Season 2, Part 1 Review – ‘A fun ride’

Returning to Nevermore Academy, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) faces up to an ominous premonition regarding roommate Enid (Emma Myers), and investigates murders committed by a one-eyed crow.
Streaming on: Netflix
Episodes viewed: 4 of 4
It feels bizarre that Wednesday returns at a time when Halloween is still months away. The show that became a runaway Netflix hit — while creatively reinvigorating director Tim Burton and turning Jenna Ortega into a generational star — radiates creepy, kooky and altogether ooky vibes, spinning the Addams Family character into her own Harry Potter-for-goth-kids YA detective series with hugely fun results. But Wednesday’s return at the height of summer speaks to Netflix’s blockbuster approach for the show’s second season — much bigger and starrier, a Stranger Things-like glow-up in scope, with somewhat mixed results.

The not-so-secret weapon in Season 1 was Ortega herself — knockout casting, elevating the material with deliciously deadpan delivery. She remains excellent here, relishing every cutting line. “It’s Addams with two Ds,” she declares early on. “Like ‘padded room’.” We’re reunited with Wednesday during her idea of summer fun — facing down a serial killer who scalps his victims and gives their hair to porcelain dolls — before it’s back to Nevermore Academy, the supernatural boarding school where she seems to attract all things mysterious and spooky.
The Hogwarts-like surroundings once again provide a cosy world for the series to inhabit — but in these first four episodes of Season 2, those stone walls are fielding too many stories, as various new characters, guest-stars-turned-season-regulars and old favourites jostle for attention in overstuffed episodes (each instalment here is a full hour). There’s Steve Buscemi as incoming Nevermore headteacher Barry Dort, whose “How do you do, fellow kids?” energy seems to hide something more sinister; Wednesday’s little brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) is now a Nevermore student too, and has accidentally revived a clockwork-hearted zombie he names ‘Slurp’; fan-favourite wolf-girl Enid (Emma Myers), significantly under-served here, is experiencing new romantic attractions, while feeling pushed out of Wednesday’s investigations by an invisible stalker. And that’s only the half of it.
All of the constituent parts of Wednesday are entertaining.
It all distracts from two central threads: firstly, that Wednesday’s psychic abilities are going wonky, her eyes leaking gooey black tears whenever she uses them, while a particularly disastrous premonition sparks a countdown to change the future. Secondly, a one-eyed crow is circling Nevermore, leading a literally murderous murder of crows that keep pecking unsuspecting victims’ eyes out — the perfect case to get Wednesday back on her investigative trail.
All of the constituent parts of Wednesday are entertaining. Its light tone and ghoulish humour make for a good time, the production values are lavish, and casting across the board is second to none. This half-season alone brings in Thandiwe Newton, Billie Piper, Heather Matarazzo, Anthony Michael Hall, Joanna Lumley, Joonas Suotamo, Haley Joel Osment and Christopher Lloyd — the last appearing as a disembodied head in a jar. Anthropomorphised hand sidekick Thing (brought to life by magician-turned-actor Victor Dorobantu) remains a scene-stealer, while Fred Armisen’s bug-eyed Uncle Fester is gloriously funny. And Burton — who directs four episodes this season, including two from this first block — is clearly having a blast with the team, a creative collaboration so potent he brought showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar onto Beetlejuice Beetlejuice between seasons. In the premiere alone, he gets to nod to The Birds, The Tell-Tale Heart, and his own Sleepy Hollow, all while presenting a classically Burtonian stop-motion animated sequence to boot.
But the super-sized approach of Season 2 often leaves Wednesday herself feeling like an after-thought in her own show. Morticia and Gomez Addams (an excellent Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán) are given way too much to do as they’re crowbarred onto campus in regular roles, and their overuse seriously cramps _Wednesda_y’s style. Key players feel a bit forgotten in the influx of new faces; there’s a slight disconnect between the show’s grisliest moments and its teen-drama leanings; and Netflix’s half-season approach means this Part stops when things have only just got going. It’s clear why the streamer is going all-in on a show with this much potential, but hopefully future instalments stitch the body-parts together more evenly. It’s interesting to see Wednesday as a summer girl, but Halloween is still where she truly belongs.
Wednesday goes big in a second season that bites off a little more brains than it can chew. Still, it’s a fun ride — worth it just to watch Steve Buscemi groove to ‘Dancing In The Dark’.