WEDNESDAY'S WEAK

Netflix hit’s formula wears thin in second season in spite of strong style and enjoyable cameos

- Annabel Nugent

If hell is a teenage girl, Wednesday Addams takes that as a compliment. The pigtailed, death-obsessed daughter of everyone’s favourite goth dynasty would relish any comparison to the underworld - it was at that intersection of teen melodrama and supernatural haunting that Wednesday found such gobsmacking success with its first season in 2022, racking up a billion hours of viewing in a month to become one of Netflix’s biggest hits. Three years later, it’s back.

Wednesday (Jenna Ortega, surly and monotone) has had a productive summer break - what are holidays for if not scalping serial killers? - but school is back in session. And to Wednesday’s horror, her valiant efforts in saving her classmates from Christina Ricci’s maniacal teacher, in the first series, have landed her at the top of Nevermore’s social pyramid: the subject of innumerable fan letters and stalker-esque staring. It’s easy but apt to draw comparisons to Ortega’s real-life discomfort with her own sudden fame; if only the actor could deal with her overeager zealots in the morbid but effective ways of her character.