CNN
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Although the name of the main character was inspired by the poetic line “The child of Wednesday is full of grief,” “Wednesday” overall a delight, almost entirely thanks to Jenna Ortega. Having outgrown her Disney Channel days, Ortega makes the Addams Family daughter, now a high school senior, the coolest, humorless goth sociopath you'll ever meet in a Netflix series that's more weird than creepy or strange.
Director Tim Burton sets the right visual tone – a mix of comedic and creepy reminiscent of Edward Scissorhands – while teaming up with Smallville producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who know a thing or two about crafting a TV show around an extraordinary teenager. Indeed, when Wednesday is enrolled in the new private school Nevermore Academy, she tells the headmaster (Gwendoline Christie's Game of Thrones) about her frequent moves from school to school: “They haven't built one strong enough to hold me.”
That may change at Nevermore, the poetic name for this haven for weirdos and witches, with a supernatural atmosphere that's as much Hogwarts (or X-Men) as it is Charles Addams' signature comic book.
Wednesday must deal not only with budding psychic abilities and the strange visions that come with them, but also with a mystery that turns a suspicious girl into a hot-tempered, black-clad Nancy Drew, trying to figure out who is responsible as clues begin to lead back to her own family tree.
Obviously, it's a fairly derivative mash-up of genre elements, but the concoction works in part because even the smallest ingredients are tasty, from Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman as Wednesday's parents Morticia and Gomez, to her pal The Thing, who gets the dress she wants by hiring – what else? – “five-fingered discount.” The writers get a lot of comedic mileage out of this extreme, so help them out.
What distinguishes “Sreda” from similar projects (Netflix's “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” comes to mind), it's ultimately Ortega who somehow manages to be mercilessly weird, a portrait that's unblinking, vibrant and oddly sweet all at once. When a character's description includes never raising one's voice or even hinting at a smile, that's no small feat.
Add in neat touches like Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 1990s films, being part of the school staff and the local sheriff (Jamie McShane) calling Wednesday and her classmates the “Scooby Gang,” and the series unfolds on multiple levels.
It's perhaps inevitable that Wednesday won't be able to sustain its initial momentum as the serialized story unfolds over eight episodes and the ending becomes too chaotic. Again, this isn't surprising considering the source material is designed more for little jokes than a big, sweeping story.
Trying to bring something new to a property like The Addams Family that has been done many times before is not easy without changing its DNA. To its credit, Wednesday rises to the challenge and, for the most part, manages to make everything look easy.
“A Wednesday” premieres November 23rd on Netflix.
