Next week Netflix will release its Addams Family series Wednesday, and in our review roundup, it seems Jenna Ortega carries the show. For many critics, she is worthy for her portrayal of the character, but the Tim Burton series does not find itself compelling enough with its world, story, and other characters.
The show follows Wednesday Addams as a student at Nevermore Academy. She uncovers the pieces of a mystery that she tries to solve while being a typical teenager in school who is trying to learn her psychic powers.
Netflix series Wednesday review roundup: Jenna Ortega is Wednesday Addams
For many critics, the school setting and direction don’t work. In a review of Wednesday on Twitter from Fandom’s Eric Goldman, he felt that “the show around her feels off.” Much of that stemmed from the setting of Nevermore, which he called a “miscalculation” and that it would work better for this odd girl to be in a normal school rather than one where everyone is on her level. For Variety’s Caroline Framke, “the show keeps losing its own grip on what the point of Nevermore is at all.” Others found it to be “stellar,” like GameSpot’s Chris E. Hayner found it to be “beautiful,” partially due to its quality and Burton’s “gothic sensibilities.”
The premise of this YA murder mystery take on the character was attractive, but its execution was met with mixed reactions. In a review of Wednesday by Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro, she wrote, “despite a compelling portrayal,” the show “never gets mysterious or spooky enough.” For IGN’s Amelia Emberwing, it tackles so much that it is “difficult to balance,” although the showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar made it work “with a decent amount of success.” Going even lower on the spectrum of thoughts on the show, Consequence’s Clint Worthington applauded the cast and Danny Elfman’s gothic score but found that “it feels like a reconstituted much of Tim Burton’s late-career apathy” and it is an “unholy resurrection of the corpse of IP.”
Stepping into the shoes of an iconic character played in the 90s by Christina Ricci and in the classic by Lisa Loring is a daunting task, but not for the rising star who has blown up from projects like You, Scream, and X; it is not a problem. The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg wrote the star had “no trouble” accomplishing this with her “wildly entertaining blur of arch broadness and subtlety.” Empire’s Dan Jolin compared her to Ricci by writing the young star “is a worth match” to be the “OGG (original goth girl).”
If you are curious about Wednesday, it hits Netflix on November 23.
