WEDNESDAY, Season 2, Part 1: More Tuesday Than Wednesday

A fairly good start promised a much better season. I just finished watching the last episodes of Part One of Wednesday Season 2 (yes, it sounds complicated) and… well, after the initial excitement, by the third episode I had to take off my rose-colored glasses. Unfortunately – it’s mediocre.

The first season of Wednesday was Netflix’s biggest English-language hit, unexpectedly becoming a pop culture phenomenon and a fashion trend. The series had its flaws – there was plenty of “blah-blah” teenage drama – but it kept something that had always been the driving force behind previous adaptations of the comic: the twisted power of the Addams family, which, despite all its darkness and oddities, was grotesquely warm and loyal to each other.

Now we get the story of Morticia and Gomez’s socially maladjusted daughter (I still don’t feel any chemistry between them), but with one big plus – Wednesday wants to be something. She doesn’t copy the worn-out Addams formulas, which wouldn’t attract today’s teens anyway. And this show is an absolute hit among my students. It’s also very well cast, with Jenna Ortega shining and proving that the role was made for her.

The start of Season 2 gave me hope – the atmosphere of the first season was preserved, there’s a bit of horror, a few Burton-esque touches (more as an accent than a foundation). I didn’t expect Steve Buscemi, channeling the meme-worthy “How do you do, fellow kids?”, to be exactly what I needed. Sure, the early pacing is slow and the exposition occasionally drags, but I’m always happy to see a denser concentration of Addamses in my Addams content. Jenna Ortega also plays well with the phenomenon of her character – she can even poke fun at Wednesday’s fame.

The supporting cast holds up, and the tone is noticeably darker than in the first season. We also get typically Burton-esque flourishes (a stop-motion tale of a buried boy), a pleasant cameo from Haley Joel Osment, and several nice Easter eggs scattered throughout.

The problem is that at some point, the whole thing bogs down in narrative mud. The plot does move forward, but in circles, multiplying plot twists until the prevailing feeling is one of confusion. The “too many subplots” syndrome kicks in – at times, I’m not sure what the story’s main thread is or whether there’s actually anything left to uncover. Yes, we explore the history of the Outcasts and the world beyond Nevermore, but there’s no cohesive through-line. It’s also easy to spot the differences in quality between episodes directed by different people.

What hurts the most is that the creators seem to have forgotten about the relationships between the original characters. Enid wanders around the screen aimlessly, and Bianca, Ajax, and Eugene’s storylines are completely disconnected from the main plot and from the title character herself. It’s strange and disappointing. New characters get their moments (I particularly liked the psychotic Invisible Lady), but the old relationships vanish in the crowd.

It’s also increasingly clear that the freshness of the formula is wearing off, and the dialogue is losing its edge. The Addams family plotline is the weakest part – Morticia and Gomez still lack the chemistry, grotesqueness, and oddness they should have.

Catherine Zeta-Jones flounders in a role that Anjelica Huston played ge-ni-al-ly. I still get the impression her Morticia could at any moment tell Gomez she’s with him out of pity. And Pugsley… honestly, he feels entirely unnecessary. The most bizarre and utterly idiotic element, plot-wise, is the return of Christina Ricci – I absolutely do not understand the character’s motivation or the logic of her actions. It’s a Chekhov’s gun in its weakest form.

The part of the season also ends with something I absolutely hate – a big, dramatic cliffhanger that reeks of the classic “they killed him and he ran away.” Such tricks rarely work – most of the time, creators dodge responsibility, struggle to resolve the situation sensibly, and have trouble keeping the stakes high. And here, we’ve walked right into that trap.

Wednesday Season 2 started promisingly – darker, occasionally funnier, with some interesting additions. Unfortunately, the further it goes, the more the story loses coherence, and the relationships that were the heart of the series dissolve in a mess of subplots. Ortega still carries the show on her shoulders, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is less and less Wednesday and more and more chaotic teen fantasy with a sugary Burton glaze on top.