Netflix Wednesday (Addams) - Live Action Series by Tim Burton (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

This trailer has me a lot more excited for the show.

 

[Alex...]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just finished watching the Tim Burton-directed pilot. Not all of it worked, and there are a few indications of Gough & Millar's usual shortcomings. But there was still a lot I really liked.

The thing the pilot did best is undercut the indomitable reputation that has gathered around Wednesday since the Barry Sonnenfeld films. This Wednesday is a teenager, and her chaotic antics and theatrical mournfulness aren't so cute anymore. And the consequences are starting to pile up for her antisocial behavior and the uncompromising wrath that she unleashes on her enemies.

Now she's exhausted her parents' patience and finds herself in an environment that genuinely challenges her. The adults aren't as stupid as she anticipated, and her bright technicolor roommate isn't the sort of pushover that she's used to. Even the "normie" barista in town is unruffled by her whole vibe.

Jenna Ortega is fantastic in the title role, managing to convey a lot with very little despite the rigidly erect posture and impassive demeanor. Wednesday in all of her various incarnations has always been drawn to the creepy and the macabre, but there is still a stark contrast between Lisa Loring's adorable young Wednesday and Christina Ricci's much more somber and formidable slightly older Wednesday. In brief flashbacks, we get the sense that both versions of the character are in this Wednesday's back story, that the reason for the change is time and experience. George Carlin once noted that "inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." There's a little bit of that underlying Ortega's take on the character.

Christina Ricci has a glorified cameo as the dorm mother, but there are hints that she will play a bigger role later in the season. Gwendoline Christie is mostly wasted here as the headmistress, tasked with keeping Wednesday in line and doomed by the demands of the story to regularly fail at it.

I really liked Catherine Zeta-Jones's take on Morticia: incisive and subtle, even in disposition, muted but not humorless, with an underlying deadliness. This Morticia gives Wednesday a lot of leeway, but you still get the sense that there's a line and Wednesday would very much regret crossing it.

I was less enamored with Luis Guzmán's take on Gomez. His version gets the sensuality of the character and captures Gomez's infatuation with Morticia. But he plays the character like a Mafia don, completely lacking John Astin's genial enthusiasm. The best performers of Gomez play him as someone who consistently is exactly where he wants to be, happy to be doing exactly what he is doing.

The season was shot in Romania, and that introduces some discordant notes to the nearby town of Jericho, which is clearly meant to be an idyllic little New England town. It reminded me in that way of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where the Munich filming locations made the world outside the chocolate factory feel distorted from what the UK would have felt like at the time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Up through the fifth episode, and enjoying these four even more than the first episode. Tim Burton actually directed the whole first half of the season, which was a nice surprise.

I'll have more thoughts once I finish the season, but I wanted to chime in now to note that, much like Addams Family Values, there's a surprising amount of Thanksgiving-related content in this. Helps explain why they held it for now instead of putting it out ahead of Halloween.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Quick thoughts from watching episode 1:

It’s good, not great. Luis Guzmán is miscast as Gomez. Totally wrong for the part. Jenna Ortega is ok but she’s no Christina Ricci. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a great Morticia. I like Thing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I just finished the first season. I really liked it overall, but I do think there is a finite limit for how long the show can go on. On one hand, it gets tiresome after awhile watching Wednesday manipulate and antagonize people who have been kind and decent and loyal to her. On the other hand, soften her up too much and make her warm up to her friends too much, and she's not Wednesday Addams any more.

Luis Guzmán is miscast as Gomez. Totally wrong for the part.

He's never even in the ballpark of John Astin (or even Raul Julia), but he's definitely better in episode 5 (the parents' weekend episode) than he is in the first episode.

It helps that Gomez is written more like Gomez in that episode; that episode as a whole understands that the Addams Family -- for all of their creepy and kooky ambience, for all of their morbid interests and hobbies -- are actually a functional, loving, well-adjusted family.

I like Thing.

Thing is interesting to me, because there have been such significant differences in how he is portrayed. The original New Yorker cartoons never showed him at all; his presence was only alluded to with the sign "Beware of the Thing."

In the sixties TV series, Thing always emerged from convenient boxes and the like; I watched the reruns on Nick at Nite before seeing the Barry Sonnenfeld films, and originally thought Thing was a many handed and armed creature threaded throughout the Addams family mansion. But then he started appearing elsewhere, and coming out things like briefcases, which made it clear that the hand was in fact disembodied.

The Sonnenfeld films, which had more money and more time and decades of advancements in visual effects, liberated Thing from the boxes and depicted him as a roaming creature that ran around on its fingers like a spider. The hand was cut off neatly at the wrist, and the surface of the sever point is the same flat skin color as the rest of the hand.

Here, the idea of Thing as a roaming creature that runs around on its fingers like a spider is maintained. But there are clear indications from the stitching that the hand was once attached to the rest of a body, a question that is boldly asked and pointedly not answered.

 

[Scott-S]

I am halfway through. It is compelling enough. I think the actress playing Wednesday is doing a really good job. My only real complaint so far is that there is a little too much of the high school romance stuff going on among the students. Some places it feels like this should be on the CW network.

I will be finishing it in the next couple of days. It will be nice to see where this goes. It is weird for me. Whenever Wednesday is given an opportunity to open up to someone, or show some emotional growth, I am sort of hoping she does, but then I remember that that is not Wednesday and if she changed to be more "normal" then the show would not have a reason to exist anymore.

 

[NeilO]

Just started it last night with the first episode. I'll probably watch a few more episodes this week. Definitely a good start to the series.

 

[NeilO]

Finished watching it tonight. It was a good mystery with a lot of compelling characters. The final episode had a few good surprises and some great moments.

I've no idea what they could do with a second season at Nevermore, but I would be interested in seeing it.

Regarding Wednesday becoming more "normal", I think they did a good job with that. She can't stay the same. There has to be some growth, but still retain her essential character anyway. We just have to understand how the change happens.

 

[spshultz]

My wife and I loved the show and look forward to a Season 2 if there is one.

 

[benbess]

My spouse and I enjoyed this show a lot! Some of Burton's best work from my pov. This dance that has gotten a lot of attention is pretty funny....

The Wednesday Dance Is an Invitation. Be Weird.

Jenna Ortega’s dance for her Addams Family character is a viral sensation, but why? It is disarming and defiant: the dance of a nonconformist.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My wife wanted to watch the show and I had been a fan of the showrunners’ Smallville, so I decided to tag along.

I loved the Wednesday character and the dynamic she shared with her roommate Enid. Unfortunately for me, the actual plot did nothing for me and I wasn’t drawn in by the actual story being told. But I’d watch a Wednesday/Enid sitcom anytime.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I finally got around to watching the first episode. Pretty good so far with Ortega nailing the Wednesday character.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I finally got around to watching the first episode. Pretty good so far with Ortega nailing the Wednesday character.

Okay, I just finished the remaining seven episodes and thoroughly enjoyed the series. I’m looking forward to Season Two.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One more thing, besides Wednesday, the character that I really liked was Enid. I enjoyed the growth and evolution in her character as well as Wednesday's. The arc of their relationship made the series more enjoyable for me.

 

[Malcolm R]

Started watching this tonight and had a pretty good time with the first episode. Though I made the mistake of paying attention to the end credits and saw mention of the Hyde Monster, so now the creature is not so mysterious and I'm looking for who would be the Jekyll equivalent among the cast. Early guess would the the therapist in town who seems to have similar bug eyes.

I like Luis Guzman (he's also a fellow Vermonter), but agree he's not really right for this role, at least based on the first episode. The series is supposed to be set in Vermont, but Jericho doesn't really look like a Vermont town.

 

[Alex...]

 

[NeilO]

I thought the youtube announcement was fun.

 

[Francois Caron]

Finished watching the show last week. I thought it was excellent! It'll be interesting to see the story arc that's created for the next season now that Wednesday's no longer a freshman.

I thought Luis Guzmán was perfect in the part of Gomez Addams, especially how the family's Hispanic roots have finally been well preserved instead of being whitewashed into oblivion.

And Fred Armisen as Fester was absolutely brilliant! It's probably the best Fester yet!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

And Fred Armisen as Fester was absolutely brilliant! It's probably the best Fester yet!

I really loved his take on the character too. He captured Fester's gentleness without taking away his dangerousness. And I appreciated how his episode felt like a crossover with a fully realized Uncle Fester standalone series that we never got to see.