Wednesday's second season struggles to recapture season 1's quirky fun

[ad_1] Netflix’s sequence Wednesday, a YA spin on the characters from Charles Addams’ Addams Household cartoons, was a smash hit when it debuted in 2022. After per week on the streaming service, the present had damaged Stranger Issues’ document because the platform’s most-watched English-language TV present. That success led to a a lot larger second season, with the present turning into the biggest manufacturing to ever movie in Eire. However the elevated spectacle and expanded forged simply depart the characters and plots feeling skinny and disconnected in season 2’s first half, which dropped on Netflix a month forward of the second half.

When misanthropic teenage psychic Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) returns to Nevermore Academy within the season 2 premiere, she’s horrified to study that she’s turn out to be the most well-liked child at school after saving Nevermore from destruction in season 1. Whereas her pals, perky werewolf Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) and nerdy bug controller Eugene Ottinger (Moosa Mostafa) are pleased to bask within the consideration they earned for his or her heroics, Wednesday does her finest to influence everybody they shouldn’t admire her. She’s laser-focused on fixing season 2’s occult thriller: A homicide of crows is committing homicide, and Wednesday has a imaginative and prescient displaying Enid might be their subsequent sufferer.

That battle may have supplied a possibility for character development, however as an alternative, everyone seems to be siloed into their very own plots. Eugene will get the worst deal, doing Wednesday a favor by turning into roommates along with her youthful brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), and getting dragged into Pugsley’s terrible scheme to maintain a zombie (Owen Painter) as a pet. This plot is supposed to bolster the macabre nature of the Addams household, with Pugsley responding with dopey glee because the strolling corpse he dubs Slurp projectile vomits on him and tries to eat Eugene’s brains. However it’s principally simply predictable, particularly when the creature escapes twice in precisely the identical means. Sadly, this storyline can be poised to be extra important within the again half of the season.

<img width="3600" height="2025" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams holds out a tray of cookies while sitting on a couch with Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay in Wednesday" data-img-url="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_202_unit_02818rc.jpg" src="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_202_unit_02818rc.jpg" style="display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;"/> Picture: Jonathan Hession/Netflix

Wednesday was in a love triangle in season 1, nevertheless it’s Enid’s flip for love in season 2. She returns to high school extra assured and carefree than ever, and decides she desires to ditch sweet-but-dim gorgon Ajax Petropolus (Georgie Farmer) in favor of fellow werewolf Bruno (Noah B. Taylor.) However whereas Enid is finished with Ajax – who represents the outdated, awkward her – she nonetheless considers Wednesday her finest pal. Wednesday clearly does take care of Enid, making the traditional mistake of attempting to guard her by retaining her in the dead of night concerning the risk to her life. However now that Enid has a pack of pals of her personal, it feels unhappy to look at her plead to be included in Wednesday’s mystery-solving.

Wednesday’s mother and father Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) have a considerably expanded function this season, as they transfer right into a home on the Nevermore campus to assist with an enormous fundraiser on the behest of the college’s new principal, Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi.) Zeta-Jones notably shines, whether or not she’s having fun with being showered with affection by one of many biggest spouse guys in popular culture, or displaying her exasperation as Wednesday makes an attempt to close her mother out of her life. A fencing duel between Wednesday and Morticia, that includes witty banter and slick choreography (and drawing on fencing scenes from the 1964 The Addams Household) is the visible and emotional spotlight of season 2 half 1.

Buscemi skillfully performs the polar reverse of the aloof confidence Gwendoline Christie dropped at the present as his Nevermore predecessor in season 1 — there’s a sweaty fervor to the best way he tries to instill pleasure in his college students. The Boardwalk Empire star can be nice at transitioning from appeal to menace as he threatens the siren Bianca Barclay (Pleasure Sunday) into utilizing her powers to assist him obtain his targets.

<img width="3600" height="2025" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort stands on stage holding a microphone in Wednesday" data-img-url="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_201_unit_03892rc2.jpg" src="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_201_unit_03892rc2.jpg" style="display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;"/> Picture: Helen Sloan/Netflix

Bianca’s makes an attempt to high school Wednesday within the nature of recognition provide some potential for a contemporary dynamic between the 2 characters in season 2, however that plot is shortly minimize quick as Bianca tries to juggle pleasing Dort with defending her mother, who’s been equally manipulated by a cult chief. The latter plot is so disconnected from every little thing else taking place this season, it simply appears like Wednesday showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar threw it in as one other instance of the sophisticated relationship between moms and daughters. That theme can be mirrored within the strained relationship between Morticia and her personal mom, the rich mortuary operator Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley), in a plot that feels equally underbaked.

There are much more new characters who add to the sensation of the present being stretched far too skinny and the forged being padded with huge names to supply loads of suspects for Wednesday’s investigation into who’s controlling the birds. Christopher Lloyd is a distracting head in a jar. Westworld star Thandiwe Newton is a psychiatrist attempting to rehabilitate Wednesday’s monstrous ex-boyfriend Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan.) Physician Who’s Billie Piper makes a dramatic entrance, critiquing Wednesday’s cello-playing as new music trainer Isadora Capri, however then doesn’t do something for the remainder of the primary half of the season besides encourage Wednesday to hitch a band and play The Cranberries’ “Zombie” throughout a zombie assault.

The brand new addition that matches the most effective is Agnes DeMille (Evie Templeton), a Nevermore pupil who goes to outlandish lengths to hitch Wednesday’s interior circle. Sporting pigtails that match Wednesday’s and a sweetly manic off-putting disposition that contrasts properly with Ortega’s deadpan, Agnes is hilariously smug as she declares her intention to tackle Wednesday’s low-priority duties, like retaining Pugsley alive. Agnes makes a robust rival for Enid, however I might have appreciated to see the werewolf push again extra towards the truth that Wednesday appears to be simply as pleased to just accept assist from a sycophant as her finest pal.

<img width="3600" height="2025" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Evie Templeton as Agnes DeMille stands with other Nevermore students looking for autographs in Wednesday" data-img-url="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_201_unit_04498rc.jpg" src="https://static1.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/wednesday_201_unit_04498rc.jpg" style="display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;"/> Picture: Helen Sloan/Netflix

Season 2’s manufacturing values are spectacular, however the spectacle tends to get in the best way of character improvement. A college tenting journey gives a couple of moments for a few of these conflicts to come back to a head, nevertheless it’s dominated by a conflict with a scouting group that’s one huge summer-camp-movie cliché. Nevermore grew an entire new group of scholars referred to as Da Vincis — telekineticists seemingly able to constructing something on the fly — however the greatest factor they put collectively is a flying burning chicken that mainly replicates a scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

There are some visuals that add to the kooky and spooky ambiance, just like the ludicrous glamping tent the Addams Household brings to chaperone the category outing, and a two-minute animated visualization of a ghost story Ajax tells on the primary evening of faculty that’s directed by Tim Burton. However there’s nothing on this half of season 2 to seize the quirky enjoyable of Wednesday’s season 1 dance scene. Ortega, who choreographed that scene, grew to become a producer for season 2, however her expanded function doesn’t appear to have actually improved the writing she complained about, modified, and was pilloried over. Perhaps issues will enhance within the again half of the season, or the already introduced season 3. However for now, Wednesday the character and Wednesday the present each appear to be battling the load of their recognition.