A Tale of Wednesday’s Woe

Netflix
Jenna Ortega shows off her dance moves as Wednesday in the Netflix original during Nevermore’s Rave’N school dance.

Milla Jans, Photojournalist
December 14, 2022

Netflix’s original Wednesday, written by Al Gough and Miles Millar and directed by Tim Burton, has taken the hearts of many fans that love the mystery and the girl that solves it. The show was released on November 23, 2022 and accumulated 341.2 million hours of watch time, surpassing Stranger Things as the #1 show on Netflix. Wednesday captivates its audience with a supernatural murder mystery as well as dark comedic elements that wrap the entire production together.

The eight-episode show builds around Nevermore Academy, a school established especially for the outcasts of the world, including werewolves, sirens, and people with extraordinary abilities. Strange events continue to happen within the institution following Gomez Addams’ presumed felony and bizarre encounters with a creature that may be responsible for the deaths of several townspeople. Every one of these hidden secrets seems to revolve around Wednesday Addams. 

The character Wednesday, the sister of Pugsley Addams and daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams, originates from a line of several media forms depicting the ongoings of the Addams Family. This beloved household has stuck in pop culture for generations, starting with David Levy and Donald Saltzman’s The Addams Family. The TV show stars the characters from New Yorker Charles Addams’s cartoons that aired from 1964-1966. 

The peculiar family is then seen in The Addams Family live action film (1991) and cartoon (2019), which include the same characters with plot lines throwing different obstacles in the family’s way. The 2022 Netflix adaptation puts a new spin on The Addams Family franchise by focusing on one character, Wednesday Addams, a gothic and quick witted teen with a morbid sense of humor. 

In the 2022 show, Wednesday is a headstrong character that follows no one’s path but her own, and in the beginning she demonstrates an emotionless perspective that the Wednesdays in previous films do not have. In addition, Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday is given psychic abilities that send her on a trail towards solving the serial killer crimes. However, just like Christina Ricci’s portrayal of Wednesday in The Addams Family 1991 movie, Ortega keeps the witty comments and comebacks that add to Wednesday’s distinctive personality. 

As for Jenna Ortega’s overall performance as Wednesday, Summer Najib (9) states that “…she did a good job of characterizing Wednesday and fit the role pretty well. Her ability to not blink for a large amount of time was also impressive.”

Ortega comments in an interview on TODAY that “…it was something that Tim and I established very early on.” The actress then references Wednesday’s deep unblinking stare that, despite building upon her unnerving nature, Ortega affirms was annoying at times because of the many takes it took to not blink.

Fans of Wednesday’s eccentricities love the dance scene in the show as well, with Wednesday performing a dance choreographed by none other than Jenna Ortega herself. The choreography to The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” was inspired by 80’s goth clubs and the previous The Addams Family films. Ortega’s dance even gained traction on TikTok when a supporter edited it and Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” together, obtaining almost 70 million views. The new trend of “Wednesday’s dance” has become tremendously popular, so much so that the background of “Bloody Mary” on Spotify now displays Wednesday taking the spotlight during the Rave’N school dance.

Unlike Wednesday, if you love technology and haven’t watched this cinematic masterpiece, consider joining her on her pathway of introspection and solving the horrific crimes depicted in the series. It may just lead to the light at the end of a tunnel, of presumptions made lucid, or to a winding road dropping onto a masked cliff, with an ending that was never certain.