Family Woes – Wednesday Season 2 review
The conclusion to the much-anticipated season 2 of the hit series Wednesday arrived on Netflix on September 3rd completing the 2-part release that premiered on August 6th.
5 minute read
Tim Burton’s new supernatural crime drama spin on Charles Addams’ iconic macabre family, starring Jenna Ortega, follows the sociopathic eldest daughter, with a cast featuring alumni from the 1991 film duo The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, Christina Ricci and the legendary Christopher Lloyd.
As a seer attending Nevermore Academy for teenagers with supernatural abilities and navigating her own abilities, Wednesday Addams finds herself engrossed in a series of murders committed by the were-monster Hyde, later revealed to be barista and building love interest Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan).
Themes of communication, trust and consideration for the affects her actions have on others are lost on the anti-social and morbid Addams daughter causing her reckless pursuit of solving murders to bring more consequences than benefits.
Despite being described as ‘overbearingly arrogant’, season 2 reveals small cracks in Wednesday’s cold exterior that showcases that she does indeed possess an ability to care for others when she sees the death of her polar-opposite werewolf roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) and becomes obsessed with regaining her lost abilities to prevent it.
Finding Enid with her throat slit open out on their balcony, an ironic prank for the academy’s annual prank day, was one of her most vulnerable moments thus far and their friendship continues to grow through a body swap experience, as cliché and gimmicky as it is, that forces a clearer understanding of each other.
She even expands her social circle in a sense with Agnus Demille (Evie Templeton), a Nevermore student with invisibility who became obsessed with Wednesday after her defeat of the zombified founder of their small town of Jericho in season 1.
At first the character comes off as overbearing with no substance. Desperate for the anti-hero’s approval, Agnus devotes herself to being Wednesday’s unsolicited lacky but learns to start finding her own identity and Wednesday shows her own brand of acceptance for Agnus’ usefulness in her crime solving, thus for once, no longer insisting on working alone. Though this does not improve the outcomes, it’s a step in Wednesday’s social growth.
Meanwhile, Morticia, concerned about Wednesday’s reckless use and pursuit of her lost seer abilities, creates a rift between mother and daughter pushing Wednesday towards her more supportive grandmother wealthy funeral homeowner Hester Frump (Joanna Lumely), which is mediated by the late principal Larissa Weems who returns as Wednesdays spirit guide.
It’s a flimsy excuse to continue using Gwendaline Christi’s character who was killed off in season 1 alongside her role as Lucifer Morningstar in Niel Gaiman’s The Sandman series but she does provide a voice of reason in Wednesday’s need to regain her abilities and plays a role in the reconciliation between the mother and daughter.
The youngest Addams, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), newly enrolled in Nevermore, adds to the chaos when he unearths a zombie he decides to keep as a pet.
There are undertones of relatable teenage struggles such as fitting in and finding friends at a new school and conflicts in parent/child relationships over what is best for the child as well as substance found in the revelation of the origins of the Addams’ iconic pet severed hand, Thing and the reason Gomez’s outcast ability has neither been shown nor addressed prior.
However, Prodigy Issac Night gives a new meaning to monster mash-up with the sheer number of characters and plots he’s shoved into. Roommate and closest friend of Gomez Addams, uncle of Tyler Galpin who is stretched as it is when he is reunited with the mother, he believed to be dead and the one whom Thing was decapitated from.
A fantastic Poe-style urban legend of a teenager with the brilliance to build a mechanical device to replace his own failing heart that twisted him into madness reduced to a stretch with his connection to the Galpins and a redundance as another involvement of Gomez and Morticia Addams after the Garret Gates roots in season 1.
Although his ‘clockwork heart’ left him cold and void of a conscious, Night loved his sister and his obsession with saving her from the illness of being a Hyde was revived with him when Francois Galpin believed to have been dead is revealed to have been prisoner in a hidden lab in Willow Hill mental facility and freed as a result of Wednesday’s reckless actions with the help of her fugitive uncle Fester Addams (Fred Armison), however Doohan’s Tyler character who vowed revenge on Wednesday and Enid got lost in this twisted family reunion and lost his substance.
The Addams Family secrets continue to come out with Morticia’s missing sister Ophelia Frump, a Raven like Wednesday who was driven mad by overuse of her abilities and the core of Morticia’s overbearing protectiveness as Wednesday begins to fall to the same fate as well as estranged Morticia from her own mother.
The mystery surrounding Ophelia Frump and her disappearance has merely been scratched at the surface but promises to continue in season 3 alongside Wednesday’s trip to Canada in search of Enid who has become stuck in her werewolf form.
The series was officially renewed in July with an anticipated 2027 release.
Wednesday – Season 2
7
Good
The Verdict
Jenna Ortega shines as Wednesday, showing rare vulnerability through her bond with Enid, but the narrative often buckles under forced twists and overstuffed storylines. Despite flaws, the season expands Wednesday’s world and teases darker mysteries ahead, leaving just enough intrigue for season 3.
Reviewed by The Fanatic for New Game Now
