The Devil You Woe

This second episode, while better than the first, still falls short of my personal expectations for this second season.

The plot remains as uninteresting as ever and clearly aimed at a teenage audience. The pace sometimes seems numbed by this lack of substance. The writing and dialogue continue to suffer from a lack of inventiveness. The suspenseful effects feel like they've been seen a thousand times elsewhere.

And Jenna Ortega, beyond her natural physical charisma, aided by Wednesday's gothic look, continues her one-dimensional performance that often leaves me yawning with boredom.

The two good news items are the appearance of Christopher Lloyd, and a new character with potential, Agnes Demille, well portrayed so far by the young Evie Templeton.

All the reviews that are 7 and higher are probably younger people who don't know any better. The writing in this is awful. There's all this stuff going on yet nothing is happening. It's a trudge from one scene to another. Wednesday's dialogue feels forced and unnatural. Season 1 was a lot better. Not sure what is going on. Also, Wednesday went from beloved in Season 1 to fatiguing in Season 2 so far. Ugh, we get it, woe is everything. The humor is a miss. The plot is predictable and there's no real fear of danger. Such as when Enid was in trouble...I wasn't worried. It's just so blah.....

Don't get me wrong. It isn't horrible but no means is it really good. I guess it's really just down the middle.

There is a time jump that confused me. I felt like there was a lot of context and information missing.

A lot of the polt elements that changes the status quo I feel like they could of let those elements breathe and be a half season of its own.

From what I can tell the first episode of season 2 was filmed back with season 1 or was shot at another date.

I thought it would get better but I was a bit wrong about that. It's not that bad tho, the actors are really good, but the plot is kinda cringe. And it's like a bad teen series, watching it felt like I was watching something specially made for the new alpha generation. The first season was better, i expected this one to be, but not.

The Devil You Woe feels like the conclusion of Here We Woe Again, whilst expanding on certain aspects of the season's overarching narrative.

I think the central plot is reasonably good. I like that Wednesday has to use her brain to overcome obstacles, but you never feel any sense of a threat. The writers know better than to harm a certain character given the importance of their relationship to the show.

Morticia and Pugsley both have scenes that lay foundations for what looks to be coming next. There is only so much of the controlling parent vs child dynamic can will sustain an interest, as it is a trope that has been done to death in filmmaking. Likewise zombie related horror spectacle! However, it is too early to judge at this point.

One reviewer mention cliches taken from other movies. I prefer to call them tributes and the biggest one comes at Willow Hill. I particularly like the way Thandiwe Newton stands in a similar pose to Hannibal Lecter when she is first revealed and the Silence of the Lambs vibe of the next scene.

Steve Buscemi's principal makes another good contribution with nefarious scheming that makes you want to find out what happens next.

Visually it's another great mix of gothic art design with solid moments of horror free of excessive gore.