31 DAYS OF HORROR 2023 - Day 2: WEDNESDAY (2022) Netflix series

Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) drops some friends in for a bite.

 

So, I watched WEDNESDAY and was entertained, but it had several issues.

If you are an Addams Family fan, this show focuses on Wednesday Addams and Thing (who's her literal right hand man), with periodic minor appearances from most of the other regular characters, with Lurch and Pugsley coming off with the least to do. 

 

The show's setup is a gene-splicing of Hogwarts and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, with the teen angst one expects from a CW tweener drama series, and it cannot make up its mind if the overall tone is meant to be humorous or horrifying with the assorted shenanigans bearing potentially serious and even lethal consequences. (We are informed that Wednesday's revenge prank involving dumping hungry piranhas into her previous school's swimming pool costs the offending swim team jock a testicle, and there are several savage mutilations and murders.) 

 

If you ask me it's not quite sure what it wants to be, but I found the cast engaging — Jenna Ortega as Wednesday and Emma Myers as late-blooming werewolf Enid Sinclair are my favorites — and the "monster rally" aspect was a lot of fun, so I will be back for more when the second season drops. When that comes to pass, I hope more time is taken and more thought is put into really figuring out a cohesive flavor and tone for the proceedings.

Oh, and extra points for supporting actress Gwendoline Christie (aka GAME OF THRONES Brienne of Tarth — YUM!!!) as Principal Weems, and also for the superb deployment of the Cramps' classic "Goo-Goo Muck" during a school dance sequence. 

"'Cause I'm a goo-goo muck tiger and a teenage beast..."