Season 2 of Wednesday is finally available to watch in its entirety on Netflix. And while the first half introduced a solid return, the second half almost holds up before a messy to-be-continued conclusion.
Tim Burton puts his whole Burtonesque business on full display with a third-act antagonist reveal that both works and doesn’t. The Addams family being at the mechanical heart of another mystery creates a lot of fun lore for Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) to discover about her parents. This time Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) isn’t the only Addams with a dark secret; Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) are also involved.
And it all, of course, ties back to what makes Nevermore the center of the drama, both in its past and in its present. But did it all come together in a satisfying way? Very nearly, as season two’s writers room finds its footing with a good blend of diverse voices led by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough but gets mired by falling back into building an anticipation for more in season three with no solid conclusion to stand on its own.
We loved: Weems’ return
All hail Gwendoline Christie’s return to Nevermore. Weems is the perfect mentor-slash-foil to push Wednesday around as her guide and fight for her legacy at the school. Just speculating here, but if the writers created some woo-woo magic excuse to materialize her enough to be a visible specter, we would definitely accept her coming back as the school’s immortal principal. It’s a supernatural world; let’s do it. Season three without Weems wouldn’t be the same.
We loved: The Addams family matters
If the show wasn’t an Addams Family spin-off, it would be a problem, but truly I love that at the core of a lot of the mystery is Wednesday’s family. They are the drama in this world and we love the goth telenovela aspect of it all. Morticia and Gomez have had murderous haters since high school; all her killings have been in defense of those she loves. They had it coming! Nevermore’s secrets being brought to light because of Wednesday is hilarious because so many of her mysteries would have been solved quicker if she and Tish had a better relationship.
We loved: Bianca and Ajax’s friendship
As the show finds better ways to balance its concurrent plots, we hope to see more of Bianca and Ajax stepping up as the leaders of Nevermore. While Wednesday has no interest in being a student body leader, they most resemble the archetype to protect the outcasts that Morticia and Gomez were established to have had when they were students. We didn’t get much of Bianca and Morticia bonding over that and I hope it’s seen in later seasons of the show. Ajax babysitting Pugsley and Eugene was awesome. Plus their last act of heroics against Dort really made them the school’s real MVPs.
We loved: Weird Wednesday
... continue reading