“Wednesday” Season two, part one jumps back to the haunting charm of the first season, while adding unsettling themes but welcome changes to an already ambiguous plotline.
Wednesday, played by Jenna Ortega, comes back to Nevermore Academy, fresh off solving the mystery of the Hyde and Ms. Thornhill.
Having mastered her psychic abilities, she is consumed with a vision of her friend’s death, urged with the will to find a way to reverse the preconceived inevitable, while also facing a growing popularity of new students.
A strength of this season is Ortega’s trademark of a deadpan demeanor and harnessing that while interacting with her other costars.
The overall mystery of season two lacks a sense of urgency, with too many subversions and red herrings that take away from the eventual reveal at the end of part one.
The first two episodes seem to build up to reveal a major mystery, but end up as a subversion which is disappointing in the long run.
Part one ends in such a way that it leaves the audience satisfied with the end, but metaphorically breadcrumbs, giving little to no room for a viewer to solve the plotline before the seasons end.
While the first season mostly focused on Wednesday and her adventure through Nevermore Academy, season two adds Pugsley [Isaac Ordonez], Morticia [Catherine Zeta-Jones], and other members of the Addams family.
Pugsley, who joins Nevermore Academy for his first year, battles trying to make friends in the shadow of his sister’s popularity and make a name of his own.
The presence of Morticia adds a contrast and a constant hurdle for Wednesday to overcome as the season continues.
Uncle Fester [Fred Armisen] resumes his role as a delightful lunatic who aids Wednesday in her misadventures.
While Gomez Addams [Luis Guzman] makes his appearance, disappointingly he does not have his own subplot like his other family members.
The second season adds another Addams Family Values cast member in Christopher Lloyd, who plays Professor Orloff.
The production of this season also seems to have stepped up its game, while a lot of the CGI has improved from the toy-like look of the Hyde from season one.
Practical effects also improve with season two with the certain victims in the show adding an element of gore to the plot that entices the audience.
This season takes the audience to more locations in Jericho, Vermont and some places outside the town, adding some variety to the minimal settings.
Along with this, the show adds cuts of stop-motion animation, allowing audiences to associate the visuals with Tim Burton’s cult classics, who is the executive producer of the show. While the creative only directed two episodes of season two, his token aesthetic didn’t go unrecognized.
Burton directed episode two, The Devil You Woe, and brings his usual unsettling but charming visuals to the episode.
The horror genre is ramped in season two as well, supplying some eerie atmosphere to the already spine-tingling world. “Wednesday,” season two, part one, was released August 6 on Netflix. Part two will release September 3.
After a release of part one on Aug. 6, viewers and fans can only anticipate how this story unfolds after its second release on Sept. 3, which can be streamed on the Netflix platform.