Series Season one was interesting.
That was very TimBurtonesque. It's a little weird to find that some viewers thought the Addams family aesthetic was more than an aesthetic for them, but it's good that Burton grasped it anyway. Even with the bully retaliation thing — you think that's unethical, but she didn't bring a gun, just hungry fish that would probably not make it for long in the chlorinated water.
It has it's dark comedy, it's cartoon comedy, it's coming-of-age stuff. Lots of red herrings. I originally bailed out because of the high school setting, but I came around. If it's going to be another high school year-by-year type of story, I hope season two delivers.
Series Wednesday's Child is full of Wasted Ideas
The fundamental problem with any adaptation of The Addams Family is that the eponymous kooks don't give a shit. You can threaten to kill the Addams family, blow up their house, torture them and their pets, and they'll simply laugh it off and thank you for kindly going to the effort. That works fine in the confines of a comedy, but it doesn't exactly lend itself to serious melodrama or actual stakes.
Wednesday, the new adaptation, wants to have it both ways. Half the time Wednesday Addams is relishing the thought of murdering any and everyone around her, the other half of the time she is disturbed when the people around her are getting murdered. This is one of the many contradicting conceits of the show. The next big one is the plot, in which Wednesday, too morbid and violent for regular school, is sent off to Nevermore, a spooky castle boarding school for vampires, werewolves, and other teenage outcasts. Except her horror monster classmates are basically still regular kids, and it is clear that she is too violent and morbid for this school as well. So what even is the point of the story sending her to a spooky castle school in the first place?
The answer has probably something to do with the director, Tim Burton, notable for not having made anything especially good in nearly 20 years. Of course it falls to him to adapt yet another one of his cherished childhood shows, and in the process, slather it in his generic brand of goth aesthetics.
Notwithstanding Burton, there are a lot of great people involved in this and the casting is pitch perfect. I especially enjoyed seeing Thing, the effortlessly charming pentapod, and also Gwendoline Christie's turn as a Lady Dimitrescu-esque headmistress. Unfortunately every character is wasted, in service of a murder mystery plot that is both boring and predictable. Not only that but Wednesday is too two dimensional a character to lead her own show. There's a reason the Addams Family come by the bunch; no one of them can carry a whole story by themselves. Wednesday in particular is defined by her perpetual snottiness, which is fun in short bursts, but aggravating over eight hours of television.
Whilst I am delighted that there are producers out there willing to grant us more Addams Family content, Wednesday does not survive the attempt to resurrect it into a highschool Riverdale style melodrama slash comedy Frankenstein's monster.
Series A good but flawed series.
I went into the show with low expectations and I ended up really loving it for what it is. Though I have some issues.
First off, the positives. The cast is great. Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers are absolutely the stand outs. Their bond and onscreen chemistry makes the show. I loved Ricci and Christine in their supporting roles. I loved the style of the show, as well.
My biggest issue was the romances. They either lacked convincing chemistry or were forced, in my opinion. They were the most CW aspects of the show. However, that was entirely on the writing and not the actors.
Series Another Tim Burton corruption
Look, Burton does one thing and he does it very well. But that means that when he's given a pre-existing IP, he dumps everything about it that doesn't fit his style rather than adapting his style to the history of the IP. If you're watching it to see Burton do his thing, you'll probably like it, but otherwise, not worth the time.