Wednesday's Child Is Full of Woe

Wednesday Addams is sent to the Nevermore Academy.

This is an enjoyable opening episode with decent humour and character moments.

The plot sets the scene, introduces characters and kicks off a central mystery pretty well inside one hour.

I am a fan of the Christina Ricci version of the title character and I'm happy to say that Jenna Ortega plays it in the same deadpan spirit. How much a single Addams character can carry an entire show will be interesting to see, but the writers definitely chose the right one.

The humour is typically Addams Family, by satirising social norms with Wednesday's reactions and one-liners towards various people. Plus it has all the macabre jokes that involve pain, suffering and death in some shape or form. How much of this will stay fresh for an entire series remains to be seen. I particularly like the opening sequence and a memorable line from Wednesday relating to social media.

Visually it's excellent, with strong cinematography and superb art design, that feels typically Burton, especially the scenes where various shades of colour contrasting with Wednesday gothic appearance.

There are some moments that feel a bit forced to try and add a degree of coolness to the character such as the martial arts. The related jock-bully type antagonists appearing again near the end to increase the stakes, after already proving inept as threats, feels contrived and a bit pointless to me.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

An outcast's been expelled, now her parents are compelled, enrol her in another school, hope she'll follow all the rules, but she's not fully compliant, more devoutly dark defiant, has a plan to make escape, won't be moulded into shape, but the school of Nevermore, has taught this loner type before, and the Principal's familiar, with the crooked and nonlinear, so she's watched, observed and viewed, while she plots, schemes and colludes, though she's started to get visions, that leave some less well provisioned, sets the scene for wanting more, if you like gothic folklore, the creatures conjured and created, may leave you feeling quite elated.

Wednesday Addams is expelled from her school after nearly killing a classmate. This is her eighth expulsion in five years. At wits end, her parents, Morticia and Gomez, send her to Nevermore Academy, Morticia's old school. A school for outcasts, Wednesday should fit in but it appears that even among outcasts she's an outcast.

A fun start to the series. Quite original, especially if you don't know much about the Addams Family, and very well filmed. I was not surprised to discover that the episode is directed by Tim Burton - it has that cinematography and feel to it.

A nice nod to the Addams Family movies of the 90s by having Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in those movies, in the supporting cast in this series.

So, a great start. My only worry is that it all seems so shiny and new and that the writers rely too much on this novelty, rather than writing good scripts.

Let go of your old preconceptions of Wednesday Addams and enjoy the ride. Jenna Ortega has made this teenager a completely unique character.

The set design, the costuming, and the casting make a great tribute to the original comics. If you look at the original comics, Gomez was not particularly handsome. In fact a lot of the humor was based on the fact that this unattractive, short, fat man was able to not only catch, but keep a gorgeous woman enthralled. Luis Guzman, a singularly amazing actor, is perfectly cast.

I am enjoying the mystery aspects of the plot and the macabre undertones are just delicious!

After watching this episode, I had no doubt that Wednesday would be a good series. They set up everyone's character perfectly and even got us started on mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and truly can not wait to watch the rest of this original Netflix series!

It's very fast paced and gothic. The way it's set up is all about Wednesday moving to Nevermore after she is expelled from her other schools. It's apparently a school for outcasts and her parents say she'll fit in. She doesn't, but she makes friends with some other members and is beginning to like it there. It's a real cliffhanger.