Series / Wednesday

"Little did I know I'd be stepping into a nightmare ...
full of mystery, mayhem, and murder ...
I think I'm going to love it here."

"Finally, you will be among peers who understand you … maybe you'll even make some friends."

— Morticia Addams

Wednesday (also called Wednesday Addams on Netflix's social media pages) is a mystery comedy series based on Charles Addams’ iconic Addams Family characters, centered on the daughter of the family, Wednesday Addams. The series is created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and executive produced by Tim Burton. It premiered on Netflix on November 23, 2022.

Having been freshly expelled from public school, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) finds herself enrolled at Nevermore Academy, the alma-mater of her parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman). There, she finally finds people as strange and offbeat as her... but also a dark, decades-old mystery in which the Addams family bloodline is deeply entangled. Also in the cast are Emma Myers, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Percy Hynes White, Hunter Doohan, Gwendoline Christie, Fred Armisen, and Christina Ricci, who famously played Wednesday in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values.

The series was officially renewed for a second season on January 6, 2023, with Steve Buscemi set to join the cast. A spin-off series centered around Uncle Fester (Armisen) is in development.

Previews: Teaser, Teaser 2, Behind the Scenes, Nevermore Academy Promo, Trailer, Opening titles

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Wednesday contains examples of:

• Academy of Adventure: Nevermore Academy, which is inhabited by supernatural pupils. Once Wednesday attends, murders start to happen.
• Actor Allusion:
  • This version of Wednesday is trying to solve a series of murders. Jenna Ortega had just starred in Scream (2022) as a Ghostface victim who's also one of the suspects.
  • Dr. Kinbott becomes Wednesday's prime suspect for the identity of the serial killer. Riki Lindhome had played a serial killer in The Last House on the Left.
  • Thornhill comments that she thinks she and Wednesday are "a lot alike". Christina Ricci previously played Wednesday herself in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values.
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones being desperately in love with a Dashing Hispanic is possibly a nod to her breakout role in The Mask of Zorro. This version of Morticia is even shown to be able to use a sword.
• Adaptational Badass: Wednesday was trained by her father to be capable of fencing. While she was already a badass and capable of combat in other versions (shown as skilled with a crossbow, able to judo-throw her father when she was only 6, and mentioned in the musical to have a black belt in taekwondo), other adaptations didn't focus much on this aspect of her character.
• Adaptational Mundanity: Inverted. Most incarnations of The Addams Family have had little in the way of supernatural elements, aside from Thing and Cousin Itt — mostly showing the Addamses as ordinary people who simply dress, act, and have interests in the strange and macabre, with their apparent invulnerability to various deadly things always remaining comically unexplained; although Morticia and Grandmama have been vaguely defined as witches in past iterations of the franchise, this mostly took the form of practicing rituals or potions, rather than them possessing any innate supernatural abilities. This series dives straight into outright supernatural elements, including vampires, werewolves, sirens, and gorgons, as well as Wednesday herself having psychic visions.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Wednesday in this series has psychic visions of both the past and the future. No version of Wednesday prior has been implied or shown to have superpowers beyond the usual Addams immunity to dangers and occasional dabbling in the dark arts, with the exception of the animated movies where she is shown to have the ability to read minds.
• Adaptational Curves: Luis Guzman plays a very large version of Gomez in this series, which while Truer to the Text in front of the slender Gomez of previous live-action movies, is still heavier than the simply thick-bodied Gomez of the original Charles Addams cartoons.
• Adaptational Ugliness:
  • Obviously, a disembodied hand is never gonna win beauty contests, but this incarnation of Thing is more clearly stitched together like a science experiment gone wrong.
  • Gomez Addams while he dose match more to the comics and cartoons with how ugly he is he still is not at dashing as his other live action apparencies.
• Adapted Out: Grandmama Addams gets mentioned a few times but is implied to be dead. Cousin Itt is also never seen or mentioned, although a painting of Itt's ancestor is seen, who is virtually identical to Itt as seen in other adaptations.
• Advertising by Association: Tim Burton serves as a director and executive producer on the series, and the trailer and poster proudly share this fact.
• Age Lift: Wednesday is usually portrayed as a young child in most Addams Family media. Here, though, she is a 15-year-old teenager who attends high school.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Wednesday clearly doesn't fit in at Nancy Reagan High School. As shown in the trailer, her dark clothes and demeanor contrast against the brighter environments and more colorfully dressed students who stare at her as she passes by. A member of the swim team outright calls her a freak.
• All-Ghouls School: Nevermore Academy, the school Wednesday attends in the series, is a school for "unique" children, as opposed to the "normies" of the world. The school is seen to host werewolves, sirens, a vampire, a gorgon, faceless teenagers, and various wielders of psychic abilities.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: Wednesday, and other students of Nevermore Academy, see a psychologist. Though Dr. Kinbott is a normie and often over-challenged dealing with the weird behavior the Addamses exhibit.
• Animal Motifs: Ravens. Wednesday attends Nevermore Academy, named for the famous quote from Poe's raven in the titular work, and Wednesday, becoming feared as an omen of disaster herself, learns she is a "raven" among seers due to her disposition attracting visions of doom and terror.
• Animated Credits Opening: As seen here, it evokes all Tim Burton's hallmarks: Danny Elfman music, spirals and stripes.
• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: Wednesday details all the terrible things that happened at her first day at Nevermore: a duel, a therapy session, nearly dying, and two murders, one of which happened right in front of her, before declaring that she's going to enjoy Nevermore.
• Artistic License – History:
  • Goody Addams is treated as if "Goody" is her first name. "Goody" in Puritan times would not have been a proper name — it was an abbreviation for "Goodwife" and roughly the equivalent of "Mrs." or "Miss".
  • In New England, accused witches were hanged, not burned.
  • A substantial amount of liberty was take with the history of the area the series is set in, from the founding of Jericho^note stated to be in 1624, more that forty years before the first European settlement in the area, one hundred years before the first English settlement in the area, and 160 years before the founding of its real-world equivalent, to the idea that the Pilgrims ever settled Vermont in the first place.^note The first European settlement of Vermont was by the French in 1666. While English settlers did begin contesting what would become Vermont towards the end of the 17th century, they did not begin settling the area the series takes place until after the French and Indian War in 1763, more than half a century after the reorganization of the Plymouth Colony.
• Ascended Meme: The announcement for the second season has Jenna Ortega narrating how she has been hunted, haunted... and mimicked millions of times across the internet in reference to her viral dance. It's capped off with the TikTok remix of Lady Gaga's song "Bloody Mary" and shots of the iconic dancing.
• Aside Glance: During their talk after Outreach Day's conclusion with Crackstone's statue being sabotaged, Wednesday does one of these in typical Kubrick Stare fashion after her roommate asks:
  Enid: What kind of twisted psycho would want to sabotage such a life-affirming event?
• Audible Sharpness: Used a lot, particularly when the Hyde is attacking someone.
• Axes at School: Done by Wednesday when she unleashes a swarm of piranhas in the pool, which manages to emasculate at least one member of the swim team. This gets her expelled and sent to Nevermore Academy.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: A staple of the Addams clan. In the first episode, Morticia is touched and grateful when Wednesday attempts to insult her by calling her heartless, and Tyler eventually clues into it by having a horror-movie night where he shows Wednesday a movie she'll find scary — Legally Blonde. She says it was torture — appreciatively.
• Bag of Kidnapping: Bianca and her friends do this to Wednesday at the end of the second episode as she makes her way into the Nightshades' secret library.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Edgar Allan Poe is an alumnus of Nevermore Academy, which means that he was actually a supernatural being in the show.
• Big Bad: Laurel Gates is the true villain of Season One. Under the false identity of Marilyn Thornhill, she infiltrated Nevermore Academy, awakened Tyler's Hyde form and corrupted him into being as twisted and evil as her, and used him to kill and gather body parts to resurrect her ancestor, Joseph Crackstone, in a bid to destroy Nevermore Academy and its outcasts once and for all. The Sequel Hook at the very end of the first season, however, implies that both she and Tyler might just be pawns for a Greater-Scope Villain.
• Big Sister Bully: As Wednesday puts it, "The only person who gets to torture my brother is me."
• Big Sister Instinct:
  • In the first episode, Wednesday seeks out the swim team after they bully Pugsley and gets vengeance by dumping piranhas into the pool. Don't mess with an Addams unless you want the family gunning after you...
  • Wednesday protects Eugene from bullies at Pilgrim World. She tells him he reminds her of Pugsley when he says no one has stood up for him before.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Any time Thing uses sign language to somehow communicate effortlessly with Wednesday, and eventually Enid.
• Birthday Hater: Downplayed. Wednesday doesn't appreciate the surprise party her friends throw for her or Tyler's invitation to a dinner to celebrate, but it's less her hating her birthday than simply finding celebrating trivial. She definitely has no qualms doing something she's interested in instead — investigating.
• Black Comedy: The opening scene, with Wednesday dumping some vicious piranhas in her school's pool to punish the jocks bullying Pugsley, sets the tone for the season — and yet it also deconstructs the amusing injuries that abounds throughout various Addams Family adaptations, since one of the boys is permanently maimed, his family wants Wednesday charged with attempted murder, and several characters are shocked at her actions.
• Blatant Lies: Has both humorous and heartwarming examples of this. With Wednesday's Brutal Honesty, her lies are usually very obvious and sarcastic, or depend on Exact Words.
  • Wednesday stands in front of an open display case, stolen book in hand, and goes "Yes, and this display case was already open." when she gets caught.
  • Enid lying three times in 24 hours about leaving something behind at their dorm, when really she just wants to see Wednesday.
• Bloodier and Gorier: While previous Addams Family adaptations usually indulged in some Black Comedy violence, they were never outright bloody (apart from a certain scene from the first film, though that was just stage blood). This series takes the violence into much grislier territory, with characters getting stabbed, mauled, and mutilated, often with bloody results.
• Bookends: The season starts with Wednesday dropping a swarm of piranhas into a pool on behalf of her brother. The season ends with Eugene siccing a swarm of bees on Laurel Gates to save Wednesday.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • While the Addamses still play a role, as the show's title and promotional materials indicate, this show is the first Addams Family show to break away from the family Ensemble Cast in favor of focusing on a singular character, that being the titular Wednesday.
  • It's also the first adaptation of the franchise to focus on the Addams Family (or one specific member of it) in their kind of environment, interacting with people just as strange as they are, rather than the usual Fish out of Water setup, and the human locals are actually used to people like the Addamses, having lived near the school for hundreds of years.
  • No other live-action adaptation has hinted at any of the Addamses possessing actual psychic powers.
• Cassandra Truth: Wednesday is telling the truth that Rowan is dead and a monster killed him. Nobody believes her, since he shows up afterwards. Only it isn't Rowan, it's Principal Weems using her shapeshifting abilities to fool everybody.
• Casting Gag:
  • Christina Ricci, who is best known for her portrayal of Wednesday in the films from the 90s, plays Wednesday's teacher and housemother Marilyn Thornhill.
  • Coach Vlad, the fencing teacher, speaks with a heavy Romanian accent, is played by a Romanian actor and is possibly an allusion to Vlad the Impaler.
• Character Title: The series' title shares the name with the protagonist, Wednesday.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Xavier has carried a torch for Wednesday ever since she accidentally saved his life. Wednesday does not reciprocate but does come to view him as a friend.
• Cliffhanger: Season One ends with Wednesday receiving threatening texts from an unidentified stalker as she leaves for home. Meanwhile, in an armored police transport vehicle, Tyler regains consciousness and transforms into his Hyde form.
• Clique Tour: Enid gives Wednesday one, where she introduces her to the four main cliques of Nevermore. The Fangs, The Furs, The Stoners and The Scales.
• Coconut Superpowers: Ajax is a gorgon, but merely hides his snake hair under a beanie for the whole series, except for when he accidentally turns himself to stone in the shower. Obviously this allows them to not worry about the special effects animating so many snakes when not necessary.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  Morticia: We are not the ones who got you expelled. That boy's family was going to file attempted murder charges. How would that have looked on your record?
  Wednesday: Terrible. Everyone would know I failed to get the job done.
• Cult: MorningSong, a self-help cult whose membership is maintained by Bianca's mom's siren song.
• Custom Uniform: The Nevermore Academy prominently feature indigo-striped blazers and ties. Wednesday herself gets a monochrome version of this outfit due to her color "allergy".
• Cut-and-Paste Note: In one episode, Wednesday receives a note written in cut-up newsprint reading IF YOU WANT ANSWERS MEET INSIDE CRACKSTONE'S CRYPT. MIDNIGHT. Turns out it is a ploy by Enid to get her to come to a surprise birthday party.
• Daddy's Girl:
  • Wednesday has a very strained relationship with her mother for the first half of the series (and apparently for a while before that), full of resentment based on the belief that she wants Wednesday to be her carbon copy. Her father on the other hand she adores, even willing to compliment and commend his parenting style before her character development. It helps that they share many hobbies like dancing and fencing.
  • Enid's mother is, well... a bitch who is obsessed with Enid wolfing out, to the point of being willing to send Enid to conversion therapy to make her a normal werewolf. Not for her own sake, mind you, but because she's concerned about the family's reputation and Enid's place in the pack. On the other hand, Enid has a much healthier relationship with her father, who accepts her for who she is.
• Darker and Edgier: This is easily the darkest installment of the Addams Family franchise to date. It includes multiple murders — some quite gruesome, some with child victims — a kid in a coma, backstory involving witch burning, implied torture, mutilation, etc. Not to mention that both Thing and Wednesday herself come close to being killed. The tone is also a step up in maturity from the 1990s duology (which was more edgy than previous incarnations itself), as here, profanity and gore are depicted openly.
• Daywalking Vampire: Part of the school includes vampire students like Yoko who, aside from their eyes being more light sensitive and needing to wear sunglasses during the day, are completely unharmed by sunlight and can move around in the day without any issue.
• The Dead Guy Did It: Garrett Gates didn't actually die from Gomez stabbing him, but by accidentally poisoning himself with nightshade.
• Deadly Sparring: The first episode has Wednesday challenging Bianca to a match during fencing practice. During the third round, Wednesday ups the stakes by suggesting they remove their protective head gear and the blunt tips of their swords, with victory going to whoever draws first blood. The match ends when Bianca slashes Wednesday across the forehead.
• Deadpan Snarker: Wednesday, as usual, delivers on the snark big time in the trailers.
  Enid: [looking at Wednesday's cat costume] O.M.G, You look purr-fect! Only thing, where are your whiskers?
  Wednesday: Ask again and you'll be down to eight lives.
• Death by Adaptation: Grandmama is mentioned to be deceased in this continuity of the franchise and only appears briefly in a photograph of the Addamses, having been alive while Wednesday was younger, as in other continuities.
• Death by Racism: Inverted. The first victim is a hiker who, when a local warns him about Nevermore, says that he's not afraid of them and that he once had a werewolf counselor.
• Differently Powered Individuals: The show uses "outcasts" as a catch-all term for the differently human, including vampires, werewolves, sirens, gorgons and — well, whatever the Addamses are. Flashbacks show that it dates back to at least the time of Crackstone; in the present it continues to be used by "outcasts" and "normies" alike, even among those who at least grudgingly tolerate the others' presence.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Woe to anyone who crosses Wednesday in any way. The reason she got expelled from her old school is that her response to the swim team stuffing Pugsley into a locker was to release a pack of piranhas into the pool during practice.
• Dumbwaiter Ride: In the Gates' manor, Wednesday and Enid flee the monster by escaping in a dumbwaiter and riding down into the basement.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Wednesday and Morticia. Both are dark-haired with pale skin and very creepy, as an Addams should be.
• The Eeyore: Wednesday due to her nihilistic world view.
• Emotionless Girl: Wednesday both by admission and by choice as she views emotions as a weakness. She becomes less of one as the series progresses, finding the value in being at least a little open with other people and enjoying their companionship and friendship in return.
• The End Justifies the Means: Both Principal Weems and Mayor Noble follow this mantra: bending and breaking rules, covering up serious crimes and letting people get hurt and even killed to protect the reputation of Nevermore and Jericho respectively. When they try to do the right thing for once it backfires terribly for both of them.
• Evil Is Bigger: The monster towers over everyone. It's also a bit larger than Enid's werewolf form.
• Exact Words: After setting the statue of Jericho's founder on fire as a belated revenge for all the witch burnings he did in life, Wednesday claims to the principal that her hands are clean. Which is technically true: while it may have been her idea, she had left the actual execution of the plan to the (literal) hand of Thing.
• Extreme Omnivore:
  • Pugsley eats Dr. Kinbott's potpourri, and later offers some to Gomez, who tries and also enjoys it.
  • Uncle Fester tries to eat Eugene's bees.
• Famed In-Story: Morticia, Gomez, and Cousin Itt are considered some of Nevermore Academy's most notable alumni, alongside the likes of Edgar Allan Poe.
• Fantastic Racism: A central point of conflict in the series is the tension between the "normies" of the town of Jericho and the supernatural "outcasts" of nearby Nevermore Academy.
• Fiction 500: As in every piece of Addams Family media, the Addamses are extremely rich.
• First-Name Basis: A moment played for drama — in her urgency to save a stabbed Thing's life, Wednesday bursts into the Hummers' shack and calls out to her uncle only by "Fester", without the honorific, as she begs for help.
• Flashy Protagonists, Bland Extras: While Wednesday receives a custom Nevermore uniform to suit the character's colorless sensibilities, the uniquely dark unsaturated costume also sets her apart from the crowd as the identifiable main character.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Wednesday suspects her parents sending her to Nevermore, their alma mater, is part of a scheme to mold her into them. Wednesday vehemently seeks to defy it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Xavier asks Wednesday why the Hyde would protect instead of kill her, to which she replies "because he sees something in me." He needs her blood as a key on the blood moon.
  • When Mayor Walker and Marilyn Thornhill first talk, he states that she looks familiar but can't quite place where he's seen her before. While this appears to be a reference to Christina Ricci's Remake Cameo role, Marilyn is actually the presumed dead Laurel Gates, whom Walker knew when she was a child.
  • Ms. Thornhill gifts Wednesday a copy of Frankenstein. She later ends up using the body parts of the Hyde's victims to resurrect Joseph Crackstone in a very Frankenstein-esque ritual.
  • When he arrives for the Rave'n, Tyler is seen looking at the picture of the previous fencing team while waiting for Wednesday. While it at first seems like he might have noticed Morticia, a later episode reveals that his mother, a fellow Hyde, is also in the image.
• Fur Against Fang: Averted. No mentions of vampires and werewolves being antagonistic to each other as is typical. They co-exist happily in Nevermore, with Enid and Yoko being good friends.
• Genre Refugee: Even though Nevermore Academy is supposed to be a haven for Goth-types like the Addamses, Wednesday's Deadpan Snarker, Nightmare Fetishist-schtick makes everyone there look normal in comparison. The whole series can be described as a Horror Comedy Sitcom character wandering into a post-Harry Potter YA novel.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • Wednesday questions wearing a cat costume for the Poe Cup, clearly disliking the idea. Smash Cut to her coming out of a tent wearing it.
  • Wednesday and Enid have a back and forth about wearing their snoods, with Wednesday making up excuses not to wear it. Smash Cut to her walking to Tyler's car, snood on her head.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: During her tour of the school's extra-curricular activities, Wednesday tries singing too. She is apparently able to emit an ultra-sound that nobody else can hear but that is shown to break some glasses. She also clarifies that it's a sound so high-pitched that only dogs can hear it, though curiously no werewolves are shown reacting to it.
• Gossip Evolution: The reason Wednesday got expelled from Nancy Reagan High School has conflated into numerous rumors in Nevermore. Of course, Wednesday prefers the vicious stories and instead adds more gruesome details instead of stomping these rumors out.
  Ajax: She eats human flesh. Chowed down on that kid she murdered. You better watch your back.
  Wednesday: Quite the contrary. I actually fillet the bodies of my victims, then feed them to my menagerie of pets.
• Goth: Wednesday herself. She exclusively wears black and white, sometimes accentuated by purple or dark red lipstick. She's apparently allergic to colour, hence her custom uniform.
• Groin Attack:
  • Wednesday dumps a bag of piranhas into the pool, followed by one of the piranhas biting one of Dalton's testicles off as he lets out a blood-curdling scream.
  • The first pilgrim-dressed bully who tries to manhandle Wednesday gets kneed in the groin for his troubles.
• Hairstyle Inertia: All over the place. Wednesday always had the same pigtails as a child. Morticia is shown to have the same waist-length hair as a high schooler, with Gomez likewise having the same middle parting. Larissa Weems wears her hair up the same way she does now in a flashback to her teen years too.
• Happily Married: Gomez and Morticia are, as always, completely head over heels for each other.
• Hate Sink: Esther Sinclair, Enid's mother, is quickly revealed to be a horrible mother. She spends the entire parents' weekend belittling her daughter for not being able to transform. If that wasn't bad enough, she also wants to send her own daughter, Enid, to conversion therapy to make her "normal". Later episodes also show that her belittling Enid is a recurring thing and has clearly had a strong effect on Enid.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": The heroine of Wednesday's detective novels, Viper de la Muerte, is clearly a stand-in for how she sees herself. Down to the troubled relationship with her own fictional mother according to Wednesday's therapist.
• Hidden Depths: No one at Nevermore is exactly who they appear to be. Enid is a Genki Girl who nonetheless can stand up in Snark-to-Snark Combat to Wednesday and whose bubbly exterior hides a lot of sadness, Bianca is a ruthless Alpha Bitch who nonetheless has a strong moral code regarding her siren abilities, Wednesday is more honorable and emotional than she lets on, and Tyler's "boy next door" persona masks some dark secrets.
• High Heel Hurt: Wednesday herself during the dance. She visibly limps off the dance floor and accuses the inventor of high heels of having also been a torturer. Given how tough she is, and that she doesn't then make a joke about (say) admiring his craft like she normally would, our protagonist must have been in some real pain.
• High-School Dance: The Rave'n in episode 4. They even have their very own Carrie-homage sabotage.
• High-School Sweethearts: Gomez and Morticia met and fell in love while they were both attending Nevermore.
• Hollywood New England: The series is set in a fictional version of the real town of Jericho, Vermont (a small town of only 5000 in real life). As a result, it features a mix of common Hollywood New England elements, such as wealthy old families, an elite school, some supernatural elements (witch trials and the elite school being for monsters), and an old colonial past.
• Horrifying the Horror: Even Wednesday is frightened by Crackstone's sheer rage and hatred after she gets a vision of the past and watches Crackstone chain up several outcast families in a barn and lead the normies in setting the barn on fire.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Most of the actions of the outcasts are in retaliation to things done to them. The so-called normal people are usually the ones who start things.
• Hypocrite:
  • It's a bit rich for Laurel to hate "outcasts", when she herself performs necromancy and blood magic using Goody's very own Grimoire to bring back her murderous ancestor, who in turn comes back to life wielding magical powers via a glowing staff. You might even call it all witchcraft, one of the reasons that said ancestor burned people for, and she can easily be considered an actual witch for having succeeded at performing the ritual.
  • The undead Crackstone himself, upon seeing that Wednesday is alive despite her earlier mortal wound, screams "What demon sorcery is this?" whilst himself wielding what is very obviously dark magic against Nevermore, and having been raised from the dead via the same power.
  • Wednesday herself seeks to expose all of the lies at Nevermore, and of her family, no matter how many lies she has to tell to do so. She's also constantly annoyed at Principal Weems and Sheriff Galpin for not trusting her, while she refuses to trust in other people and constantly lies to them, even to her friends.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Wednesday finding her brother Pugsley jammed in a locker. Wednesday then confronts the swim team mid-practice, telling them that nobody tortures her brother but her, before dumping bags of piranha in the pool.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode in the first season includes the word "woe" as part of its title and except for the first one ("Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe"), all the other episodes the word is used as a pun ("Friend or Woe", "You Reap What You Woe", etc.).
• Idiot Ball: At one point Ajax stones himself by peering into a mirror, when the towel he was using to cover it fell off. This can't be the first time this has happened; you would have thought they'd have a mirror with clips at the top or a cover that can be pulled down over them to stop such events. Or, you know, looking at the ceiling or keeping their eyes closed when getting out of the shower as a precaution and seeing out of the corner of your eye if the towel was still there. Basic gorgon anti-stoning precautions. Furthermore, rather than explaining himself to Enid as soon as he turned back, he pretends nothing happened and goes to the Rave'n with someone else.
• I Have Brothers: Enid says this as an explanation why she follows pro hockey.
• Impaled Palm: A bit more serious than usual when the victim of it is Thing
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Wednesday can throw an apple in the air, shoot it with an arrow, and hit bull's eye.
• In-Joke: Wednesday makes several remarks that are referencing otherwise, brutally honest, yet unknown events to whoever she is speaking with that are perhaps interpreted as hyperbole on her part.
  • After Crackstone's statue gets sabotaged by Thing, she mentions that she would lead the inquisition on whoever is responsible but that she left her thumbscrews (a medieval hand torture device) and rack at home.
  • Once her relationship with Enid is described by Thornhill to be as "thick as thieves", Wednesday, having seen Uncle Fester and Thing fighting because of the Kalamazoo heist, mentions she has seen thieves ultimately turn on each other.
• It Only Works Once: Wednesday's amulet allows Goody's spirit to heal a mortally wounded Wednesday, but Goody tells her that once she does, they'll never see each other again.
• It Was Here, I Swear!: Whenever Wednesday finds evidence of what's going on, it disappears before she can show it to the Sheriff.
• Jerk Jock:
  • The swim team at Nancy Reagan High School bullied Pugsley for his weight, prompting Wednesday to retaliate on his behalf.
  • Bianca is a female example initially, as the smug fencing champion who likewise always wins an annual rowing competition. Getting beaten in the latter deflates her ego a little however.
• Kubrick Stare: Wednesday is fond of these in the beginning of the show. Once she finds friends, she seems to let go of them.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine:
  • Enid and Wednesday, reflected down to their dorm room. Enid is bright and colorful, Wednesday is as gloomy and dour as ever. However, they both usually wear traditionally feminine clothes like dresses.
  • This was also the case back when Morticia was at school, where she played the dark feminine to Larissa Weems's blonde light feminine.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: Defied. First by Wednesday, who doesn't care for any implication that she be another version of her mother; then by Morticia, who concedes that her daughter has to find her own path.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Tyler is the monster the case surrounds, something Wednesday finds out after they share a kiss. It's unclear if Tyler ever truly liked Wednesday or if it was all an act.
• Magic Realism: The monsters and supernatural creatures of Nevermore are shown openly interacting with the normies of Jericho, and barring some prejudice, can apparently be functional members of society. The first victim of the monster offhandedly mentions his camp counselor was a werewolf.
• Monster Mash: We've got werewolves, vampires, sirens, gorgons, psychics, shapeshifters and Hydes.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: The main trailer features an orchestral string cover of "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones. In-universe, the song is being played by Wednesday on her cello at the end of Episode 1.
• Museum of Boredom: Pilgrim World is the theme park version. It somehow manages to be even more boring than it sounds, with its main attraction being the highly anachronistic fudge shop.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Nightshades' hideaway is accessed by performing the famous double snap from the classic television series' opening theme in front of a statue of Edgar Allan Poe.
  • In another nod to the theme song, Tyler tells Wednesday that she's "kinda kooky", to which she responds, "I prefer spooky."
  • A video uploaded to the official Netflix TikTok account for Halloween 2022 features Wednesday being asked what her costume choice is. She responds "I'm a homicidal maniac. They dress just like everyone else", mirroring her iconic line from the 1991 film.
  • Wednesday being a gifted musician is right out of Halloween with the New Addams Family, in which she is studying the piccolo at a music academy.
  • Wednesday has a flashback of Goody Addams telling a pilgrim off for stealing the land. Afterwards, her town is set on fire. Almost like the play performed by Wednesday herself in Addams Family Values.
  • When Wednesday rings the bell at Weathervane's Cafe, Tyler comes and answers with "You rang?", Lurch's catchphrase (and one of his rare instances of speech) in the original series.
  • Wednesday knowing how to dance (even in her own strange way) seems a little out of character for her, but in a well-known scene from the original The Addams Family TV show young Wednesday teaches Lurch how to dance using a similarly unusual style. Indeed, some of Wednesday's dance moves at the Rave'n are directly imitating Lisa Loring's dances from the original series.
  • When the deputy catches Wednesday and Morticia digging a grave, she says she's witnessing an Addams family reunion.
  • Pugsley is introduced having been tied up with an apple in his mouth, much like his introduction in the 1991 film. Only there it's implied Wednesday did it to him herself, whereas here it's done to him by the bullies on the swim team.
  • In flashbacks, teenaged Gomez and childhood Wednesday are shown to more greatly resemble older live-action versions of themselves.
  • Principal Weems is named after a babysitter who appeared in the original comics◊.
  • The poster for the series depicts Wednesday with an umbrella, which she was often seen carrying in the Adult Wednesday Addams web series.
  • Wednesday is moved into Ophelia Hall. Ophelia was Morticia's sister in the original 1960s Series.
  • Morticia visits a grave with a rose... and takes the bloom off the stem, as the character is known for doing since the original TV series.
  • Fester's electric powers are extrapolated from gags in the TV show and '90s films where he was conductive enough to light a bulb in his mouth.
  • The phone number Wednesday gives Tyler in the first episode is 413-555-1938; the last four digits are the year the Addams Family comic debuted. (Coincidentally, 4/13/1938 was a Wednesday.)
  • Wednesday's line: "I could eat Girl Scouts for breakfast" brings to mind the 1991 film where a Girl Scout offers to buy lemonade from Wednesday and Pugsley if they bought one of her boxes of cookies, only for Wednesday to ask if the cookies are Made from Real Girl Scouts.
  • The ending credits theme ends with the classic four-note sequence of the theme song from the original TV series.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thing putting black bubble gum on the morgue's security camera so Wednesday could sneak around allowed Laurel to murder the coroner without being seen. Of course, given how ruthless Laurel is, she probably would have just destroyed the camera but Thing still unknowingly helped her.
• Nightmare Fetishist:
  • Wednesday, metaphorically and literally. Case in point when the Townies disrupt the Dance with their Carrie-inspired prank. Everyone screams and runs for cover, Wednesday lets it happen and is visibly aroused by it ... until she realises it's paint and not actually pig's blood.
  • Her mother also qualifies, much to Wednesday's frustration.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Wednesday explains that she gave up on feelings and attachments when she was six years old, after some bullies killed her pet scorpion Nero.
• Never Meet Your Heroes: Said word-for-word by Laurel Gates when her reanimated ancestor tells her to stop talking in a very misogynistic way.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: The Nevermore Academy uniform is black with blue stripes, except for Wednesday's, which is black with grey stripes.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Nevermore Academy is the ninth school in five years Wednesday is attending. We only see the cause of the expulsion that gets her sent to Nevermore Academy, the rest are left unrevealed.
  • Uncle Fester and Thing were previously involved in something called the Kalamazoo job. Nothing is really elaborated on, except that it went sideways and that Thing holds a grudge against Fester for it.
• Not Like Other Girls: Lucas comments a sentiment like this at the Rave'n when he finds that Enid likes pro hockey and kung fu movies.
  Lucas: You are different!
• Now Allowed to Hug: Throughout the series, Wednesday consistently forbids anyone from physically touching her, which grates especially hard on her roommate, the extremely affectionate Enid. After the climax of the last episode, wherein Enid saves Wednesday from a rather gruesome death, the two are reunited and Enid gives her a big ol' hug of relief, only to remember Wednesday's boundaries and to start pulling back. However, Wednesday, after a moment of hesitation, hugs her back.
• Odd Friendship: Wednesday and Enid are complete opposites, even starting the series off disliking each other. Over time, and a lot of effort on Enid's part, they find that their friendship just works.
  Enid: We work. We shouldn't, but we do. It's like some sort of weird, friendship anomaly.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Used in Pilgrim World. It's unclear whether it's intentionally bad or not. The most glaring example is Mistress Arlene saying "thoust heard me" (it should be "thou heardest me").
• Only Sane Man: Sheriff Galpin is the only person who just wants to catch a murderer and has no wider agenda.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires here spend much of their time together and Yoko is shown to come from a family of them, implying it's passed through genes. They are immortal with Enid noting that many have been at the school for decades without aging. They consume blood but are never shown feeding on anyone, getting it from blood packs. They are allergic to garlic with Yoko ending up hospitalized from consuming it accidentally but it doesn't seem to be fatal to them. They can also walk around in direct sunlight safely and with no harm or discomfort although their eyes are more sensitive to light, causing them to always wear dark glasses during the day which they only take off at night. They also keep the same hours as humans and sleep at night and are not stated to have any aversion to holy items and can cast reflections.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Enid and her family are hereditary werewolves without any curse involved. In fact, Enid's inability to wolf out is presented as a problem and a source for her inferiority complex. When she first introduces Wednesday to the "Furs", she only warns her about them being loud on full Moon, not dangerous, hinting that even wolfed out, werewolves in this show retain their personalities and remain fully in control of their actions. Hint confirmed when Enid does wolf out, as she immediately rushes to save Wednesday and, while fighting the Hyde, takes the time to turn to Wednesday and smile, as if to say "Look what finally happened!".
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Morticia and Gomez are as deeply in love as ever, much to Wednesday's chagrin.
  Wednesday: I've seen jackals with more control than you two.
• Parrot Pet Position: Thing is seen riding on Wednesday's shoulder a few times. At least, as long as she isn't annoyed at him.
  Wednesday: Careful. That's my cold shoulder.
• Piranha Problem: Wednesday drops two bags of piranhas into the school pool while the swim team is practicing in retaliation for bullying her brother.
• Perspective Flip: The series takes the Wednesday character made famous by Christina Ricci's portrayal and reframes her by putting her in a scenario where she's among kinder people and other outcasts and her adversarial dour attitude is unjustified. The series continues to explore how destructive a person like Wednesday would be in an environment of more normal friendly people who genuinely try to be kind to her, and the first season sees her getting repeatedly called out for making everyone around her feel terrible.
• Physical, Mystical, Technological: Surprisingly, three of Season 1's biggest villains fit this trope well.
  • The Hyde a.k.a. Tyler Galpin, The Heavy for Season 1, is the Physical Fighter, being a powerful monster who is a physical threat to the heroes. Only Enid's werewolf form is shown to be a capable match to him.
  • Marilyn Thornhill (revealed to be Laurel Gates), the Big Bad for Season 1, is the Technological Thief, being the brains of the operation pretending to be a staff member of Nevermore Academy who is really utilizing parts of the Hyde's victims in creating a magical machine capable of ultimately resurrecting Joseph Crackstone. Oh, and she's also prone to use firearms as a last resort to kill Wednesday after the latter defeats Crackstone.
  • Joseph Crackstone, the Greater-Scope Villain for Season 1, is the Mystical Mage, wielding dark magic upon his resurrection.
• Plot-Triggering Death:
  • Rowan's death at the hands of the Hyde at the end of the first episode kickstarts the main plot of the story. Because of this, Wednesday becomes aware of her part in a prophecy about the school's destruction and of the presence of a monster in the town. Her subsequent actions all come from having learned these two pieces of information.
  • The backstory that led to all the events taking place in season 1 was caused by Morticia killing Garrett Gates, her stalker, in self-defense. After this event and Gomez being acquitted afterwards, this led the Gates family into a massive downwards spiral, resulting in the deaths of Garrett's parents and prompting his little sister to seek revenge.
• Power Limiter: The Sirens attending Nevermore wear necklaces that neutralize their siren song. They are not foolproof, however, meaning they may still subtly influence other students. That is the reason why Xavier broke up with Bianca in the past, since he could never be sure if his feelings were genuine or if she was manipulating him. In the Season 1 final, when they need to use their siren song at full power to save the school, they remove the necklaces.
• Product Placement:
  • When modern technology is shown in the otherwise Retro Universe setting, it is typically Apple products (iPhones, MacBooks, etc.).
  • Wednesday finds a Taco Bell bag while investigating a crime scene. The logo is very clearly displayed for the audience.
• The Prom Plot: The fourth episode features a dance at Nevermore called the Rave'n. Cue misunderstandings, jealousy, a She Cleans Up Nicely moment from Wednesday, and a Carrie-inspired red paint shower to cap off the night.
• Psychometry: Wednesday learns that her visions can be triggered by touching certain objects tied to the events she's shown, but fails to accurately guess what will trigger one, ultimately receiving a vision from a door handle after inspecting more notable objects in the area.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Enid gives Wednesday one over how she lies to and manipulates everyone over the course of her investigation, placing many people in danger, while she's moving out of their shared dorm room.
  • Xavier calls Wednesday out over her lack of trust and empathy and framing him for murder.
• Remake Cameo: Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film and its sequel, appears here as Ms. Thornhill. Since she ends up being the Big Bad of Season One, the role is far more than just a simple cameo.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: In her interactions with Thing, Wednesday just repeats what he's saying to her. Her friends also do this, but it's more justified because they can't understand him as easily as Wednesday and are asking if they understand him correctly.
• Resurrect the Villain: The mystery of the first season turns out to be a plot to resurrect Joseph Crackstone, the puritan founder of Jericho. Having already been defeated centuries in the past by Wednesday's ancestor Goody Adams and banished to Hell after he tried to wipe out all the Outcasts, his descendant Laurel Gates, whose family still believes in Crackstone's legacy, awakens the very dangerous Hyde residing in Tyler and uses him as her assassin to obtain the body parts necessary for the resurrection ritual.
• Retirony: Lampshaded. The coroner, unprompted, says that he's about to retire and goes into a long, detailed description of his plans with his wife afterwards. They practically hang a flashing "This guy is about to die!" sign on his neck.
• Retro Universe: You could be forgiven to think this show was set in the 90s or early 2000s. Computers and smartphones do exist; but are rarely used, though Enid does mention numerous modern social media platforms. Partially because Wednesday refuses to, and partially because the town and Nevermore Academy seem to be a little stuck in the past.
• Rewatch Bonus: Wednesday's visions are triggered by touch. This begs the question of what triggered her vision in the dance where she sees Eugene being attacked by the monster, though it appears it was triggered when she was pushed into someone. On rewatch, it's because she was pushed into Tyler's back, and she saw what he was going to do to Eugene.
• Roommate Drama: Wednesday and Enid go back and forth spitting out all their pet peeves about living with each other after Enid decides to move out.
  Wednesday: You giggle when you text, which is a 24/7 addiction.
  Enid: At least it's not a migraine-inducing typewriter hammering into my head.
  Wednesday: When not grinding your canines, you growl in your sleep.
  Enid: As opposed to late night cello solos?
• School of No Studying: There are exactly two classroom scenes, only one of which contains anything resembling curriculum, an athletic competition, various extracurricular clubs and a line about homework, and that's it. Otherwise you'd think Wednesday is at Nevermore solely to catch a killer, and the other students to be part of a Secret Society. Even in her downtime Wednesday primarily works on her novel, rather than anything school-related.
• Sequel Hook:
  • At the end of the series, Wednesday starts receiving pictures similar to the ones she found in Laurel Gates' music box sent directly to her phone; who this person is and why they're sending those pictures to her is not resolved.
  • Bianca agreed to drop out of school once the semester ended to go help her mother with her cult-like organization. But due to the semester being cut short and everyone being sent home early this plot point ends unresolved. Bianca still makes plans with Wednesday for next semester and she seems to have found a real friend in Lucas so it's possible she'll try to go back on her word.
• Shapeshifting: Principal Weems can alter her physical appearance to imitate anybody, with no tells or clues. She uses it to fool people into thinking that Rowan is still alive by imitating him after he is killed, then uses it to evade Thing by changing in a toilet to another form. In the final episode she uses it to impersonate Tyler and get Ms. Thornhill to admit she was the mastermind.
• Shout-Out:
  • A group of bullies sabotage the Nevermore Academy school dance by rigging the sprinklers to pour out red paint. Wednesday acknowledges the similarity of the scene to Carrie by lamenting they didn't bother using actual pig's blood but paint instead.
  • The Jericho taxidermy shop is named Uriah's Heap.
  • The Team Normal teacher in a school of monsters and supernaturally gifted people, Marilyn Thornhill, is an obvious reference to Marilyn Munster of The Munsters.
  • Related, Enid herself as a perky werewolf kid who stands out with her blonde locks, conventional looks, and love for colorful clothing seems to be a nod to not only Marilyn but her cousin, Eddie the werewolf.
  • As Xavier's art becomes increasingly centered around the Hyde, his studio starts to resemble Richard Pickman's.
  • The Weathervane is the name of the yearbook Charles Addams submitted his cartoons to at Westfield High School.
  • Uncle Fester's idea to apply a "Romanian sleeper hold" on Tyler might be a shout-out to the series' filming location ^note unbeknownst to a casual viewer, most of the locations exist in Romania and are only slightly CG (viewers there debate by how much). Later in the same episode, Thing tries to choke Fester — his actor, Victor Dorobantu, is Romanian.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Morticia and Gomez, as usual, are extremely romantic and morbidly lovey-dovey with one another, to Wednesday's disgust.
• Significant Anagram: When Wednesday finds out that the Gates mansion had been bought by a 90-year old woman and later inherited by her caregiver Teresa L. Glau, she immediately concludes that the latter's name is an anagram of "Laurel Gates" — this being a proof that Laurel had faked her own death.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: On land, sirens are basically humans with a Compelling Voice. In water, they turn into the traditional half-human half-fish mermaids/mermen.
• Stealth Pun: When Enid shows Wednesday around, she describes one group as "the stoners". It turns out they are gorgons and can literally turn people (including themselves) into stone.
• Students' Secret Society: The Nightshades are this for Nevermore Academy. Technically their charter was revoked following Gomez being accused of murder, but due to the membership involving legacy students, the principal looks the other way.
• Surprise Party: Enid surprises Wednesday with a birthday party by tricking her via Cut-and-Paste Note. Wednesday being the Birthday Hater she is doesn't express much gratitude to Enid and Xavier's efforts.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Unlike most adaptations, where the Addams family's shenanigans are ignored due to Rule of Funny, here they have to be at least somewhat mindful of the law. Wednesday gets accused of attempted murder for dropping piranhas in the swim pool, with the implication being that she got off light due to her family's money, and Uncle Fester has been evading prison for decades due to his various crimes.
  • Wednesday's traditionally stoic and abrasive personality is also treated much more realistically than in most versions; she's forced to learn (the hard way) that she can't hurt people without facing repercussions, and that she can't always intimidate and threaten other people into doing what she wants. Just in the first episode, she's forced to swallow her pride after failing to bribe Tyler into leaving his shift at the coffee shop early, and her therapist openly calls her out for showing zero remorse after assaulting a group of boys. Later in the season, Enid briefly cuts all ties with her after she shows zero remorse after dragging her along on an expedition to the Gates house that nearly gets her killed by the Hyde, and refuses to give her friends a simple "Thank you" for throwing her a surprise birthday party. She gets better.
• Taken Off the Case: Sheriff Galpin explicitly forbids Wednesday to investigate the case after her actions lead his son to be injured.
  Sheriff Galpin: From this point forward, you are forbidden from seeing Tyler, and you are forbidden from pursuing anything to do with this case, understood?
• The Theme Park Version: The town of Jericho has Pilgrim World, a historical recreation of the town's early days. Wednesday explicitly calls it a "whitewashing of colonialism". Also, the park's best selling product is fudge, despite it not having existed in the days of the park's time period.
• This Is My Side: One of the first things Wednesday does in her new dorm with Enid is to split it down the middle, removing her colored film from the window to better divide Enid's colorful side from her darker side. Enid is not happy about it.
• Token Human: Ms. Thornhill is one in-universe, being the first ever "normie" teacher on Nevermore's staff as part of Principal Weems' outreach plan.
• Two-Teacher School: Thanks to the show having virtually no classroom related scenes, the only faculty members of plot relevance at Nevermore are Ms. Thornhill and Principal Weems. Only one other teacher (the fencing instructor) is shown.
• The Unmasqued World: While the series doesn't bring much attention to it, it shows very clearly that "normies" such as the ones living in Jericho are very much aware that the outcasts are not regular humans. Most saliently, Principal Weems is more concerned about negative publicity for the outcast community than she is about their discovery.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Wednesday had a pet scorpion as a child. On a walk, it was killed by bullies, giving Wednesday a hatred for them ever since.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Enid and Wednesday are polar opposites and clash with each other often. However, they bond over their desire to beat Bianca in a tournament and do help one another if needed.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The Pilgrim bullies pick an awful time to badger Eugene... right after he ate a ton of fudge. He immediately pukes all over them.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Wednesday is frequently called out for not thinking of the potential consequences of her actions. Most notably by Enid, who nearly gets killed by the Hyde after Wednesday tricks her into helping explore the Gates' house, and by Xavier, who gets arrested and thrown in jail because of her.
• What Would X Do?: After Enid successfully sabotages one of their Poe Cup competitors, she says: "I just asked myself, 'WWWD?' What Would Wednesday Do?"
• Woman Were-Woes: In something of a Trope Namer, the series involves primarily the title character and her roommate at the Nevermore academy, but other characters do possess shapeshifting abilities.
  • With Wednesday herself, it is invoked and deconstructed. First by being named that way after a song, "Wednesday's child is full of woe" as discussed by her mother. And while she doesn't shapeshift, she remains resolute and true to herself and pursues the investigation of the mysteries at the Nevermore with intensity. She is quite apart from the rest of the school staff and students. Her aversion to friendships, authority and even color gets her into a lot of trouble.
  • Everything with Enid is played straight, though she cannot turn into a werewolf just yet until the very end of Season 1 — even on a full moon like the rest of the werewolf students, it makes her conflicted because her mother wishes it for her more than anything, to lengths of lycanthropy conversion summer camps and counseling, this makes it a big issue that only serves to frustrate Enid into embarrassment of being a late bloomer.
• Would Rather Suffer: Wednesday has a propensity for such statements; of course, considering her (and her family's) tendency to enjoy self-harm, she might be more serious about it than most people.
  • For example, in "Woe What a Night", after being asked if she intends to go to the High-School Dance, she says she'd rather stick needles in her eyes. And will probably do it anyway.
  • A variation in "Friend or Woe", where the option would probably be more painful to her than any torture.
    Wednesday: I'd rather dye my hair pink than ask my mother for advice.
• You're Not My Mother: Wednesday rebuffs Ms. Thornhill's attempt to connect by saying she already has a mother.

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♫ Non, rien de rien ... non, je ne regrette rien ... ♫^TranslationNo, absolutely nothing ... No, I regret nothing ...

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