After nearly three years of delays, rewrites, cast reshuffles, and TikTok-fuelled fan theories, Netflix’s Addams Family have finally re-emerged from their collective coffins. Unfortunately, even Jenna Ortega can’t save Wednesday Season 2 Part 1 from hitting countless bum notes.
From Charles Addams’ original cartoons in The New Yorker to Barry Sonnenfeld’s ‘90s movies, the Addams Family’s spooky satire of suburban life has shapeshifted throughout every era of pop culture.
Their disregard for societal norms and pressures has long made them icons for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t belong. Wednesday’s first season expanded on this with flying shades of black; fun, freaky, and full of misfits, not to mention a heroine who made being weird aspirational again.
It’s Netflix’s most-watched English-language show for a reason: twisty enough to binge, strange enough to meme, and just dangerous enough for the Hot Topic crowd (and their successors) to feel seen. Sadly – and this is coming from a fan of Season 1 – the second chapter debuts with a story that feels like a faded shadow of its former self.
(This review is based on Episodes 1–4.)
What is Wednesday Season 2 about?
Season 2 kicks off with a killer opening (literally) as our pig-tailed sleuth uses her psychic abilities to hunt down a serial murderer (played brilliantly by Haley Joel Osment). But that’s just her summer vacation.
Following a hilarious airport scuffle (knuckle dusters and all), Wednesday returns to Nevermore, where things have changed: there’s a new principal, normie influence is out, and she’s now the subject of unwanted fame.
Wednesday is also joined by her family. Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) begins his first year at school, while Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) linger nearby, leading to more than a few family tensions. And, of course, everyone’s favorite appendage Thing (Victor Dorobantu) returns to assist our aspiring novelist.
Wednesday sure needs the help. A premonition tells Wednesday that Enid (Emma Myers) will die, and it’s up to her to figure out how to stop it. Just a heads-up: this is only a fraction of what goes down in those first four episodes. Stalkers, fangirls, werewolves, gorgons, sirens, secret societies, and new outcasts all get their moment, but not all of them deserve it.
Nevermore is doing way too much
This is where the show starts to unravel. The creators previously said the three-year wait was due, in part, to thousands of visual effects shots, not to mention gathering its absolutely stacked cast (more on this shortly).
If only they had focused instead on tightening the script – with its overstuffed narrative and meandering subplots – it may have been a more entertaining ride. The switch-ups are so frequent, they leave little room for stakes or emotional investment. At times, it even borders on boring.
More than anything, it feels like the show is trying too hard to recapture the magic of its debut season and give fans what they think they want, resulting in an identity crisis. Is this a teen comedy? A family drama? A Harry Potter-style fantasy? A slasher horror? It’s hard to tell.
That’s not to say Season 2 is a total disaster. Wednesday is best when it’s having fun, and there’s plenty to be found with Wednesday’s baby bro Pugsley and the deadly new friendship that helps him to fit in.
Thing, as always, remains the most expressive limb on TV, and the decision to drop the love triangle from Season 1 in favor of friendships is welcome (although Enid’s arc does take a baffling turn).
However, attempts to deepen the Addams parents fall flat. Morticia’s melodrama and Gomez’s slapstick feel like they wandered in from a different show. Somewhere along the way, the creators seem to have forgotten that the Addams family aren’t deep, they’re weird.
Equally, Season 2’s attempts at more serious themes like mental health, legacy, control, and the toxicity of fandom rarely follow through.
Jenna Ortega still slays
If there’s one reason to keep watching, it’s the cast. Ortega once again delivers a standout performance, serving up deadpan one-liners and facial expressions that say so much with so little.
Ortega remains the anchor, but there’s plenty of support: Ordonez brings an unhinged charm to Pugsley and Fred Armisen is suitably hilarious as Uncle Fester (though the return of Christopher Lloyd in a new role reminds us just how perfectly unhinged the ‘90s version was. He didn’t just play weird, he embodied it).
Joanna Lumley is divine as Hester Frump, Thandiwe Newton brings some much-needed edge, and Steve Buscemi does what he can as new principal Barry Dort. Billie Piper’s American accent is patchy, but she’s clearly having fun, and Myers remains a standout as Enid, even if her storyline does the character dirty.
Visually, Wednesday still delivers. Tim Burton directs four episodes and produces the rest, and his fingerprints are all over the show’s twisted architecture and monster designs. It’s not as stylized as his classics (call it Burton-lite), but it works.
There are new outcasts, solid practical effects, and while the decision to split the season into two parts is frustrating, Part 1 ends on a juicy cliffhanger that could give Part 2 the focus this half lacked.
Wednesday Season 2 score: 2/5
Wednesday Season 2 is dead on arrival. With tighter writing and a clearer tone, this could’ve been a solid movie. Instead, it’s a series that’s far too high on its own supply, trying so hard to mimic its early success that it loses itself in the process.
Jenna Ortega still slays, as do much of the cast, and there are some fun moments, but the snarky goth girl act is already starting to wear thin. Here’s hoping Part 2 can bring it back from the dead.
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