Wednesday Season 1 Blu-ray Review
Jenna Ortega carries “Wednesday.”
2022’s Netflix series “Wednesday” is a new take on “The Addams Family” characters originally created by Charles Addams. The debut season of the series, which was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar of “Smallville” fame, is comprised of 8 episodes and revolves around the titular morbid goth outsider’s character as she is expelled from school and sent to Nevermore Academy where her parents Morticia and Gomez once attended. The high school resides in the small town of Jericho, Vermont where strange things are afoot including a mysterious monster and numerous murders. Elsewhere in the season are plots involving Wednesday’s psychic visions, the shapeshifting Principal Weems, Wednesday’s roomie Enid, Jericho’s history and more.
For those expecting “Wednesday” to be in the vein of the work of Charles Addams or the original sitcom, it’s not. “Wednesday” plays more like a cross between “Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina,” “Monster High,” “The Dead Zone,” a murder mystery and a teen CW series. It’s very much aimed at a younger crowd and that’s perfectly fine as it has clearly struck a chord with Gen-Z. Not only was this Netflix series a huge hit, but it catapulted star Jenna Ortega into superstardom (and meme history). To be fair, Ortega is the best part of the entire series. She really captures the spirit of the death and torture obsessed character while giving the character different new layers. Probably could have done without the psychic vision element though as that felt like a forced plot device.
It should be noted that there is definitely a big Tim Burton influence on this series as well since he directed the first 4 episodes. Burton, who is no stranger to gothic characters, has definitely found a new collaborator in Ortega (as evidenced by her casting in the forthcoming “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”). While “Wednesday” does often feel like an amalgam of other better series, Burton still puts his stylistic dark comedy stamp on the program to be sure. Plus, he brings along Danny Elfman and Chris Bacon to compose the score. For the longtime “The Addams Family” fans, there are some nice nods to that world (especially with The Thing tagging along with Wednesday).
Ortega aside, there is some strange casting here to be sure. Normally I treasure the work of Luis Guzman but he feels decidedly miscast as Gomez Addams. Fred Armisen is also a bizarre choice as Uncle Fester. It’s even more bizarre that he may be getting a spin-off somehow. On the plus side, Catherine Zeta-Jones is inspired casting as Morticia and Emma Myers (Enid) is bound to become a future star.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1.85:1 1080p. How does it look? The series looks better on Blu-ray than it does on Netflix with crisper colors.
Audio Track: 5.1 DTS-HD MA. How does it sound? This is a pleasant 5.1 track all-around.
Disappointingly, no extras have been included.
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