So someone had the idea "let's make a TV show about Wednesday Addams as a teenager and have her solve mysteries" and Netflix actually made that idea reality.
Let's face it, if you're my generation and a little bit weird, Christian Ricci's deadpan delivery of "Are they made with real Girl Scouts?" was a defining moment in your life. Wednesday Addams - smart, spooky and snarky - was us. So, it isn't hard to get behind the idea of a teen Wednesday solving mysteries. Did it work?
For me, kinda.
Let do a quick outline... teen Wednesday, now gifted with psychic visions, is sent Nevermore Academy... a spooky version of Hogwarts in the Vermont hills... they don't actually say it's in Vermont until halfway into the series, but one look at the hills (which were actually Romania, which spooks me slightly) and the little town and I knew immediately that it was. Here she gets involved in mystery, murder (strangely not committed by her) and mayhem (mostly committed by her).
The mystery is OK. The setting is, for me, oddly nostalgic... but what it's really about is the characters.
It's Wednesday's show and Jenna Ortega, the young actress playing her, does an excellent job. Still, this isn't the Wednesday of my youth. Yes, she is smart, spooky and snarky. She is also a bit broken... a overly smart teen who doesn't like or trust anyone and is determined to do everything alone because trust only leads to pain.
I think the show does a great job of showing Wednesday's pain, her own adamant refusal to deal with it and the ways in which that does and doesn't work for her.
On the whole, I really enjoyed this show. It's got places where it's fun and funny... but it's also thoughtful and has depths both hidden and obvious.
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