Thoughts on Wednesday

Being both a Tim Burton fan and an Addams Family fan, I was quite excited when Netflix announced its new Wednesday show. However, after watching the first episode, I was not *cough* impressed.

I did end up finishing the show (after veeery slowly watching all eight episodes) and now I have a lot of Thoughts. Which I am here to share today. Buckle yourself in, it might get a bit ranty up in here.

Spoilers ahead!

Problem #1: Morticia and Gomez

The Addams parents looked so bad. Let's tackle them one at a time, starting with Gomez. No offense to the actor or anything, but compared to the previous Gomez, it felt like such a downgrade. He also lacked any of Gomez's debonair style.

Just look at them and tell me which is better

And for Morticia? She looked so cheap. Her makeup wasn't great, her wig was bad, and her dress looked like a knock-off. Who did both Morticia and Catherine Zetta-Jones dirty like this? What happened to the flare? The drama? The eternal light ray across her eyes?

Like, can you even compare them?

Problem #2: It disrespected the source material

This wasn't so much an Addams family reboot as a teen detective show that happened to star Wednesday Addams.

For one, there's no family. Wednesday is now a teenager who hates her parents for no discernable reason other than she's a teenager. Any time her family showed up, it was cringey and lacked any of the macabre humor that the Addams family is known for.

Second, as pointed out in both the Pitch Meeting and the Alex Meyers videos, Wednesday doesn't act like Wednesday. She's trying to stop the murders, even though she loves serial killers. When she discovers Tyler is the monster, she's horrified, even though I think that'd be a bigger turn on for her.

Again, it feels more like they had an idea for a show and decided to slap the name Addams on it, because we can't make an original show anymore with no ties to a previous franchise in some way.

Problem #3: It wasn't Tim Burton

I would describe this show as "Netflix does Tim Burton (badly)". I've seen 13/20 of his movies, which means I've become pretty familiar with his style. And this ain't it.

Even the colors of this show looked so bland and Netflix

After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it lacks the magic of a normal Tim Burton project. Even though his subject matter is often creepy and bizarre, there's often an element of whimsy amidst the darkness. A appreciation for the small beauties of life, similar to what you see in Studio Ghibli movies.

This show has none of that. It's your run-of-the-mill Netflix teen drama show, advancing their narrative and profits. For me, that was the most disappointing part. I love Tim Burton's work, but not this one.

Problem #4: It played us

Christina Ricci played one of the characters in the show. For those who might not know, she played Wednesday in the 90s movie versions. Most people know that and so we automatically like her character.

Which makes it feel even more like a betrayal when she turns out to be the villain. It's like what happened with Quicksilver in WandaVision. The filmmakers knew we knew, and used that knowledge against us. For me, that makes me really mad.

I didn't really enjoy the show. Besides all the problems listed here, the monster freaked me out so bad I couldn't even watch scenes with him in it. And I'm normally pretty okay with Tim Burton's monsters.

So there are all my thoughts, messy as they are. Would I recommend this show? Not really. Check out the old movies instead.

Have you seen Wednesday? Do you agree or disagree with any of these thoughts? Tell me in the comments.