Tim Burton's "Wednesday" Breaks Records and Stereotypes
Silent Night, Woeful Night— All is Bedlam, All's a Fright
If Tim Burton decided to open up a horror themed café with little biscuits in the shape of his most popular characters, I would absolutely drive through hell and high water to get a taste of it. Even if it was actually really shite and the coffee was a paltry excuse for a mediocre caffeinated beverage. To know that Burton had, in some way, been a part of the café-making-process would be enough for me to throw money at it.
That’s what initially drew me to Wednesday and I of course stayed for the phenomenal storytelling, the stellar acting across the whole cast, and the effortless mesh of the mystical, magical Nevermore world with…Jericho. In Vermont.
Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is not only the titular character of this series, but she reimagines the Addams family and reintroduces a brand new audience (as well as an old one, if we’re being honest) to the chaotic and dark folds of the world she inhabits.
After her attempted murder of a classmate goes wrong in the first 10 minutes of the very first episode, Wednesday gets shipped off to Nevermore Academy, where supernatural and “abnormal” children like herself can find solace and a crew to call home.
You’d think Wednesday would appreciate being surrounded by like-minded individuals, but the truth of the matter is that she just doesn’t care. She doesn’t care and she is an oddity no matter where she goes. This doesn’t affect her self-esteem as much as we’d think, considering the disposition of similarly aged peers suffering in their own puberty and mortal-hood.
Wednesday Addams is the epitome of IDGAF.
It’s fricken fantastic.
There’s a little murder, some poignant yet blanched therapy, Hogwarts vibes if it was on crack and injected with a healthy dose of violent death, secret societies running in the background like Internet Explorer, and a spell of monsters and magic to underline how Wednesday Addams learns about the greatest thing of all: the power of friendship.
Being Yourself And Character Development
Wednesday is an outcast in an outcast’s world which sounds so weird until we strip away every supernatural layer and realize these are just people doing what people do best: forming cliques and stratifying society in any way possible.
And Wednesday is not here to play the game. She is studiously on the sidelines of whatever fucked up high school drama is going on and she wants nothing to do with them. Until she does.
And only when Wednesday decides to, does she get involved with the school and others. On her terms, in the way she wants to. While many shows try to show the MC as “different” or “unique” and “not one with the crowd” they usually fall flat and become exactly what they’re trying to avoid: cliché and trite.
Though Wednesday is first seen as elitist and trying too hard to be different, the fact of the matter is that she isn’t. She literally gives zero fucks and she in no way entertains her peers’ poor opinions of her or takes into account their annoyances about her personality, which rubs more than a few people the wrong way. But how can you be and stay angry at someone who so unilaterally gives no shits about you and doesn’t even have enough care for you to provide you a sliver of disdain?
Because whatever you do, Wednesday doesn’t care. And she doesn’t do this maliciously. Wednesday Addams is just so confident and badass and in charge of her emotions that she recognizes that these flaccid opinions of others has no effect on who she is.
This confidence is a staple of her personality, but what changes throughout the show is her relationship with others. She actually builds some. She grows into a better person because while it is a truth that Wednesday doesn’t care, she accidentally develops friendships and relationships with others that make her a little kinder, a little nicer, more of a moody gray than a malevolent black.
As much as she tries to keep her distance, she finds her people. While it is not something that she was looking for, like many a Pixar movie, it comes to her as she barrels on uncovering a murderer at Nevermore and becomes part of her journey.
She doesn’t want these friendships, but it is definitely something she needs.
World Building
My biggest complaint for supernatural or fantasy stories is the fact that the lore and the background are often dumped on you in the first episode like some ungodly ice-bucket-challenge resurrected from the social media graveyard.
There is no tact or finesse as you are introduced to the world. As if to get to the meat of the adventure, some shows will word vomit on you histories and mechanics in a not-so-subtle attempt to get it out of the way but out there nonetheless.
Wednesday has the luck of being an addition to an already popular franchise that is getting a timely reboot. There is a world we recognize and are already familiar with. However!
Wednesday not only takes what has been said and done about the Addams family, it adds to it. It has a special voice, an interesting plot, more thematic and story engines to keep the show rolling. It touches on the familiar (that Addams family snap in front of the Poe statue? Had me waiting with bated breath for the theme music to start playing) and artfully reveals and adds more to what we’ve seen.
Being dropped into a world of supernaturals and humans, there is an obvious disconnect since most people watching it are not of the supernatural. Yet we are dipped into the story like some gothic baptism, expected to understand basic shit— with some more of the nuances of the world being spilled on us like blood splatters at a crime scene.
The audience is given an exceptional role to understand the base mechanics so an in-depth explanation is not necessary, and I appreciate the respect the writers had for not slapping us with every bit of history, which is a very unsexy way to tell someone about your family tree.
Wednesday does a fantastic job of sharing this world with us, on a need-to-know, you-can-probably-infer-this-so-long-as-you-passed-the-sixth-grade kind of knowledge sharing.
By the end of the first season, all the story threads are not tied up, but it has me buzzing for what could possibly happen next and I am ready for it.
Themes
Womanhood
One of the most compelling themes of this narrative is womanhood. It would be easy enough to pass off Wednesday’s social failings as that of a hysterical woman or, for lack of a better word: a total bitch. Yet Wednesday is celebrated for her attitude, drawing the ire of the queen of the social hierarchy and the adoration of some (really fucked up) peers. This attitude works for Wednesday because of her indifference. While many young protagonists take action for the benefit (or approval) of others, Wednesday’s is all done for the benefit of herself.
She is not easily defined by the tropes a woman is often saddled with and instead rises to the occasion with her own bits of personality.
Not only that, but the Netflix drama showcases an astounding array of unique and powerful women to contrast with Wednesday. We get Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), Professor Thornhill (Christina Ricci), Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and Headmistress Weems (Gwendoline Christie). We get a variety of womanhood to taste and it’s all wonderful.
Mother/Daughter Relationships
To tack onto womanhood, the relationship between Morticia and Wednesday is complicated, but not something that deserves agonizing monologues and a full-course character arc. It exists. It is there. But it’s not something that defines the narrative, like so many mother/daughter stories in media tend to do.
Not saying anything against those redemption arcs, but this relationship does not distract from the murder narrative driving the story.
We learn that Wednesday does not want to be her mother. She doesn’t want to live in Morticia’s shadow, and the fact she has been forced to attend her parents’ academy and attempt to define herself on the backdrop of their successes is a personal problem Wednesday briefly grapples with, but, as wholesome and understanding as the Addams usually are, Morticia gently resolves it.
She smiles and asks Wednesday to do what she wants. She apologizes for that minor insecurity/anger Wednesday feels because of Nevermore, and then we move on.
That’s all Wednesday needs, and that is more than enough for us to see how healthy and wonderful their relationship is, despite Wednesday’s initial coolness to her mother.
The (Addams) Family
Despite every single person being massively strange, eccentric, and downright fucked, I really like them. They’re caring and considerate of each other.
Gomez (Luis Guzmán) is a massive simp for his wife.
Morticia is fine as hell and returns Gomez’s affections with similar if not more fervor.
Wednesday is reserved and brooding.
Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez)…does not get enough screen time for us to care. But we know Wednesday does, despite her multiple attempts to dismember him. A classic case of “only I get to be mean to my brother.”
As odd as the Addams family is, it is a functioning and healthy family. One that loves and respects each other and is always supportive no matter what. To see this kind of relationship being espoused in the media without some sort of adultery or skeleton in the closet (they’d probably have a real skeleton in the closet to be fair) is…rare. I guess.
There’s not much drama to be pulled from them within the confines of their own family.
Yes they are massively eccentric. They delve into the dark arts. But they genuinely care for each other, which is, as far as the nuclear family is concerned, something that marks them as “other” in the media.
Which is hilarious to think that as outrageous and strange as the Addams family is, their strangest feature is their love for each other.