9 Things We Loved, and 4 Things We Didn't, About ‘Wednesday' Season Two, Part One

Gizmodo

2 days ago

Netflix hit Wednesday is back with part one of the long-anticipated second season of Tim Burton's Addams Family spin-off. Jenna Ortega steps back into those black-soled shoes with new mysteries afoot, as new threats rise against the outcasts of Nevermore Academy—but while we largely enjoyed what the first four episodes brought to the table, there are a few things we really hope get cleared up when part two drops.With Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) attending Nevermore Academy with his sister this season, the rest of the Addams clan finds more reasons to be model parents and stay involved with the school—much to Wednesday's consternation. She might not like more time with Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman), but we certainly do.
Speaking of the two, they get a delightful arc when Gomez volunteers to chaperone Nevermore's camp trip alongside Morticia, which leads to him reliving the dangers of his school glory days while supporting his kids' independence. Guzman plays Gomez with such pizazz, he's a pure delight even when we worry about his getting his brains munched on. Seeing Wednesday reluctantly join in on the camp fun to beat the normie scout troop who try to claim the camp as theirs was a blast—even as the grizzly payoff of the story gave us some summer slasher vibes.
Season one pitted Bianca (Joy Sunday) and Wednesday against each other as part of Nevermore's schoolwide competition. But after they worked together to save the school (and kill a demon), it was great to actually see their unlikely partnership blossom, dealing with the toxic masculinity of the scout troop at Jericho that tried to push the outcasts around. We can't wait to see their powers again.
Joy Sunday gets so much more to do as Bianca this time around, and it's such an empowering improvement for the fan-favorite character. We get to see her continued evolution from being both the Nevermore mean girl and Xavier's ex, to standing on equal ground with Wednesday as one of the school's saviors. Bianca is one of season 2's biggest strengths, getting to take the reins as she leads the student body and as one of Wednesday's closest allies, practically being the only person close enough to her that she can get Wednesday to act on her deeply hidden care for her peers.
One of the biggest dramatic conflicts in season 2 is between Enid (Emma Myers) and Wednesday, after the latter gets a vision of the former perishing, doing so partly due to Wednesday herself. Practically her only and best friend coming into the season, Enid is the Watson to Wednesday's Sherlock—and ultimately Wednesday cares about her so much that she's willing to go through the pain of cutting her out of her life until she can avoid the fate glimpsed in her vision, putting herself at risk in the process. The drama centering her love for Enid gave part one a really strong emotional core, one that we really want to see continue to flourish in the remaining episodes.
Morticia being around more this season means we get to see her grapple with how to actually be there for Wednesday. She knows her daughter loves her boundaries, but we get to see her concern over how her visions are driving her to harm, just like they did Morticia's mystery missing sister, Ophelia. The conflict between mother and daughter taking more room in the show speaks to why The Addams Family is such a timeless household name. They have always been a model family in pop culture that stands for love, radical acceptance, and deep understanding, but that's still not without growing pains and the need for generational healing.
There's already a lot going on in season 2, but there was a pure fun in just having Wednesday's grandmama (Joanna Lumley) show up to stir the pot. Not only is Lumley having a ton of fun, her arrival lets the show raise so many more questions—her relationship with Morticia, the mystery over aunt Ophelia, even about Wednesday's love for cruelty. There's always that family member who is the drama, and they know it; in this case, it's absolutely the Frumps… and especially money-hoarding Hester Frump, who happens to be Headmaster Dort's (Steve Buscemi) target for massive donations for the school.
Pugsley is a sweet summer child, whose inclination toward chaos is never as thought out as his sister's. There's a killer moment when he rashly decides to revive the body beneath Skull Tree, leading a comedy of errors in Pugsley's wake—one he'll definitely need help with fixing. But hey, we love a zombie horror show moment, especially one who might be more sinister than anything else we've seen so far.
Wednesday sure knows how to pick them! Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and Wednesday have a very heated reunion in season 2, where you're not sure if they want to destroy each other or just make out. It's giving Buffy and Angel energy, in the best way possible. We can't help but want the best for them, but can a Hyde really change? A big sticking point we have with part one seems to suggest, for now at least… not really. More on that shortly.
There's already a lot going on this season, and throwing in a whole new bunch of Nevermore kids for us to try and keep track of did not help. They all gave part one an overstuffed feeling and got in the way of characters we cared about, especially the elevation of red-haired red herring Agnes to the role of unpaid intern at Wednesday's Mystery Inc.
Nevermore Academy just isn't the same without Headmistress Larissa Weems (Gwendolyne Christie). Steve Buschemi as Headmaster Dort is another fabulous slimy character performance from the great actor, and he is doing a great job at being a deceptively positive, gaslighting old geezer. It's just that in the first half of the season, stuffing in his need to get money for the school, and exploiting Bianca's powers to do it, felt gross in an offputting way rather than a dramatic one. And maybe it's supposed to feel that way, but the staggered release of the season leaves this hanging in a way that mishandles Bianca's otherwise compelling role in the series.
The love triangle between Enid, Ajax (Georgie Farmer) and Bruno (Noah Taylor) is one of the most underwhelming plots of part one. We love that Enid has found herself and gotten more agency while she's distanced from Wednesday, but the suddenness with which she's thrust into a relationship triangle dynamic (right as Wednesday herself largely gets out of one) just feels odd. It doesn't help that between fawning over Bruno and being uncharacteristically mean to Ajax just leaves Enid's story feeling as confused as we are.
So yeah, remember when we said we'd have hope for Tyler and Wednesday as a couple? Tyler throwing Wednesday out of a window kind of squashes that. The abrupt cliffhanger leaves so many questions in the air, unanswered in a very messy way that feels forced to get people to tune in for part two. It's definitely amplified by the season's staggered release, but even then, it's a cheap climax: we know Wednesday's life can't really be hanging in the balance at this point in the series. It's an odd note to break part one on, especially as the teaser for part two currently streaming after it on Netflix reveals that Wednesday is just in a coma, rather than fatally doomed.
'Wednesday' Season Two Part One is streaming now; Part Two drops September 3 on Netflix.
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