In case you’re “dying to know,” this article contains many spoilers for Wednesday, read at your own risk. 

Released on November 23, Wednesday racked up “341.23 million hours” of viewing, according to Netflix, breaking the previous record of 335.01 million hours viewed held by season four of Stranger Things. 

I did not intentionally watch Wednesday, I just so happened to come across the show the night it was released. I had heard about the show, but didn’t know anything about it, so I decided to hit play. 

The show is adapted from The Addams Family, originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938. From 1938, The Addams Family has been turned into multiple movies and shows. Wednesday has definite similarities to the movies, but it also has some differences. 

“It’s just how their family is, they’re not really bonded anymore,” said Jocelyn Sintkowski, class of 2025. 

I have to be honest, I haven’t seen any of The Addams Family movies or shows, but from what I have seen and researched, the family was created to be tightly bonded. It was them against the world, but Wednesday seemed to be Wednesday against her parents but also against the world. 

However, the show was not intended to be a replica of the movies. It was intended to explore Wednesday’s character while she’s in her teenage years. In my opinion, I think that it is possible for Wednesday to want to separate from her parents because she is growing up, and let’s be honest, we all go through the stereotypical teenage phase of not liking our parents. 

The show follows a modern (ish) Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) who has just been expelled at yet another school. Her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) Addams, decide to send her to Nevermore Academy, where they went to school as teens. Nevermore is not like any other school, it is a school for outcasts, people like werewolves, gargoyles, sirens, etc. Wednesday, though modernized, is still herself. She is still reserved, dry humored and of course, expressionless. 

In my opinion this is what made the show so appealing to a wide audience. The show has modern mannerisms as well as “old school” characteristics, which is why many people, myself included, love the show. 

A string of murders around Nevermore and the surrounding town, Jericho, have recently occurred, right around the same time of Wednesday’s arrival. Wednesday begins to investigate the murders, leading her to an unlikely friendship with “normie” (normal person) Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), as well as a love triangle with Galpin and fellow classmate, Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White). 

You could call it basic, but I love love triangles, they make a show so much more fun and intriguing to watch. This particular love triangle, between Wednesday, Xavier, and Tyler, is just so perfectly planned. Of course, the love triangle is not my only reason for watching the show, I also watched because I am a huge fan of mysteries and loved watching how Wednesday solves the case.  

Wednesday makes many discoveries, such as what/who is responsible for the murders, a Hyde monster (a person who turns into a monster through hypnosis or drugs) and discovering many secrets of her parent’s past that would help her define her future at Nevermore. In addition to this, Wednesday has to share a room with Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). Sinclair is the total opposite of Wednesday, an extrovert, dramatic and loud. Even though these two are complete opposites, they develop a close friendship in the end of the show, with Sinclair saving Wednesday’s life in a battle with the Hyde monster.

I love that the television series uses the kind of friendship where one friend is completely outgoing and the other keeps to themselves and can seem mean or rude but has a soft spot for their friend. Wednesday doesn’t express feelings, but when she hugs Sinclair after she saves Wednesday’s life is so heartwarming. 

I don’t even know how to describe my initial reaction to this show. I’ve rewatched it around three times now, watching it with my parents and now my sister. I was so intrigued and needed to know who the killer was that I watched the show in under 24 hours, must I mention that the episodes are 40-50 minutes long. 

That’s what is so interesting about this show, you always want more. You are left on a cliffhanger every episode, so obviously you have to watch the next episode, but that’s okay because you can pause during the middle of the episode right? Wrong. Every minute there is a new twist or turn, a new discovery or even a new murder.  

The casting of the show, in my opinion, is incredible. Every actor or actress fits their roles perfectly, in not just my opinion but in the opinion of other fans as well. 

“Yeah [the actors fit their roles well] pretty much I’m not gonna lie,” said Sintkowski. 

I really liked how the creators incorporated the Hispanic culture in this show because it wasn’t forced on the audience, it was known that Wednesday and the rest of the Addams family are Hispanic but it isn’t something that they focus on. 

Malcolm Venable, senior staff writer for Shondaland Production Company asked Ortega about her opinion on Wednesday’s heritage. 

“‘I don’t think it was that big of a deal on the show, which was kind of nice, because it’s just kind of acknowledged, known information,” she says. ‘A lot of times, they put a person of color in a film…[a]nd they try to push it as far as they possibly can. Wednesday is just who she is. You don’t have to talk about it.’”

When looking at online reviews of the show, many people were talking about the cartoonish look to the green screen parts of the show, like the Hyde monster or Garret Gates’ dead body. As someone who doesn’t love realistic animations I loved that those parts of the show were clearly fake. To me, the fake look was intentional. 

I believe that the show isn’t meant to scare, so they didn’t want to make super realistic monsters because that isn’t the point of the show. I’m someone who hates being scared, so I guess you can call me a “scaredy cat.” As a “scaredy cat,” I really appreciated this aspect of the show because I was easily able to watch it. 

Something else I want to discuss about the show would be the audience’s reaction to some of the characters. There have been multiple people calling the show racist or making racist comments about the actors.

“No disrespect to Luis Guzman but he is…very brown,” said Adam Longden in an online review.

It is really disheartening to read this review, not only is it racist, but it is just so morally wrong. Must I point out that the show is not the same as the movies or the comics, it was never supposed to be. I also want to point out that the Gomez in Wednesday looks more like the Gomez in the original comic. 

I have also seen complaints about how the “mean girl” is black. To me this is all about perspective. The “mean girl,” known as Bianca, was never introduced as the “mean girl.” She was, however, introduced as the most popular and powerful person in school, or the “queen bee.” In my opinion, it is so powerful to have Bianca as the popular girl, as she turns into a good ally for Wednesday in the end. 

Overall, this show is definitely one I recommend watching if you like a good mystery. It includes many modern ways of life, along with some “old-school” habits, so it appeals to many different people. I would give this show a 9/10, it was very well produced, increasingly entertaining and a storyline I hope continues.