By Crystal Olague || Contributing Writer
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard about Netflix’s new hit show, Wednesday. This Tim Burton show is a new spin off of the classic series The Addams Family, a fun, family-friendly sitcom that follows a bizarre, macabre, and unique family and their lives. The Addams Family sitcom was first produced in 1961 and has been adapted ever since, with the most notable movies being The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values which were produced in 1991 and 1993, respectively.
The Addams Family (1991) follows the lives of Morticia and Gomez Addams and their children, Wednesday and Pugsley, along with their henchman, Lurch, and a family hand called Thing. We watch as a lawyer named Tully, who works for the Addams, struggles financially and tries to get more money from Gomez, but fails. Tully finds out that Gomez’s brother, Fester, has been missing for the past 25 years and realizes that he can use Fester to get to Gomez’s family fortune. Only issue is, no one knows what happened to Fester. Luckily for Tully, there just so happened to be another client of his who has a son who looks just like Fester. Tully and his accomplices work together to try and trick the family, which works for the most part, but Wednesday Addams is very suspicious of Fester. Despite her suspicions, Tully was able to get the Addams family evicted from their house and steal their fortune. By the end of the movie, however, Fester realizes what he has done and works with the family to get their house and money back and the Addams end up accepting Fester into their lives and treat him as one of their own.
Now, the new Wednesday show is focused on Wednesday Addams solely and her experience at a boarding school, Nevermore. Both of her parents went there as kids, and after being kicked out of numerous schools in a very short period of time, they have decided that Wednesday should go there to curb her bad habits. Unbeknownst to them, this school only brought more danger and stress into Wednesday’s life. I won’t spoil the show in case you haven’t watched it and are planning to, but comparing this show to the original family sitcom and the more well-known 90s movies, it is very different. The most noticeable difference is the addition of magical powers that have been bestowed upon Wednesday. In the new show, Wednesday is clairvoyant and uses this gift to solve a series of mysterious murders and more throughout the show.
Despite this major change, I loved watching Wednesday become a detective and see her become something bigger than the weird, sadistic daughter in the family. Wednesday was always one of my favorite characters and this show brought her to life and allowed more people to feel connected to her, especially those who have watched the previous versions. One thing that this show does remarkably well is humanizing Wednesday, allowing her to make friends, find love, and realize that there is more to life than what she thought. I do wish that we saw more of the other family members throughout the show, especially Pugsley, whose character was virtually erased from the show and nothing like the original. With all that being said, I highly recommend everyone to watch the show and let us know your thoughts about it.
Junior Crystal Olague is a Contributing Writer. Her email is colague@fandm.edu.