Netflix’s Wednesday ought to be commended for reviving interest in a lost treasure that many of us left behind in our childhood days

For those of us who grew up watching Cartoon Network, the mere mention of The Addams Family evokes fond childhood memories. The family of misfits won the hearts of many people, even though their eccentricities defied all standards of appropriate conduct. The cartoon series was a welcome testament that normalcy is a relative term and judging people for their quirks is imprudent and unjustifiable.

It is only befitting that the pull of nostalgia is what may draw viewers to the Netflix series Wednesday. At first, many of them may be tempted to question why Morticia and Gomez’s daughter Wednesday has been made the central focus of the show. The Addams Family comprises a motley crew of quaint and complex characters who are equally, if not more, eligible to be at the heart of a Netflix series.

Viewers are advised against pondering too deeply over what the series could have been with another member of the Addams Family as its main protagonist. The vision that the creators had in mind for the show could only be executed with Wednesday at its dark, mysterious core.

In the past, series based on the misadventures of the Addams Family have depicted Wednesday in contrasting hues. She has always been presented as an eccentric girl with braided pigtails who enjoys raising spiders and is particularly adept at concealing her emotions. Other televised adaptations have portrayed her as relatively more good-natured than her parents and brother, even though her preternatural obsession with headless dolls shows that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. As a result, the character of Wednesday Addams has been something of a creative plaything for scriptwriters and producers. Her malleability becomes her greatest strength as she can be moulded like clay to suit any situation.

However, this isn’t the only reason why Wednesday is an ideal choice for the main protagonist. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that Wednesday isn’t an ordinary member of the Addams family household. Unlike the rest of the eccentric clan, she possesses the rare gift of intelligence ­­– a quality that she possibly derives from her mother. Unlike her brother Pugsley, she isn’t an inveterate troublemaker, albeit she is capable of other forms of mischief. In addition, the other members of the Addams family are too ingrained in their idiosyncrasies to tread the tightrope between normalcy and deviance.

Wednesday has negotiated these challenges with great aplomb. Her personality is not only informed by the peculiarities of her familial life, but also derives its force from her broad worldview. In Wednesday Addams, we have a multifaceted character that is both enigmatic yet discerning.

In the Netflix series, Wednesday begins her journey as an uncharacteristic troublemaker who is expelled from a run-of-the-mill high school for attacking a group of boys who bullied her brother. Her parents pluck her out of her school and enrol her at Nevermore Academy, a school for social pariahs where students who aren’t “normies” (a term used in the series to describe ordinary humans). Wednesday’s aversion to her new surroundings eventually morphs into a thinly veiled curiosity as she finds herself embroiled in murder investigations and discovers facets of her family’s past that were concealed from her.

At its core, the series seems to borrow its creative thrust from popular shows such as Sabrina and rehashes tropes that were used to great effect in the Harry Potter films. Nevermore Academy resembles the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, albeit it is far more inclusive. At times, the fevered air of cruelty among the cohort makes the series seem like a drearier version of Mean Girls. Wednesday, therefore, stands the risk of being relegated to yet another teen drama laced with elements of mystery.

The first episode begins on a promising note. When Wednesday is dropped off to Nevermore Academy, she seems bitterly resentful of her family as she believes they want her to fit into a stereotypical mould. At the same time, she is coming to grips with the fact that she has psychic powers. Even so, her challenges aren’t given due attention by her parents. Her bitterness morphs into an extreme display of teen angst and she often raises objections about the self-created cocoons that her parents have grown accustomed to.

Rebellion remains at the heart of Wednesday’s struggle throughout the series. Her cold exterior and reluctance to mingle with her peers are blatant signs of a deep-rooted betrayal of trust. The creators have made a concerted effort to mine the depths of her fractured heart and mind. For instance, Wednesday’s efforts to disguise her vulnerabilities are upended as she is thrown into situations where she confronts her deepest fears.

Unfortunately, these attempts appear to be somewhat half-baked as Wednesday fritters away its energies on engaging audiences in a vapid storyline that meanders too much.

Be that as it may, the script is exceptionally well-written. Wednesday’s dialogue is laced with a characteristic wit that will surely endear her to viewers.

The casting for the series is undoubtedly its biggest accomplishment. Catherine Zeta-Jones is astonishingly convincing as Morticia Adams while Luis Guzman stands out in the role of her doting husband Gomez. Jenna Ortega is a suitable choice as the titular teenager who is a perennial misfit. Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in an earlier film adaptation of The Addams Family, has been cast in the role of a botany teacher at Nevermore Academy who is a “normie”.

Ricci’s presence in the Netflix series is a useful near-metafictional device as it explores how the boundaries between normalcy and eccentricity are porous. From the outset, Wednesday is compared with her mother Morticia as both women have faced similar challenges. However, Ricci’s perceived normality provides an indicator of how our eccentricities as children are ironed out once we become adults.

Though its plot is a tad predictable and monotonous, Wednesday ought to be commended for reviving interest in a lost treasure that many of us had left behind in our childhood days. Even so, the creators made a big mistake by taking Wednesday out of her natural habitat and throwing her into an ecosystem that drains her true potential as a member of the Addams household. Future seasons of the show, therefore, need to feature more characters from the original series with greater regularity.