"I don't bury hatchets. I sharpen them."“I enjoy funerals. I’ve been crashing them since I was old enough to read the obituary section.”
"You know the old saying: never bring a knife to a sword fight. Unless it's concealed"
"Use the words 'little' and 'girl' to address me again and I can't guarantee your safety."
"I see the world as a place that must be endured, and my personal philosophy is kill or be killed."
"I know I’m stubborn, single-minded and obsessive. But those are all traits of great writers. Yes, and serial killers."
“For the record I don’t believe that I’m better than everyone else. Just that I’m better than you.”
At our latest "binge-watch" yesterday, John-John and I not only completed watching the She-Hulk series, and watched two further Marvel specials Werewolf By Night and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special [Bah Humbug], but managed to also watch back-to-back all eight episodes of the cult Netflix hit series Wednesday, which places The Addams Family's sepulchral daughter front and centre of the action. I'd heard good things about it, and wasn't disappointed.
The show is firmly marketed at a "Young Adult" audience, so has all the expected tropes of the genre - fumbling teenage relationships, angst, "believing in yourself", rivalries, a smattering of "socially aware" issues around societal stigma, identity, sexuality, climate; the usual shebang that goes with the territory - but with Tim Burton on board, you just know it rises above all that into something very quirky indeed.
The sinister nature of Addams Family lore pervades everything here, from the Gothic architecture of the Nevermore Academy (described by one reviewer as "Hogwarts for Goths") and its cobwebby secret passageways and hidden libraries, to the dark inversion of bad=good, and the campery that goes with it [it features many tributes to the 1960s TV series, too: the entry call for the secret doorway is its trademark "double-finger-snap"; an arcane book is hidden behind a dusty oil painting of Cousin Itt]. And as the most chilling of all the Addams the eponymous "Wednesday", Jenna Ortega is an absolute sensation! From the moment she exacts revenge on the water polo team that had been bullying her brother "Pugsley" at her most recent school - with piranhas! - she is utterly convincing as everyone's favourite cold-hearted junior psychopath. I loved her!
Her singular blooody-mindedness and lack of any concern what anyone thinks of her cleverly subverts the schmaltziness that American-high-school-based dramas tend to offer, and as Wednesday cruelly undermines everybody in her path - her candyfloss-coloured werewolf roommate "Enid" (Emma Myers), school top dog (and siren) "Bianca" (Joy Sunday), fellow pupils, prospective boyfriends ("Xavier" (Percy Hynes White ) and "Tyler" (Hunter Doohan ), both gorgeous), teachers (including "Miss Thornhill", played by Miss Ortega's predecessor in the role Christina Ricci) her therapist and the local townsfolk, as well as her battles of wits with the magnificent Nevermore headmistress Larissa Weems (a superb performance by Gwendoline Christie) and the local Sheriff Galpin (Jamie McShane) - we still rooted for the malevolent little monster!
Speaking of monsters, the thread of the plot revolves around a series of gory murders in the area by a mysterious beast, and its potential link to the grim and supernatural history of the town and its environs; all of which Wednesday takes as a direct challenge that she (and her sidekick, the ever reliable disembodied hand "Thing") must investigate and solve. There are multiple twists and turns (of course), and some standalone interruptions to the ongoing story - not least the appearance of the Addams clan (with Catherine Zita-Jones as the imperious "Morticia"), and a hilarious "Uncle Fester" (Fred Armisen) - before the inevitable, action-packed denouément in which all the loose ends are tied up. Or are they? [There is a second series in the offing]
There is one scene in particular that has gone viral amonst the show's many fans - and here it is!
And, by way of a further taster, "a featurette"...
I highly recommend it!
Wednesday official Netflix page
