, ghosts and monsters of all kinds. Suffice to say that lovers of the strange will feel at home.
If the story is entertaining, without being revolutionary, and the staging rather classic, the series finds its anchor point thanks to its interpreters, starting with Jenna Ortega.
The American is faithful to the nonchalance that makes the salt of her character, while bringing a real sensitivity. In the collective imagination, Christina Ricci is the one and only Wednesday Addams. Jenna Ortega manages to make a place for herself with a modernized vision of the heroine, capable of playing her Columbo and expert in martial arts.
netflix
Wednesday and the Thing.
But that’s not all. Others are doing well, like Gwendoline Christie, excellent as a school principal with her costumes reminiscent of Hitchcock actresses, Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak in the lead. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, for their part, would have deserved more scenes as their couple works.
The young cast also pulls it off with flying colors — special mention for Wednesday’s candy-pink roommate Emma Myers and potential boyfriend Hunter Doohan. And there is Christina Ricci, always convincing, who this time embodies a whole new character.
From its solid and cohesive art direction to its hectic action scenes, Wednesday is a great achievement for Netflix which should logically find its audience, of all ages.
Wednesday is available on Netflix.