By HESSEM LADCANI
Staff Writer
Wednesday, a coming-of-age supernatural comedy horror series, hit the Netflix streaming platform on November 23 as a fun pre-Thanksgiving treat, with the Addams family being a present icon in media for many years, tracing back to a one-panel comic in 1938, fans were anticipating the release of this new show picturing Wednesday Addams in her years as a student.
Beloved by many fans, plenty were looking forward to the casting choices for the main characters. Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, and Issac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams. Also starring Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the double feature The Addams Family(1991) and The Addams Family Values(1993), returned for a reoccurring role in the new series!
After being expelled one too many times from high school after high school (her most recent offense being a pool full of piranhas with the swim team inside it), Wednesday’s finally being moved somewhere more “appropriate”. Gomez and Morticia decide to send her to their own boarding school, Nevermore Academy.
There, Wednesday can be among those who are “like her”, and by that, the show means werewolves, vampires, and all manner of other supernatural creatures, despite Wednesday being none of that herself. It’s all about being an “outcast” or a “normie” there.
Social media opinions were sky-high even before this show even aired. While many speculated on Guzmán’s capacity to play Gomez due to viewers refusing to forget Raul Julia’s performance as Gomez in the 1991 and 1993 films, and with the focus on the titular character, Guzmán didn’t stand a chance to win the audience’s graces.
However, on the other hand, many fans uplifted and defended Guzmán’s performance as a casting choice due to the representation he could bring to the role as a Puerto Rican actor. The Addams family has been canonically Latino since they were depicted with Spanish ancestry in 1964. Similarly, the titular character Wednesday Addams is portrayed by Ortega who is Mexican and Puerto Rican.
Overall the show captivated the gothic and kooky side of the Addams. With Tim Burton directing four out of the eight episodes, his obscure taste and presentation for his films shine through in this monster mystery.
