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Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
'Wednesday' Season 2 Is Secretly a Gift to Weird Adults
When it comes to youth culture, nothing is more mainstream right now than outcasts. This is not an anecdotal observation—it's a fact, borne out by the immense popularity of the teen-focused Addams Family spinoff Wednesday, whose first season tops Netflix's list of its most-watched English-language shows of all time, with more than 250 million views. (The next two titles, Adolescence and Stranger Things 4, lag by over 100 million views apiece.) Melding horror and mystery with YA drama, it has made a global star of its 22-year-old lead, Jenna Ortega, whose cannily placed dance scene immediately broke TikTok. Wednesday Addams cracked the top 10 kids' Halloween costumes the year after it debuted, second only to Barbie among name-brand female characters. All of which might suggest to adults that Wednesday is strictly for Gen Z. Its first season certainly supported that impression. The setting—Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for paranormally gifted misfits—recalled Harry Potter's Hogwarts. The plot put a dark but too rarely novel spin on standard coming-of-age tropes, as Ortega's icy, psychic Wednesday navigated roommate troubles and a supernatural love triangle (see also: Buffy, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries). While those elements remain in Season 2, Wednesday, having saturated the Gen Z market, now feels like it's working harder to entertain older viewers—particularly those of us who fondly remember '90s pop culture. Well, it worked on this elder millennial. Parents, don't tell your tweens, but the new episodes of Wednesday are secretly a gift to weird adults. After a speed run through Wednesday's summer vacation, which she naturally spent taking out a creepy serial killer played by Y2K spooky-kid icon Haley Joel Osment, Season 2 (whose first four episodes are now streaming, with the last four to follow on Sept. 3) opens with her return to Nevermore. Having vanquished the murderous alliance of her love interest Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and teacher Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci), who had been conspiring against the school's outcast denizens, she's hailed as a hero. Which only makes her grumpier than usual. Adding to Wednesday's foul mood is her family's increased presence on campus. Her little brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), has matriculated as an awkward underclassman. And Addams matriarch Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has been recruited to raise funds for the academy—meaning, of course, that Morticia's adoring husband, Gomez (Luis Guzmán), won't be far away. Eventually there's a spectacular grandmother in the mix. More on her later. Although Wednesday's perky werewolf roomie Enid (Emma Myers) inherits the love-triangle plot, while Pugsley and his roommate Eugene (Moosa Mostafa) get wrapped up in a deeply silly storyline involving a pet zombie, the family stuff is a nice respite from a Nevermore social scene that was always the show's least inspired element. It also gives the wonderful Ortega, whose deadpan yet somehow tender performance carried the first season, a chance to play off of many talented older actors. This isn't an entirely new thing for Wednesday, whose executive producer and director Tim Burton helped discover so many offbeat Gen X-ers. Season 1 also featured Zeta-Jones, Guzmán, and Ricci (a previous generation's Wednesday Addams in two cult-classic '90s movies), as well as Fred Armisen in the role of Uncle Fester and Gwendoline Christie as Nevermore's principal. But this time, the adult Addamses are more integral to the story. Now that it is, by many measures, the biggest show on TV, Wednesday creators and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have the clout (also the budget) to really go wild with their casting choices. So Christie's disgraced administrator is replaced by Steve Buscemi's Principal Barry Dort, an outcast-pride advocate who craves Wednesday's approval. Buscemi is, of course, famous for playing weirdos and alternative types; in one of his most beloved roles, he starred opposite Ricci as a lonely record collector in the 2001 film adaptation of Daniel Clowes' sardonic coming-of-age comic Ghost World. The fantastically versatile Billie Piper, who has charmed geeks in Doctor Who and goths in Penny Dreadful, makes an intriguing foil for cello phenom Wednesday as the school's new head of music. Her relatively minor role in the early episodes of the season seems likely to anticipate an increased presence in its second half. Gough and Millar have moved to liberate the show from teen-drama clichés by expanding its world beyond the dating woes and questionable authority figures of Nevermore. Tyler's imprisonment at the nearby Willow Hill Psychiatric Facility—whose grimy environs recall Batman's Arkham Asylum, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and so many other fictional houses of psychological horrors—is the site of a promising new (but easily spoiled) subplot. There, Wednesday meets the unorthodox doctor overseeing his treatment, Rachael Fairburn, played by Westworld standout Thandiwe Newton. Appearing as Dr. Fairburn's officious assistant, Judi, is none other than Heather Matarazzo, who entered the oddball hall of fame in 1995 with her portrayal of Welcome to the Dollhouse's middle-school reject Dawn Wiener. It's all pretty delightful for those of us who are old enough to appreciate not just the referential casting, but also the just-campy-enough performances that Buscemi, Matarazzo, and the rest deliver. In that respect (and with apologies to Lady Gaga, who's slated to appear in the back half of the season), no guest star is more apt than Joanna Lumley. Best known for her long-running role as the debauched, aging fashion victim Patsy Stone in the era-defining '90s British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, Lumley turns the diva dial to 11 as Morticia's mortuary-mogul mother, Hester Frump. (Fun fact: Her Burton connection dates back to his 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl's ooky children's book James and the Giant Peach.) Not that the performance is pure fluff. One of the season's more resonant themes is mother-daughter strife; Grandmama's estrangement from her daughter and affinity for Wednesday adds another layer of intergenerational mess. Also? For Patsy fans, it's also nice to see Lumley back in a beehive. Speaking of camp, the most enjoyable of the four episodes that dropped this week is one big Addams Family Values Easter egg. Riffing on Wednesday and Pugsley's gloriously destructive journey to sleepaway camp in that 1993 movie, 'Call of the Woe' sees Principal Dort shepherd his students to an overnight wilderness retreat he dubs Camp Outcast. (Gomez and Morticia are also present, as chaperones. You have never seen a tent like the one they construct.) The Nevermore kids soon encounter their ideal nemeses in a troop of normie paramilitary Boy Scout types who've reserved the camp for the same days. The only possible resolution to the double booking—because the two groups have no intention of sharing space—will be obvious to anyone who's ever seen a summer-camp movie from the late 20th century: a color war. I have no doubt that plenty of Gen Z Wednesday viewers have already devoured Addams Family Values and its predecessor and will get the callback. I'm sure they'll also eat up all the new characters and settings, whether they recognize them or not. At the same time, I don't think the new season quite resolves Gough and Millar's confusion about what they want their series, which has its fingers in crime and horror and teen soap and family drama and dark comedy, to be; with such an overcrowded surface, it's hard to achieve much depth. In its second season, however, what was once a show that relied almost exclusively on Ortega now has many more things going for it—one of the most welcome of which is genuine cross-generational appeal.
New Statesman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Back to Netflix's beguiling world of Wednesday
Photo by Netflix When Netflix repackaged The Addams Family as the series Wednesday in 2022, it was described by some as 'the spin-off we deserve'. Jenna Ortega had the unenviable task of taking Wednesday Addams – a character established by a legendary Christina Ricci performance in the first Addams Family film in 1991 – and making it her own. Ortega, a former Disney child star, rose to the challenge, and Wednesday became one of only three Netflix titles to get more than a billion hours' worth of views in its first month (alongside Squid Game and Stranger Things 4). Now, after a three-year hiatus, the show returns with its second season. Wednesday begins with its eponymous character having just finished her summer break, relating how the six-week holiday culminated in her tied up in a serial killer's basement. It was 'an eventful summer', she purrs, deadpan. It was a time of psychic breakthroughs, tracking down murderers and pursuing her 'favourite passions: torment and humiliation'. One suspects this was, for Wednesday, genuinely restorative. She arrives back at Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts, where she's a grudging celebrity on campus, having saved the institution at the end of the previous semester. For her bravery, she must now suffer the indignity of recognition. When handed a pen and notebook for an autograph, she replies: 'I only sign my name in blood.' When that doesn't evoke enough fear, she adds: 'I never said it was my own.' This interplay between the sardonic and the sinister helps the show find its groove quickly, as does executive producer Tim Burton's instantly recognisable aesthetic: the buildings are gothic, Nevermore adorned with leering gargoyles, and the sky perpetually overcast. It's all very Edward Scissorhands. The costume designer Colleen Atwood ensures Wednesday is resplendent in sharp tailoring reminiscent of Rick Owens or Comme des Garçons. The script, too, is whip-smart, if at times a little cringe-inducing ('I was the last in my family to wolf out'). All of this is testament to Wednesday's world-building. We're reintroduced to Nevermore's campus cliques – the Fangs, Furs, Stoners and Scales – each of whom have their own supernatural skills. Joy Sunday's Bianca, meanwhile, remains the queen bee of the Sirens. Her storyline, which involves blackmail and intra-species politics, unfolds with venomous flair. Also making a triumphant return are Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, who play Wednesday's parents, Morticia and Gomez. Returning in all their eccentric fabulousness, the pair feature more prominently in season two. The show has an internal logic that is cogent, consistent and in harmony with the otherwordly environment Wednesday and her cohort inhabit. It is largely a joy to be immersed in it with them. However, if you're arriving fresh to it, without having seen the first season, you may find yourself scrambling to make sense of some things, as I did. Wednesday's trip to a psychiatric hospital to visit a character from the first season goes largely unexplained, and the circumstances necessitating Wednesday 'getting a new guide' (whatever that means) are vague. But minor mysteries like these are not entirely to the show's detriment. There is enough expository dialogue to plug most of the gaps, and more than enough charm to pull the uninitiated along. In a streaming landscape cluttered with half-baked fantasy and anthropological reality shows, Wednesday is an oddly elegant anomaly: a carefully constructed story that embraces the macabre without abandoning narrative coherence. For those already enthralled by the show's dark sensibilities, its second series continues to be an enticingly disturbing watch. For newcomers, it's a steep climb into a fully realised world, but one worth the effort. It's clever without being smug, stylised without being hollow. And if, like Wednesday, you enjoy 'torment and humiliation', then Nevermore remains an irresistible place to dwell. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Wednesday Netflix [See also: Donald Trump, the king of Scotland] Related
Sunday World
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
The 13 major Hollywood productions now shooting across Ireland
Netflix smash hit Wednesday is about to hit our screens and it's one of a glut of Hollywood productions to be filmed here The new series of Netflix smash Wednesday comes to our screens next month and is set to showcase Ireland in one of the biggest productions ever to come to this country. Choosing Ireland as the new location for series two is no mean feat for the country's profile internationally - the first series of the standalone Addams Family series starring Jenna Ortega was a giant hit for the streamer. Wednesday ended up becoming Netflix's most-watched original series, passing out Stranger Things 4 and Bridgerton season one in winning over fans. Ortega is joined by Steve Buscemi, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lady Gaga and Billie Piper in the show, which comes to our screens from August 6th. The series was filmed over several months across many locations in Wicklow and Dublin, with Powerscourt, Enniskerry and the gothic Charleville Castle in Co Offaly all set to feature. News in 90 Seconds - July 25th The Irish locations look fantastic in the new series, according to co-showrunners and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. They described the locations as 'truly magical' and the perfect backdrop for the series. 'It adds a sense of timeless beauty, wonder, and epic spectacle to the world of Wednesday,' they added. 'It's no coincidence that Dracula author Bram Stoker hailed from Dublin, and his stories were inspired by the stories of Irish folklore.' As fans wait for Wednesday to arrive, several other movies and TV shows filming around Ireland are coming to a screen near you soon. They include: Christy (Cork) This buzzy new drama features the stars of Cork's Kabin Crew, with the stars of last year's viral smash among the cast of a tale filmed in Cork city and the Northside suburb of Knocknaheeny. Christy tells the story of a teenager in foster care as he sets out to find his place in the world. The movie, due on our screens soon, won Best Irish Film at this week's Galway Film Fleadh. The Wayfinders (Limerick) Limerick's ginormous Troy Studios are currently home to the forthcoming major fantasy TV series which is shooting on location in the mid-west. Filming will continue until the end of the summer on the series, which follows the tale of three high school students transported to a brutal, medieval world. Cast includes Issy Knopfler (daughter of Dire Straits star Mark) and Tamara Smart, with hundreds of Irish crew working on the big-scale new show. Lisa McKee. Incidents Around the House (Dublin) Hollywood star Jessica Chastain has been regularly spotted filming on the streets of the capital this summer as part of her role in a forthcoming horror. The movie focuses on a young girl who becomes convinced she has another 'mother' haunting her family. Kung Fu Deadly (Dublin) Martial arts meets Irish humour in this movie which completed filming in Dublin earlier this summer. YouTube star Steven He - who has grown an enormous online following with his comedic videos - takes the lead role in a film which blends Irish wit and Asian storytelling. The plot revolves around two hapless pest controllers who accidentally get caught up in a band of Chinese undead aka Jiangshi who are making their presence felt in the city. Tall Tales & Murder (Dublin) Love/Hate creator Stuart Carolan and Veep's Chris Addison are joining forces on a new comedy-crime series for BBC and RTÉ. Rising Irish star Ella Lily Hyland (who previously starred in hit series Black Doves and Fifteen-Love) joins a cast that includes Aidan Gillen. The plot is being kept under wraps but centres around a number of interconnected characters in the capital. Everybody Digs Bill Evans (West Cork) Independence Day star Bill Pullman has been spotted in West Cork filming his latest movie, a biopic about the famous jazz musician. The film will revolve around the recording of some of jazz's greatest-ever albums and their aftermath. Laurie Metcalf, who played Saoirse Ronan's mammy in Lady Bird, will also star. Hokum starring Adam Scott. Victorian Psycho (locations TBC) US stars Maika Monroe and Jason Isaacs are due to these shores next month to begin filming their new horror thriller. Ireland will double for Victorian England in the movie, in which the Longlegs actress plays an eccentric governess who arrives at a remote gothic mansion. We have a feeling this doesn't go well… How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Northern Ireland) The buzz is big for this new comedy series from Lisa McKee, the creator of Derry Girls, which recently completed filming up North. Roisin Gallagher, Sinead Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunne play friends who reunite following the death of an old classmate - and get pulled into an adventure that brings them across Ireland. Bloodaxe (Wicklow) The cameras will begin rolling shortly on this new drama from the makers of Vikings, filming on location in Ireland for Prime Video. Jessica Madsen and Xavier Molyneax are among the stars of the new series, a historical action thriller which follows Erik Bloodaxe and his wife as they fight to wrestle control of the throne of Norway. 500 Miles (Kerry) A countrywide road trip that goes all the way to Dingle forms the backbone of this movie starring Bill Night and Clare Dunne. The action centres around a tale of two boys who run away from home in a bid to be reunited with their grandfather. Hokum (Cork) Severance star Adam Scott came to Ireland to film the new horror from the maker of global hit, Oddity, which has just finished filming in Bantry. Native filmmaker Damian McCarthy's latest frightfest centres on a horror novelist who comes here to spread his parents' ashes - unaware the location he chooses is rumoured to be haunted. Saipan (Louth, Belfast and Wicklow) The highly anticipated tale of Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy's epic falling out is coming to Irish screens soon. The movie is set to divide us all into Team Roy and Team Mick once more as it recalls the infamous confrontation between the Republic of Ireland football captain Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) and his manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) during the team's preparations for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Trad (Donegal) Aidan Gillen and Sarah Greene co-star in this forthcoming drama set around a trad community in the northwest. The film follows a gifted fiddle player and her young brother as they leave their home in the Donegal Gaeltacht and take to the road with a troupe of wandering musicians.
Extra.ie
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Stranger Things star coming to Ireland for one day only
Stranger Things fans won't have to go to the upside down to meet one of the stars of the show as he's heading to the capital for Dublin Comic Con this summer. Vecna star Jamie Campbell Bower will be attending the Saturday of the popular fan event which will be taking over the Convention Centre this August for its second show of the year. Jamie joined the hit Netflix show in season four as Henry Creel, a worker in the lab where Eleven and other children were being experimented on, and it was later revealed that he was test subject 001, and after an encounter with our heroine, became the creature we now know as Vecna. Jamie Campbell Bower and Millie Bobby Brown in Stranger Things 4 Pic: Netflix The 36-year-old already had a slew of credits to his name before joining the series, including The Mortal Instruments, The Twilight Saga, the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises, and Sweeney Todd. Fans will be able to get photos and autographs from the actor on the Saturday of the convention, with prices listed on the Dublin Comic Con website, but he will not be partaking in a Q&A panel. Jamie joins the lineup that includes Lilo and Stitch star Tia Carrere, The Shawshank Redemption's Mark Rolston, The Walking Dead's Ross Marquand, Star Trek icon John de Lancie, Sons of Anarchy's Theo Rossi, Power Rangers stars Tracy Lynn Cruz and Alyson Kiperman Sullivan, Hitman's David Bateson and Jane Perry, Rogue the Bat voice actor Karen Strassman, and the Kingpin himself, Daredevil star Vincent D'Onofrio. Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things Pic: Netflix In the meantime, Jamie will be joining another franchise as he was announced among the new cast members of the hit Prime Video series The Rings of Power. While his role is being kept under wraps for now, considering he said he'd be steering away from villainous roles after playing Vecna, we can assume his Rings of Power character won't be as dastardly.
India.com
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
This Netflix series just became the most-watched English show ever with 341 million hours and an IMDb rating of 8
What happens when a deadpan teen with psychic powers walks into a haunted academy? Netflix history is made, and not quietly. While Stranger Things once reigned supreme, there's a new dark horse in town. The show that beat Stranger Things A spooky mystery, a sarcastic protagonist, and a whole lot of chaos, Netflix's Wednesday didn't just win hearts; it broke records. In its debut week, it was viewed for 341 million hours, surpassing the long-standing record of Stranger Things 4 (335 million hours). That translates to over 50 million households tuning in within seven days. Yes, you read that right. What's Wednesday all about? Premiered in 2022, Wednesday is a supernatural mystery-comedy series starring Jenna Ortega in the titular role. The show follows Wednesday Addams as she enrols at Nevermore Academy and unravels a chilling murder mystery, all while navigating teenage angst, psychic powers, and a lot of black eyeliner. The supporting cast includes Emma Myers, Gwendoline Christie, Christina Ricci, and others, each bringing their magic (and menace) to the screen. Who's behind the magic? The first season features direction by none other than Tim Burton, who helmed four out of the eight episodes. The eerie aesthetics and gothic visuals? Very Burton. He also served as an executive producer, shaping Wednesday's world with his signature surrealism. Awards, ratings, and all you need to know Within three weeks of release, Wednesday became Netflix's second most-watched English-language series of all time. The show bagged: 2 Golden Globe nominations 4 Primetime Emmy Awards Talking about its IMDb rating, it has a solid 8/10, backed by a cult-like fanbase. Wednesday Season 2 The much-anticipated second season of Wednesday is arriving in two parts: Part 1: August 6, 2025 Part 2: September 3, 2025 Fans are already speculating that it may crush its records — and considering the hype, they may be right. Where to watch it? Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix in multiple languages, including Hindi. Top 5 most-watched English shows on Netflix: Wednesday Adolescence Stranger Things Dahmer Bridgerton Most-watched other languages Netflix shows: Squid Game Squid Game S2 Squid Game S3 Money Heist Lupin
