Netflix brings back “Wednesday” to Nevermore for a more frightening season 2 Stranger | TV / Streaming

The line line for the “Wednesday” of Netflix is adapted to its IP, strange, but not entirely without merit: take one of the most frightening family units of pop culture in a popular sitcom of the 60s and a couple of solid films by Barry Sonnenfeld (and an animated effort of the 60s who, well, we often forget) and glazed the most members of the Mystery Mystery maturity. Think of a macabre mixture of “scary adventures of Sabrina” and “Veronica Mars”. As lukewarm as I was in the first season, the results speak for themselves: “Wednesday” has become the most watched English language series in Netflix in its history, and catapulted Wednesday in cultural conscience with dance folies, tiktoks, the whole shebang.

A second season was inevitable, and here it is, although divided into two pieces to adapt to the whims of the Netflix algorithm. (They only want anyone who registers, binging all season, then is canceled again.) And even if I still have my shortcuts on the way the Addams family is part of this type of murder-mysteries, season 2 seems to have straightened the ship and gave Netflix the last mascot a more delicious meal to excite me…. so far.

One of the most intelligent movements of the Alfred Gouth showrunners and Miles Millar (alongside director Tim Burton, who is back to direct most of the season) was to find new ways to complicate the Ouitoire of Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) in the Nevergore Academy, a place already built for literal “outings”. Her role in the resolution of the crisis she faced with her first year made her a little celebrity among the never more faithful; In addition, she was bitten by the murder resolution bug and spent her summer vacation to find serial killers with the help of the psychic capacities offered to her by her ancestor, Moody (also Ortega), last season. But these capacities seem to overload it, the more it uses them, the more psychic damage it is.

Now she is back in Nevermore for her second year, and the school (as well as her neighboring city of “Normies”, Jericho) always tries to rebuild and reinvent herself. ENID (Emma Myers), a sparkling wolf roommate (Emma Myers), has found new confidence; There is a new accomplice director (Steve Buscemi) with an attentive eye on fundraising for the signaling school; And what is worse, the young child Addams, the young Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), is finally registered with Nevermore. On Wednesday, one on Wednesday to conform, bristles against his new notoriety, especially since that attracts her leagues of fans and stalkers wishing to help or be killed by her. And in addition to all that, there is a new Mystery to be resolved: the mysterious dead apparently caused by a literal murder of crows, led by a borgne bird that Wednesday sees in its visions.

Even in its first four episodes, season 2 “Wednesday” feels a little overwhelmed, even if Burton and Gang find diabolical ways to keep the game busy. In addition to the names I have listed before, the rest of the Addams family obtains more time this season: Catherine Zeta-Jones’s Morticia becomes a gala chair, Luis Guzman’s Gomez friends with children as a parental riding on the field outings, and the thing remains the sherlock from Watson to Watson. (Fred Armisen also obtains a plot From focus as Fester in the fourth episode of the season in Willow Hill, the local local farm – which, depending on what you feel of this performance, can be creaky.) Many other big names appear for a pleasantly coherent Netflix Cash, such as Joanna Lumley as a grandmother on Wednesday, Thandiwe Newton and Heather Matarazzo as Willow Hill doctors and therapists, and Billie Piper even appears as a singing music teacher who will surely have a more important role to play in part 2.

Sometimes the robust to support the actors threatens to overshadow the objective of the program on Wednesday, but with happiness, the character control of the character’s Ortega prevails. Many Ballyhoo has been made on Wednesday’s Ortega protection, to the point of making script and steering changes on the set, and I can’t help but feel that it is paying in the shovel, especially in season two. His Wednesday is more expertly calibrated between threats and curious, leaving just enough empathy stop murder without letting her lose her average sequence. It stands out, among other television gumshoes in that it resolves the mysteries almost out of spite, or ego; It’s not about saving lives, but resolving your own personal puzzles or proving that someone. It is a new turn that helps complicate relationships with the characters around it.

Of course, the sense of macabre humor of the program remains intact, even if its rhythm suffers somewhat under the tension of the execution time of one hour of Netflix. Many wheels run in many different cars, whether it is the Enid love triangle between the Hunky Fellow Lycanthrope Bruno (Noah Taylor) and the Gorgon Ajax (Georgie Farmer), the main Buscemi, the main recruitment of Sirène Bianca (Joy Sunday) to make Bamboooozle to help them collect funds. (If I could cut a secondary intrigue, it would be Pugsley’s attempts to raise a zombie on watchmakers from the dead; I mean, the pleasure of slurp and everything, but he kills the dynamics of the brain, and Ordonez feels a little more rigid than the other young actors.)

But at least unlike most Netflix seasons, each episode feels centered on a central premise: a trip to Camp Jericho to compete with a Normie Scout troop (led by an Anthony by Michael Hall to find more clues, a “flowery”.

The problems that remain with “Wednesday” are an integral part of the Netflix formula, more than anything specific to the premise or the excellent casting. The program always finds its way to the porting of a horror sitcom family in the more procedural structure of a mystery of murder, and some of the Gothic gags get a small note when the punishing length of each episode fits in its end. That said, it may be necessary that Wednesday wants our pleasure to be sprayed with a little pain. It would probably make his smile at least a little fun. And part I sets up the show for part II which should, in a perfect world, stick the landing.

The four episodes of Part I were examined for examination. Part 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.