Wednesday is an unusual product – kind of like fan fiction that explores what Wednesday Addams’ life would be like at school. Stories about The Addams Family have always revolved around the family and their strangeness, in part to make the distinction between what’s normal and what’s not, so following Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) on her solo adventures feels like an oddity. This is perhaps why the rest of the family have more of a presence in the second season than the first. Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) now attends Evermore with Wednesday, Morticia’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) more involved with the school’s affairs and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) volunteers as a chaperone for school activities.
This doesn’t necessarily improve the show – Gomez and Pugsley feel like non-entities – but I adore Zeta-Jones’ take on Morticia. She’s so elegant, wonderfully maternal, and for those of us who are ardent fans of The Mask of Zorro, it’s such a pleasure to see her fencing again. The foundation of the show is built on all these female relationships – Wednesday and her mother, Wednesday and Enid (Emma Myers), even Bianca (Joy Sunday) and her mother – so it does feel like the men aren’t really a consideration and exist in the peripheries of the show. This focus could also be why Wednesday is no longer saddled with love interests. Last season she had two, but now Percy Hynes White’s Xavier isn’t on the show anymore, and Tyler (Hunter Doohan) has become full foe who’s maniacally obsessed with Wednesday.
This is a good change. It makes sense for this version of Wednesday, someone who charts her own path and who’s never been concerned about the feelings of others. She’s fiercely loyal to those she cares about, but the madness of love seems to be something that would elude her in her current characterisation. Also, I do like that we’re getting a female protagonist that’s not defined by her romantic relationships. When we have a deluge of teen dramas obsessed with love triangles, Wednesday is a refreshing change of pace.
This season, Wednesday once again has a mystery to solve, this time it’s the murder of Tyler’s father and other related murders. Wednesday becomes eager to solve this mystery, especially since her psychic abilities show her Enid’s future death before they suddenly go on the fritz. She thus embarks on a journey to reclaim her psychic abilities, which leads to sparring matches with her mother – both verbally and physically. Wednesday’s need for control is her undoing, as she abuses her psychic abilities but perceives that she is mastering them.
Ortega continues to shine as Wednesday. She has her stoic, deadpan delivery down pat, and vividly conveys how beneath Wednesday’s need for control, there also lingers a desire for chaos. Ortega has mastered the manic/satisfied look Wednesday gets when things go her way, and it’s really fun to see her just shape the character into such an iconic presence. We get to see what an incredible actress she is during a body swap episode, where Wednesday and Enid temporarily swap bodies. As Enid, she’s just a colourful burst of energy, somehow embodying the character to a T. Myers also does a decent job this episode in capturing the sociopathic energy of Wednesday, but she isn’t as convincing as Ortega, who even manages to accurately convey the inflections of Enid’s voice. Ortega’s been criticised for her choice of film projects, since she was a part of several films that were critical flops, but Wednesday is the perfect vehicle for her talents.
There’s a whole new barrage of cast members this season, but they don’t make an impression the way Gwendoline Christie’s Weems does. Steve Buscemi’s Principal Dort is pretty much a nothing character, Billie Piper’s Isadora is used as a red herring before becoming fairly unmemorable as the show wears on, and even guest star Lady Gaga is absolutely wasted. Her presence in the show was amped up so much, only for her to end up being insignificant. You get Lady Gaga on your show and that’s all you get her to do? What a wasted opportunity.
The expanded lore of the hydes is interesting, and I wished the show focused on that more than the superficial machinations of Principal Dort. Bianca’s arc is tied to his character this season, but I think I would rather have more development of the Nightshades than this boring subplot. Enid’s romantic relationships are also a mess this season, and resolve in utterly unsatisfying ways. Not sure why they would introduce a whole new love interest in Bruno (Noah B. Taylor) only for it to pan out the way it does. It could be said that maybe Enid was overcompensating and trying to fit in which is why she started something with Bruno, but this doesn’t really come through in the portrayal of the relationship. Ultimately, it just feels like screentime wasted on something that didn’t reveal or give us anything meaningful.
After the Wednesday dance took the world by storm last season, I guess the showrunners felt they needed to give us another dance routine this season. The dance between Enid and Agnes (Evie Templeton) can’t quite top Wednesday’s Goo Goo Muck, but hey it was entertaining and I like that Agnes’ character gets to be in the spotlight for once.
Ortega is a star, but the plotlines that surround her character need work. If you’re gonna make Wednesday an Outkast, then at least give the school more relevance in the plot. Here’s hoping season 3 brings more balance of plot and character.
REVIEW SCORE: 3.5/5
