Netflix's Wednesday: A Woeful Waste of Potential
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ธ.ค. 2022
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I've had this video written for 2 weeks-ish but kept running into issues. I know there's been a flood of Wednesday content lately but hope you enjoy the video nonetheless!
edit: also for some reason TH-cam keeps randomly disabling comments?? I don't know what's causing it but I hope it stays fixed now!
lots of youtubers who did videos on Netflix's Wednesday had the same issue of the comment sections getting randomly disabled. Maybe it's a more widespread issue and I've just been watching too many Wednesday videos, but it's kind of odd that it happened for so many Wednesday show commentary videos
When Elon owns YT, he will do YT files and all the censorship will be exposedddddddddddd
lol sure....
They easily could have fixed the plot hole about Wednesday being mad her dad is a murderer and instead just turn it into her being offended at how he could be messy enough to get caught when covering up a murder.
This^ she is a muderer aswell
Agreed
I thought it was so weird that she was repulsed by her dad possibly being a murder when she is an attempted one herself. It unintentionally makes her seem like a poser or something.
She was repusled because it was her dad, in her eyes he was the one who COULDN"T and when we was accused that threw off everything she knew about him
@@ForgetableOne Original Wednesday is far more terrifying than this Wednesday who looks like a wanna be goth edgy teen lol
I know that it's been said numerous times, but the love triangle between Wednesday, Tyler and Xavier just feels completely unnecessary, and took away from the exciting mystery element. Even Jenna thought that Wednesday didn't even need a love interest, and was better off being her badass, single self.
The ONLY interesting thing about it was the fact that one of them was a murderous monster. Wednesday would NOT be turned off by that discovery. They didn't have to make him fully evil even in human form, either.
They could have banded together to fight against the teacher and try to reprogram him into not being controlled by her anymore. Making the dead founder with a staff completely unnecessary as a first season ending.
I AGREE. I fully think the love triangle was just shoe horned to fit the teen-drama genre. I didn't want or need it, and i died when wednesday kissed tyler
I mean, Wednesday already has tons of chemistry with Enid than all the boy interests combined
The love triangle thing was more of a one-sided thing from Xavier, Tyler faking his interest and her not giving a fudge, just being pushed into it by Tyler's insistence.
YOU AGAIN
Yess, I feel the exact same way about this show. Let’s be honest, Jenna Ortega is why we finished Wednesday. That love triangle was soooo underwhelming, even worse than Emily in Paris lol.
Yes! I didn't really like the show and love the triangle was so underwhelming. I only watched because of Jenna.
watched for wenclair. was disappointed with the cheap love story and love "triangle" i got instead
i wished for no love triangles or ships...i am now disappointed.
Bros spat facts there, literally the only reason i watched it was for jenna 🤣
Honestly went for Jenna and stayed for the entire show I liked it
i was lowkey confused/shocked when the show mentioned that tyler was tortured and manipulated and brushed it off like it was nothing. LIKE- WE'RE JUST GONNA IGNORE IT?????
Oh yes, his arc was a mess all the way, sprinkling his concern for spending time with his father and talking about mother feels so out of character after the reveal. For me is like Hans from Frozen who acted very nicely even when he didn't know Anna was a princess or when sisters couldn't even see/hear him. So it was all to deceive viewers?
Back to Tyler I really don't get why other characters don't see him as a victim.
Hydes in general are so confusingly written.
Are they inherently evil or just so oppressed even among outcasts that nobody can help them? Also, they’re kinda likened to having bipolar disorder (Tyler thought that was what his mother had) which is a VERY eyebrow-raising implication either way lmao
Yeah, that bugged me too. And wednesday being okay with torturing him herself, but then the torture from the villian was just a byproduct of evil and no big deal. Here is one throw away line about it.
the relationship between her and her family really annoyed me. the addams family are weird but they’re still a family and love each other. i remember sitting there like why does she hate her parents all the sudden???
Part of what bothered me the most with the werewolf conversion therapy thing was the fact that Enid does end up wolfing out at the end. That in itself is fine, but when the most notable part of that arc involves a not-at-all-subtle allusion to real life gay conversion therapy it feels pretty shitty to then end it with her successfully attaining the identity her family was pressuring her with.
I maintain that treating supernatural transformation with nuance, as a potential loss of bodily autonomy and as the possibility for empowerment through different characters at different points in the story, would have made Tyler and Enid's confrontation way more meaningful than Enid shifting purely for plot convenience cuz that ultimately undermined the central message of self-affirmation communicated by the queer-coding of her character arc.
@@marielaberge8236 Oh for sure - it could've been really interesting if they leaned into those sorts of horror elements and /especially/ if they had a sort of through-line connecting Enid & Tyler. In a different story they could be set up as interesting foils with the contrasting ideas of being unable to transform/having no control over transforming and how both of those relate to their lineage.
What annoys me about this arc is how it feels like they tried to mash two different metaphors into it - for one of them, the way it ended was perfectly fine, and for the other, it was fucking abhorrent. I would have no complaints about it if it was just a metaphor for being a late bloomer, and the weirdest thing is how little you have to change for that to work: lose the conversion therapy line and have Enid react to the pamphlets with embarrassment rather than terror, and it's a perhaps slightly silly, but alright subplot. But then the queer reading of it creeps in, and it becomes just...downright bizarre and disgusting. It's like not even the writers were sure what they were trying to convey with her. They could've gone the long route of her gradually accepting the fact that she can't wolf out, but it isn't a sign that there's something inherently wrong with her; she won't end up as a lone wolf because she's created her own "pack" of non-werewolf friends who she loves and protects, not on instinct, but by her own choice. That would've been so cool, and they threw it away for a frankly underwhelming fight sequence.
Absolutely this!!! No one talks about this and it’s one of my biggest gripes!
What on earth did it have to do w gay people? The “not fitting in” trope is so common in fiction. Plus the spin on this trope was that she didnt feel special because she didn’t have the ability to wolf out. You are just linking it.
I'm not super well versed in addams family lore and even then the family didn't feel right. It just goes to show how iconic they are, and the fact that tim burton of all people did this badly on the show is baffling, especially on the practical effects. Thing was a highlight for me in this show, and made me wish they had used practical effects on the monster instead of making that plants vs zombies looking thing. Jenna Ortega was incredible and I wish we had seen more of uncle fester because Fred Armisen is such a funny guy
Nice I'm not the only one that thinks that monster was ripped from the game
Tbh i straight up thought the monster looked awful lmao, and now i cant unsee plants vs zombies lmaoooo
and i cannot believe they had her come back with "would you rather i develope an obsession with horses and boybands?" not once, which would've been okay. but twice, word for word
exactly. the addams have never been judgemental of other cultures/hobbies. the "pick me/not like other girls" traits and dialogue they gave wednesday made me so sad
That I think was her attitude coming from the outside, looking in at high school culture from the perspective of her odd (kooky, spooky) family background.
Right? I knew I was having a deja vu moment.
it would make so much more sense if, instead of belittling other people, she just defended her own interests
honestly, the only good thing to come out of this show (in my opinion) is the deserved attention Jenna Ortega is getting and the absolutely BANGER cello covers. at worst this show produced a cooker cutter love triangle featuring a character many fans have deemed aro/ace in recent years (which, though in some cases of 'fanon' doesn't make sense, being on the ace spectrum totally makes for Wednesday), the promise of the 'queer and macabre' while delivering little of both, and the growing commodification of alt girls/alt fashion.
on a side note, i am punk leaning more on the gothic side of things and i've had had a similar haircut to Wednesday for the past 2 years and wear pigtail braids all the time, and before this show came out i got the occasional Wednesday Addams joke thrown at me but now i can't wear one of my fav hairstyles without being pelted in jokes about 'being into goth girls like wednesday' and it makes me so uncomfy as an ace person. and my hair is LITERALLY BLUE, I look NOTHING LIKE HER.
just these days i was thinking about theres still some relics of a sort of q ueer competition for representation in media for the sake of example lets say in a show from the 90s there was a female character that could have been read as queer coded and ended up with no canon hetero relationships, a lesbian fan and a acespec fan could both read her as their respective sexualities even if they could sometimes contradict each other's interpretation, which if you have been in a fandom where that happened you know its breeding grounds for prejudice and bullying by taking wednesday's history of being so uninterested in men and heteronormative marriage, putting her in a love triangle where she has no chemistry with the love interests and having one of her most developed relationships being with her female roommate/close friend the show just created that same situation where both marginalized groups have to really read into something and compete with each other to have representation... aren't we supposed to have become better than what we were almost 3 decades ago?
Tbh Jenna's acting is pretty okay-ish at best
@@footl0se I couldn't agree more. And let's be honest : I think it's safe to say ''pretty'' is the key word here.
Also the dancing scene playing to Lady Gaga music
what irritates me the most about the culture aspect (speaking as a latina teen!) is that gomez isn't even mexican! he's supposed to be of castilian origin, so i genuinely do not understand the whole mexican culture aspect. and personally, i'm really tired of mexico being the only latinamerican country that ever gets represented in media, it's so rare to see rep of other countries. considering luiz guzmán is puertorrican and so was raul julia, i'd have adored if instead of mexican they gomez puertorrican as a homage to the actors (although that's also bias since i'm also puertorrican, but it still feels like a big miss)
Puede ser que los hicieron de ascendencia mexicana por el día de muertos, ya que es la festividad más popular y la más"goth" de latinoamerica. Eso y que los escritores son solo incompetentes que buscaron hacer menos trabajo de investigación sobre la cultura de otros países latinos y se fueron a lo fácil.
castillan like from spain (from europe)?
@@IoIita yes! In the OG show it is mentioned he has ancestors from Spain'
I think Encanto was in Colombia but that’s it. As a Latino, give other Latin American countries representation, they are great I promise you.
As a Mexican, I completely agree! It's exhausting that other Latinos never get the spotlight. There was potential but it's such a shame there weren't other ideas explored :/
if the writers really insisted on keeping Wednesday as a murder mystery, it could have been more interesting if Wednesday was framed for murder and spends the series trying to solve the case and find out who framed her. And her reasoning for doing so would be because she doesn’t want credit for something she didn’t achieve.
THIS
This should be the plot for season 2.
So who framed Roger rabbit
YES
My biggest issue with Wednesday is that it just looks like a normal somewhat supernatural murder mystery with Addams family paint over it.
They could've replaced the whole family with a generic goth family where some of them have psychic powers and nothing would've changed at all.
Also at Nevermore, where people like Wednesday are meant to "fit in", everyone acts like regular high school drama characters but with fun supernatural design quirks. They lampshade it with how it used to be better back when Morticia and Gomez were attending but that was probably 20/30 years ago at Most and all the faculty except Christina Ricci presumably also attended at the time, so why would it have changed?
Agreed. Especially with their reaction to the whole 'Gomez accused of murder' subplot. The Addams all seemed to have the same reaction to killing in self defense as normal people would, but their family motto was 'we consume those who would subdue us'. They would not be afraid to admit to Wednesday what had happened, and honestly, Wednesday likely wouldn't be that upset that her father may be a murderer.
Jenna Ortega absolutely slayed this role, and didn't try to copy Christina's or any other version. She's easily the best part of the entire show, and as a bonus, we got to see both the old Wednesday and the current Wednesday play off of each other! ❣️
It is strange to say that she didn't wanted to copy Christina's version of Wednesday. I know that Jenna herself said this, but it is illogical since from the writing and characterization, the Wednesday from this series *desperately* wants to recreate Christina's version of the character. Now it makes sense to me why I wasn't particularly convinced with this version. The actress and the writers had completely different goals.
I couldn't agree more.
Her shtick got old tbh
"School for magical misfits" is quickly becoming the new vampire trope. You *can* do it but you better make it extremely unique and off-trope.
Crows did it first and honestly, it was way better as it actually portrayed many stereotypes
I love that trope but few things ever do it right. My personal favorite is the book, The Girl Who Could Fly
on top of her being upset about her father possibly being a murderer, her being so upset by the monster killing her classmates just didn't make sense to me. Imo Wednesday would be entertained/ amused by that, especially bc there was the parallel to her almost killing her classmates in the very beginning of the show. So why would she be upset about the killings? They just took a generic teen drama story and slapped "Addams Family" on top of it and that really annoyed me.
Considering she's a girl whose dream jobs would be things like executioner or grave digger in the original concept of the series, I feel like the writers just completely misunderstood what Wednesday is all about.
@@leonardofarias8843 why wouldn't she? She's electrocuted her own brother just for fun before. A little murder wouldn't be a big deal in context of her character's whole history.
@@Homodemon The Addams don’t lack morals, they only do crazy things as gags
@@HomodemonReally hard to have likable characters who murder people
@@leonardofarias8843 a macabre character with different morals can still be relatable and have emotions like everyone else does. just depends on how you write it
About Jenna Ortega being latina. As a latina, it makes me mad that most of the representation that we get is people that don't really represent us. I'm tired of gringos thinking they are doing something by giving us two words in spanish and a mexican song in the background. What I don't like is when gringos think they are representing us, when the truth is I don't feel represented with a gringa that doesn't speak spanish once on the screen. Of course I have nothing against her, Jenna is an amazing actress and a perfect casting choice for Wensday. But if they want to give themselves a medal for representation, we need more than a mexican song. That is the real problem, not Jenna's presence on the screen, but the fact that they are like "hey latinos! Look! We are prepresenting you!" When hollywood only puts effort in representing people with latin roots, not latinos like us. And they don't have the obligation to represent us, but don't tell me you are representing me, you are not.
This. Jenna doesn’t even speak Spanish
I agree with this argument in good faith, but I don’t agree with the disappointment in expecting Jenna to speak another colonial language. I am also a Latino who speaks Spanish and is excited to see character on screen that looks like me, but it’s important to be critical on what “Latino” and “Raza” mean before we talk about representation.
If they weren't going to have Wednesday speak spanish they could've explored the cultural disconnect with second generation immigrants. Despite growing up around my family full of spanish speakers, none of my cousins or I ever learnt spanish because we grew up in an english speaking country so none of our spanish speaking family members ever taught us Spanish beyond basics. They could've explored how Wednesday felt lost at not being connected to her ancestry and her roots, they could've showed her yearning to learn more about her culture and her past (incorporated that into the whole Goody plotline or whatever, Goody is a stupid name too) and over the story growing more in touch with her family.
13:55 the writers are definitely trying to appeal to gen Z by using wokeness but it is a complete turn off. It’s so obvious when it’s old white men writing because it’s never good. It’s a shame because this show could have been great.
Is written in such an unsubtle way that really makes you hear in the back of your brain
"How do you do, fellow kids?"
Woke culture in general is never good
First i want to talk about my first point of annoyance the disconnect between wednesday's latina identity and wednesday herself in the show, like my dudes were like we are gonna sprinkle 3 vague mentions to their unspecified mexican heritage one gracias and call it a day??? like spend 1 hour with a tía and you are gonna know more culturally "morbid" mexican history than an 8 episode of the first LATINA wednesday addams anyways refinery29 did a great article going more in depth on this secondly thank you SO MUCH for talking about how BAD the lycanthropy conversion therapy was especially since enid did "wolf out" in the end like what was the point then??? in the end her parents were in the right she just didnt need conversion therapy to be a full on werewolf however she still did exactly what they were forcing her to do???? WHATS THE MESSAGE TIMMY BOY
i was talking to my bestie earlier and it would have made much more sense if she was the stuck up control freak one repressing it on her own for whatever reason and the through her connection with wednesday and her devil may care attittude she would feel comfortable enough to accept her wolfy messier side
I saw a lot of mixed reception to Wednesdays Latina representation and I definitely felt similar to you in that it seemed quite empty?? but then Jenna Ortega said in interviews that she liked how Latina identity wasn’t a big deal for Wednesday so then I wasn’t sure if it was casual or lazy underdeveloped representation. interesting to see your input, thank you!
@@elleliteracy i really like jenna and i totally get how amazing it must be so speak with her whole chest that wednesday is latina but it feels like an afterthought when it >didnt< have to be, you know? if a characteristic of a character can be fully edited out of the story with the erasure of 3 lines of dialogue... is it really as integral to the character as they are preaching it is? in us-centric media having a latine actor isnt enough to automatically make smth representative of latines (especially since we are not a racial identity) otherwise every character played by alexis bledel (half argentinian/raised in mexico) and even anya taylor joy (raised in argentina) would be considered latina... funny thing they arent right?
@@elleliteracy im sorry im very passionate about this discussion DSAHGASDGASDJHDAS
I was so annoyed by something I could not figure out while watching wendnesday but I think that's It. You just described something that bothered me a lot in this series.
This needed to be said. It's exactly how I feel about the show and I'm getting tired of people treating it as more than it was.
i feel they should have made wednesday ace or aromantic especially seeing as she explicitly mentioned not wanting to be in love, felt disgusted and/or perturbed by displays of physical romantic affection, and had no intentions of forming a romantic relationship. they could have explored other forms of love like friendship and familial but instead put her in a basic hetero- and mono- normative love triangle. it was expected but disappointing nonetheless.
90 percent of relationships are herto
I personally liked her with Joel (?? i forgot his name) tho
@Louis Kingsta touch grass
@@foolcoooym1425yeah joel was wonderful, but in this version of Wednesday it seemed like she was truly uninterested in romance & relationships
@@louiskingsta6142 oh do shut up loser
I'd love if instead of Monster Hig--I mean Nevermore, Sabrin-I mean Wednesday would have enrolled in some kind of school that like Do Revenge's Rosehill.
The second Hogwar-- I mean, Nevermore appeared I just stopped watching altogether.
thatd be fun :)
Something I found super funny about the show is that the spirit that Wednesday sees in her visions is named Goody Addams, when Goody isn’t a name. Goody is an honorific/title that was most used during the pilgrim/puritan times as a mark of respect. It’s short for Goodwife. I suppose Goody *could* be a name in the same way that Missy or Buddy could be, but judging on the time period her story takes place - that being the times of the witch trials - highly doubt that. This could’ve easily been fixed too. In the scene where Wednesday is trying to summon Goody, she remarks that Goody isn’t answering. There could’ve been a scene later where Goody tells Wednesday her real name or where Wednesday finds that out herself. Huge missed opportunity. Just goes to show the lack of research that went on in the writer’s room
THANK YOUUUUUUUUU THIS BOTHERED ME SO MUCH
I know that it wasn't too big of a deal, but this bothered me so much in the show when I watched it! I was also hoping we would learn her real name!
@@YourAceFriend It also didn’t help that I watched this RIGHT after the Crucible either lol
@@snowset675 Me too, my class watched it :')
This was so annoying!!!
Three main reasons why it got popular:
-Had a dance that would guaranteed be trendy
-Jenna Ortega
-A main character being an outcast that literally everyone says they are to the point where being normal is basically being an outcast, so a lot of people relate to it.
Its funny when so many Gen Z consider themselves as outcasts yet they are all sheep.
Episode Three W said something bad was going to happen. Wanted to stop. Crack stone. Burnt to stop
Adams family had Crackstone and that is real plot.
The writing is just cringy, i can't stand wednesday's edgy dialogue sorry lol
As soon as I saw wednesday despise her mother I was like "wait this is unlike the Addams Family at all"
YES I hated the family dynamic too. If there is one family that will never have trouble with each other it's the Addams! I felt so bad for them, and seeing them with conflict felt soooo wrong, like this is not the family to mess up
Wednesday tried to be like a gothy Daria, but worse and with less charm. At least on Daria they explored the concept of Daria, even with her wit and smarts, was often wrong on a lot of stuff, committed errors and was shown to be as judgemental and shallow as the rest of the people surrounding her.
But this Wednesday is just an edgy asshole most of the time, with people around her being just too stupid to do anything about it and also perfect at everything she does.
@@Dani_1012 and I feel like this is actually kind of important because functional, loving families seem rarely shown in media. I know drama creates interest, and there are families that are bad to each other, but I am lucky enough to come from a family that is actually kind of like the Addams in supporting and understanding each other (even if we do sometimes argue, nobody's perfect) and I really want that dynamic shown more in media. Every family being all unhealthy and hating each other might set a bad precedent.
@@thedarklrd6714 That's true. We need more loving families on TV. It's kinda funny when you think about how the original Addams show from the 60s were created as functioning as they are because all of the other TV families at the time hated each other
@@thedarklrd6714 Also, you are lucky to come from such a background. I can almost say the same but things aren't as they used to be, or as they appeared to be...
From a Latina perspective, I do believe (obviously) white men trying to create Spanish immigrant storylines wasn’t going to work, and every Hispanic family I know usually speaks Spanglish or the first generation will speak entirely Spanish unless in a situation where they have to speak English because speaking Spanish (or other Latin dialect) with other Spanish speakers is a comfort zone. I think if they had more Hispanic writers in the writing room the heritage would have been better shown, but Wednesday as she is shown is also interesting already. Nice to not have to see a “spicy” or “male gaze directed” Latina in a meant for teens show. (*cough* Maddie from euphoria *cough*)
As a latin american i don't get why refer to them as "white men" and not just americans in general, person can be a black trans woman for all i know, if they aren't latin americans then they shouldn't be writting latin american chars.
I definitely agree that more Hispanic writers would have been better. I literally had no idea Wednesdays family was supposed to be specifically Hispanic (I know Gomez is, but Morticia isn't exactly a Hispanic name, even though I love the actress playing her in the show) it really didn't click until I read about it, they just seem very American, nothing about how she decorates her room, or speaks really plays to that. Maybe I'm just dense.... But I feel like cultural things do need to be a little bit exaggerated in media since we're only seeing the smallest slivers of a characters life.
@@Radhaun it would've made more sense if Morticia's first language was English because Hispanics who marry only English talking people learn English the best. If she was Hispanic, it didn't really show in the show other than her face and perhaps cultural background. I like to think that it is because the Addams just settled for the goth aesthetic for no reason at all lol
I thought the adams were french.
@@footl0se exactly!. That is like pretending a black American man would know what being middle eastern is like
Nah, they totally knew what they were doing with Enid. She has the colors of the bisexual flag on her hair, she used a damn sweater that was literally the lesbian flag, has a rainbow plushie, and the damn window.
Enid is literally the representation of a gay kid, but the writers didn't go all the way. They basically made allegories and kind of gave an lgbtq subtext to the plot, but is just that, they didn't go all the way. They didn't make her gay, she's just physically like an image of a gay kid, that's it.
I am sure those suckers are going to say in a few years "We wanted to tell a little of what lgbtq kids go through... bla bla bla", but after all they are not going to make her gay. It's going to be a damn subtext because they have done that before with superman (they were the writers for that).
They literally said with superman they wanted to kind of represent a little of what a gay man goes through, like his struggles and that shit.
But that's the problem, we're on 2023 man, like if you want to tell a queer story, just make it queer. You don't have to use allegories or parallelisms. Because her story wasn't a methaphor, it was kind of like a parallel.
So yeah, that kid was supposed to be gay, the writers are just shitty, the usual.
Headcanons ≠ canons.
I honestly don't think that a bunch of colors is enough to imply queer subtext. Colors have many different meanings and the flags aren't that well-known outside of lgbt communities.
To me, Enid's color scheme reflects her personality (feminine, bubbly, etc.) and contrasts with Wednesday's black&white aesthetic. I don't think it is to imply not any appartenance to the queer community.
Of course, she could still be reveled t be queer later.
@@elisa4620 on Tv, colors and props always have some sort of meaning and whatever. With Enid there's just a lot of things that make me believe her character was just meant to explain a subtext of what a lgbtq kid goes through, but that's it. The writers are old, as I mentioned they did the exact same thing with Superman... and that series is hella old. They're used to their old ways, that's why the "teenager" dialogues on Wednesday are cringy as hell. They don't know how to really represent queerness or how teenagers communicate nowdays.
Also, Tim Burton directed this and how surprising is that all lgbtq characters scenes were cut out 🤡 there's an staff of Netflix that gave a lot of spoilers of the series before it came out and all of them turned out to be true. I still follow this person and let me tell you... they do not speak well of Tim Burton at ALL. Basically Tim Burton took a lot of decisions of how characters should behave and also they purposely cut out the lgbtq character scenes. That's enough for me to know that these people are literally queerbaiting as hell, and then they're just going to say "nah, Enid had a queerness subtext, we kind of wanted to explain that with her". And then she ends up being the straightest person EVER 😂
The flags thing... that damn window. There was SO many ways they could have decorated that window, but chose to do it as flags that are sooooo alike to lgbtq flags. The "conversion camp" thing. Choosing to put that kind of dialogues in Enid's plot is just misleading as hell, because at the end of the day there was nothing canonically queer about her 🤡
So I stand by what I said, sure, Enid is an outgoing kid and obviously colors kind of represent that. But you can be outgoing as hell and still don't use that kind of colors, also not specific colors that are used on lgbtq flags. They could have made her use solid colors... but no 😂
Hey! Latino boy here. When it comes to latino-representation something that I thought would be worth mentioning is that the character from Wednesday's book is called "Viper de La Muerte" which sounds kinda stupid since it basically translates to Viper of Death, but whatever, the point is that this character has a last name in spanish and her mother is called Dominica, also a spanish name, and since the therapist makes a paralel between Wednesday, Morticia and the two characters it is worth noting that the series is hinting that Wednesday is in some way expressing her culture through her writing.
Also, I just noticed how stupid it is for Wednesday and Goody to speak english with each other when english clearly isn't Goody's first language. Like, is it hard to ask Jenna to speak spanish and put some subtitles on the show?
When it comes to speaking spanish at home and with your parents I think it would really depend on how Gomez deals with their culture at home. It seems like he is the kind of guy who would teach his kids about their culture and, talk in spanish sometimes, but we can't really know about that, some people think that it's more simple to just use the language of the country their kids live in so they won't be confused when learning how to speak. I don't know, it really depends on the family we are talking about.
oooh that Viper point is so interesting I didn’t notice that!!
@@elleliteracy to add on as well Im a latina as well and like @planetboyonearth said its different from household to household. I was taught spanish as a child but it was really frustrating for my teachers because my brain could not distinct between the two language. Because of this my dad stopped teaching me and I lost it over time. Im working at it again but learning so late and especially with bad anxiety some of us just dont know fluently by the time we're grown
14:43 the line about horses and boybands was so obviously written by a middle age white man it's painful. like why is there something wrong with liking horses and boybands??? just glaring misogyny. (also for context i'm a teen girl who likes girl groups and boybands so idk maybe i biased)
No, it was definitely misogynic and you are right to point it out as such.
There's nothing wrong with liking those things but to play devil's advocate I just think it was a stereotype to what young girls like. Most girls I knew in elementary to early middle school liked these things.
nope, you're not biased. i'm more of the heavy rock band kind of girl but even that line was painful for me to hear. like i thought we left the "ew girls who like boybands and horses are weird" phase back in 2014??????
@@jessalynesimanjuntak9463 lol yeah... i like to leave that phase in the past
@@thelostmessenger then why would Tyler prefer wednesday to like true crine instead of these? Imo it is supposed to make fun of those interests
I watched the whole show in a single day and i wasn't sure if i liked it. It wasn't really Adams family.
I liked that Jenna Ortega brought new elements to the character, and it felt refreshing, but the parents really didn't do it for me. I personally didn't love the casting for the parents, but the script didn't do them justice either. They felt too irrelevant in the show, and the luck of chemistry between them REALLY bugged me.
*ALSO* something that i want to get off my chest for a while now. *What the hell is wrong with the design of the Hyde???* idk why no one speaks about it. I almost threw up by how cartoony and off the proportions and all looked. It straight up looks like it came from "plants vs zombies". I literally couldn't take anything seriously when that thing was on screen.
yeah the Hyde just looked silly! I think it’s the bug-like eyes.
With the Hyde, it's the giant bloodshot eyes for me, mostly. When they first showed glimpses of the character, my partner and I agreed we thought they were going to go with that design to be how the werewolves looked, and were relieved when that wasn't the case. The proportions definitely contributed to making it look so unappealing. It's like the showrunners saw the weird, creepy 'Momo' puppet that was invading kids' TH-cam videos years ago and decided that's how their 'monster' would look, too. Also, the CGI looked too smooth and uncanny on the character.
At first, I thought the Hyde design was foreshadowing something.
But no! It was just a silly looking monster.
A few things, from my own experiences:
- people with mental illness are often exploited, which is sad
- I’m Mexican American and we didn’t speak Spanish at home. It’s a long history of wanting to assimilate and erasing our history that my grandparents started. Again, sad
- Gomez Addams has an Anglo last name, which makes me think that Goody has a white father with the name Addams. Her mom appears to be indigenous and could be latinx. It’s entirely possible for the Addams to have mixed heritage even on the latinx side
Goody has psychic powers like Morticia and Wenesday so she probably comes from Morticia's side. I assume the last name is overlooked plot hole or maybe Morticia was the one who kept her last name.
@@CureSmileful in 22:08 you can actually see her maiden name, so to me it sadly seems like its just bad writing
@@Nicole-dx4ks oof, you are right
Latinx isn't a valid word. It's Latina, Latino or Latin.
The whole comverrion therapy thing made no sense to me because Enid IS a werewolf, full stop. We see her claws when she first meets Wednesday so we KNOW its a matter of time before she wolfs out.
In convertion therapy you may have a gay kid forced to behaving straight or an autistic kid forced to mask permanently but those aren't what they were before. They are forced to become something they are not for the comfort of the people around them.
Enid however IS a werewolf, if she went to werewolf camp she would leave as a werewolf still not as something other than she was when she entered. If anything the wolf camps would be more analogous with special education classes or summer classes for kids who falied at school since Enid is presented as a late bloomer in comparison with her brothers and barely shows any signs of queerness.
And lets not even talk about the whole colonisation theme because that's another can of worms. First Wednesday is Latina on her father's side, great. Then Morticia, her white mom, gives her an aztec amulet to help with her visions, great(?) (We love a culturally supportive mom obviously). Then Goodie, Gomez' ancestor, is a white colonist....okay you lost me. The family tree is so wonky here, Wednesday gets visions like her mom but Goodie is from her dad's side, then Gomez is latino but Goodie is white and apparently lived her whole life in STOLEN LAND (because Nevermore was stolen from the natives and never given back). It just would've been so easy to make Goodie a native who reclaimed the land by taking over a residential school and turning it into a place where outcasts could lesrn about their culture and history and peotect each other. The ultimate revenge against the colonists: keeping their people and culture alive. But I guess you can't expect better from Tim "the outcasts should integrate in society, not reject it" Burton and his similars.
Was there even a triangle when Xavier never had a chance? I just felt so bad for him because W couldn’t GAF about him lol
Joy's eyes genuinly look more mesmerizing in the picture you showed with that blue makeup and her actual eyes. If they really went hard, they couldve given her irredescent and very light coloured eye looks to constantly make her eyes stand out, making ger gaze just as hypnotizing.
The show kind of suffers from "have to recognize every supernatural species on sight" syndrome. I get where theyre coming from. You can spot any siren by the lenses used in any of the crowds in the show. It shows lack of creativity though, they couldve really done way more with all the creature and monster designs in general.
90s duology is still the best Addams Family adaptation imo. In the sequel, Wednesday and Joel’s relationship genuinely feels kinda…wholesome and natural.
16:31 YES! One of my favorite movie scenes!!
i didn't like the conversion therapy for werewolves storyline because it felt like they were taking queer trauma for the vibes of it and using it for a ciset character
EDIT: To clarify it's an awful thing to do when you speculate or pressure real life people into coming out BUT the same does not go for tv/movie/book characters because they are NOT real people they are made up
we don't acutally know she's cis....calm down
There are literally no signs that she’s not cisgender though……like what
@@whatisupbruh2738 tbh we should all just stop tryna guess what character is what. This happened with heart stopper and we all know where that went.
@@jinx5337 That happened to the actor, not his character
@@MindNCanvas no shit sherlock but its things like this that make people feel pressured into coming out
I had been judged so harshly by everyone when I say I didn't like the show, but I love the Addams family, like a lot. The whole story is just disappointing. I think the actors were great and visuals besides the monster were decent.
I definitely have a problem with using Black characters to represent colonialism and prejudice.
It just feels like the exact same thing as the last film of Burton’s that pulled this with extra steps.
On the flip side of that, they wrote a white character to be a slave and then acted like it doesn't matter he was psychologically manipulated and physically tortured into submission because as far as the show's lore is concerned, Tyler just fulfilled his genetic destiny of becoming a slave and evil beastly monster. Between the black characters being cast as the ones who financially and socially benefit from the cultural heritage of colonialism, and a white guy being coded as a textbook argument for racial essentialism, this show had an overall pretty fucked up take on race
@@marielaberge8236 actually Tyler was enslaved by...... A white person. A woman actually. It's very much a gender thing not a race thing in that case
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl If you only look at gender, a boy emotionally manipulated a girl because he was abused by a woman attempting to revive her puritanical forefather. BUT the boy in question is Tyler, who was genetically pre-destined to be enslaved (and so part of the cycle of abuse) because of his evil bestial nature. So Hydes are literally depicted the way colonialists viewed black people to justify enslaving them. Saying "some people are natural-born slaves" to a white character instead of a black one displaces the racism to a supernatural species, but that's just racism-with-extra-steps. The show replicates colonial discourse by dressing it up in white people and gender dynamics, and the message becomes "puritanical patriarchy is bad for men and women" but also "there are 'those people' who don't deserve to be treated as equals cuz they're inherently subhuman".
I …don’t??? I thought it was refreshing to see a black character not be in one of the few roles people think they should take. The funny guy or just the big black handsome man. There’s more but not many lol. That’s something that never crossed my mind nor did it matter to me.
I think we’re all forgetting that no race is exempt from cruelty or enslaving other people guys
@@marielaberge8236 Tyler's enslavement was such a disappointing point to begin with. There have been white minorities as well as criminals who were historicall turnt into slaves. Perhaps if they had written Tyler MORE as a shady guy instead of a nice guy who's obviously actually shady and included white criminals enslaved by the colonialists, it could have been a nice way to open a discussion on the human rights a criminal should have because inhuman treatment is sure not going to make them better people either, and if done right it could only further enhance the evilness of the colonialists, show them how eager they are to abuse anyone and justify it all with different excuses when the true answer is just one: greed. Which is the true flaw in most woke media talking about it. Sure, there were slave owners who were genuinely racist monsters, but many of them were just clinging to racist ideology as a justification for their greed, and there was definitely some racist ideology backed up by religious propoganda like black people being the descendants of Kain as dictated by this Irish monk. The Church is literally rich, and in those days they were literally amongst the richest of the rich. Keeping the Europeans rich kept the Church rich. It wasn't even about hating certain people, it was all just about the money and power. If the creators had understood that, it would have been a so much better series.
Wednesday in this was just a marie sue not like other girls type of chacarters
i didn't enjoy her being so annoying even when the other characters called her out she wasn't what the writers wanted her to be
i would loved if she was more evil or bad but shes just not here
Most female characters in newer western movies feel that way tbh… like the live action popular ones.
I wish they took her down a few more pegs tbh. She did fail sometimes in the show, like she got ridiculed for the whole murder thing. But idk, feel like it could’ve been… idk.
Jenna Ortega is honestly the best the thing about that show. The plot was very paint-by-numbers Teen Drama, and didn't really bother to do anything different. When you take away Jenna's performance, everything that's left is very meh. But hopefully they do better with season 2.
Absolutely agree with most of what you said, I really hope they take some of the criticism seriously and make some changes in the next season. No love-interest for Wednesday, a queer storyline for Edith, more interaction with regular people. I’d love seeing more of Bianca (without the contacts).
yeah those contacts were creeping me out too much...
i dont think theyre gonna take the contacts out lol
@@sleepy.timaeus.arts. Unfortunately
just retire Tim, I beg you, I cannot look at this massacre anymore
He's just another white man now he just doesn't feel goth anymore
I also interpreted the part where she was upset about her father's murder charges more as her being pissed she didn't know about it and it was hidden from her.
but why was she upset about the murders the hyde was commiting? She even almost murdered her own classmates in the very beginning but then suddenly was upset that other people got killed? it was just bad characterization
@@rica3947 here is a thought....maybe she is ok with murder when she thinks it is justified, putting herself at the center of determining when things are ok and not rather than almowledging an objective moral code outside of herself. The swim team boys "deserved" what they got, but Eugene didn't. The Hyde was targeting people without apparent justification except maybe the first one which saved her life. I would have to rewatch to see if her attitude towards the Hyde evolved with the victims he took.
@@atruthseeker79 I agree with this
@@thelostmessenger same here this would’ve been such a better idea
You summed the show up so well! Its a marshmallow of show, very fun, and sweet in some ways and I really enjoyed binging it, but it has very little substance
The makeup team did Catherine so dirty. They did such an awesome job with Jenna so I don’t know why it went so bad for the others. They smoothed her skin in some clips and didn’t even go to the edges of her face. They made her look dried out and dead, but not in a goth way. If they make another season, they better fix her
The contacts were absolutely a hate crime 😂😡 it was soooo distracting to both me and my dad. We were upset lbvs
I kinda didn't notice lol I thought it looked cool but idk I wish her character had more screen time at the last episode cause she ce out of nowhere
@@thelostmessenger I’m hoping the main cast will all be standouts in the next season. They have so much to work with! And her story with her mom can be more fleshed out
Fr!!! I hated them like I get she’s a siren but come on those are just ugly I’ve seen black people wear colored contacts that are alluring while still matching them! It’s crazy they stuck her with those.
I thought with Enid and the whole "isn't fully what shes meant to be" was more about gender but even then they did a horrible job to what I thought was gonna be a non binary representation. Or doesn't matter what they were trying to do with her bc she still became the thing her mom was pressuring her to be instead of letting her develop her powers in a way that would fit her more or never get them fully and still be proud of herself. This whole show was such a let down, any aspects I was excited for to be explored they either dropped it and never discussed again or fumbled so bad that the line of bad representation or making fun of ppl was so blurred you could never tell like you said. The only character i think they actually wrote well was Thing A HAND. A hand had more charm and felt more fully developt than everyone maybe except Wednesday herself but that's only bc of the acting not the writing
tell me why Thing was the most developed character!!!!!
The thing that bothers me is that, in media, a woman being a werewolf is usually about womanhood, and rejecting the stereotypes of fragility and servitude imposed by society whilst accepting the parts of you that society views as monstrous. The things they stablish in the show fit that kind of narrative very well.
Enid is stabilished as alone since episode one. She knows all the gossip, but nobody really goes *to her* because they like her presence. Very much the behavior of someone who's trying to feel like a part of something by observing and writing about it, hence the gossip. It's also the middle of the year and she has no roommate, making her even more alone compared to everybody else.
She then shares her insecurities with the first person who's obligated to spend time next to her. Those insecurities are about not wolfing out, and how anxious she is about maybe never wolfing out, which would mean she'd never *be a part of a pack and find a mate* further driving home how lonely she is and how scary that is for her.
Fast forward to her being stood up by Gorgon Dude. She destroys an entire car with just her claws (something we never see her do again - I'm not counting the boat cuz that's wood and not metal), signaling that her emotions about romance and rejection might have some control over her powers. It is also the first blue moon in 23 years, so the lunar influence could be stronger on her than usual full moon influence.
The next time we see something similar right after the prank at the ball. We see her quickly experiencing connection with a normie, discovering she shouldn't have trusted him, and being consoled by Gorgon Dude, who explains that he didn't reject her, he was just too embarrassed to explain himself. They then decide to give their relationship a shot, and *her claws react with her* for the first time.
Just to drive home how lonely she still is, she goes to Yoko after her fight with Wednesday, but she keeps coming back to her dorm to check if Wednesday wants to apologize. That can be interpreted as Yoko having taken her in just for politeness, and that Enid doesn't really feel welcome enough in her presence to ditch Wednesday completely.
And finally in the last episode we see that *Enid's claws keeping acting up* when she's with Gorgon Dude, and that apparently is a common occurrence. We also are informed that it is a blood moon out there. And when she goes outside to help Wednesday, her actual friend, with the help of Thing, with who it has been stabilished throughout the show she has a pretty close friendship with, she starts wolfing out.
What I interpret from that is that she needed to soothe her anxieties about not being able to find a mate without wolfing out, as well as to learn that if she has friends that trust her enough to come to her for help, she's not really alone - alongside immense lunar influence (a blood moon doesn't happen every day) for her to finally wolf out. After she transforms back, we see her being touched or hugged by only the people that cared about her more - Thing, then Gorgon Dude, then finally Wednesday.
That would've been a perfectly fine narrative, if it wasn't for that lycatropy conversion camp bulls**t.
Non binary??
@@LunaWitcherArtamazing breakdown :0
I’m only interested in the knit and crochet wear in the show. I’ll rewatch it to see the outfits.
Yeah I kinda wanna make the black and white checkered V neck sweater
@@liisaky there's a TH-cam channel that did tutorial on that! It's knnoting hook crochet
@@express999snsd thanks! I found the video
Agree with all of it. Hated the not-like-other-girls vibes from W. Like they're supposed to be accepting people. That's why we love the Addams. Not snobs. They fell on this on the second movie a bit too. The family conflict also felt out of place. Despite all the faults though I thought it was just so much fun. Jenna, and all the other female actors literally carried the show. It was so fun to see them. I watched one season of Riverdale and got bored. Never got into Sabrina. But this one I finished in two days. I hope next season. is better. Aand yes, as a Latina, I would love to see more Spanish. We got a short monologue in German but like two words in Spanish, from a Latin family xD
Omg that chocolate shop spiel!! I honestly was surprised no one took the chocolate. like, i dont think they were able to understand her so i could see them being like "idk what youre saying but that's cool youre speaking a different language!" and take some. idk why they all listened to the whole monologue and then walked away like "wtf"
Also, let's be mindful of how we use the word "woke"... "Woke" is an AAVE (African American Vernacular English) word referring to a well-read, social justice informed activist dedicated to discussing and dismantling racism, capitalism, and imperialism. Being woke is considered being committed to the empowerment of black people, and reconnecting with the continent of Africa. Think Lauryn Hill, Andre 3000, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Arrested Development, Nina Simone.
It's been co-opted in recent years thanks to social media by the mainstream (i.e. white people) to mean people who try endlessly to be "P.C." without ever acknowledging the origin of the term. It's a word that's been around in the black community for decades, and it sucks to see it used by political parties to poke fun at others.
I acknowledge that Wednesday is a flawed show; however, I also acknowledge that I had a really good time watching it!
Same I feel like everyone’s either saying it’s perfect or saying it’s horrible. Like, can we just accept that even tho it’s flawed it was still enjoyable to watch for a lot of people??
if i had a penny for every time a well known writer (for movies or books) compared being gay to lycanthropy i’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice. (looking at you JK)
honestly, turning into an actual dangerous monster out of anger and despite (usually connected to being a minority) just doesn't translate well in any modern media
I thought JK used lycanthropy more as a metaphor for having AIDs (which was so highly stigmatized several decades ago that people thought you'd get it by even touching an infected person). JK's werewolf character ends up marrying a woman which is why I don't fully understand that interpretation.
Enid isn't gay.
@@stuckatthevalley No one said she was. They said her lycanthropy is compared by the narrative to being gay, which it is.
@@scarabdust If I understand it well (I haven't been in the HP fandom for YEARS), some in the fanbase ships Remus and Sirius A LOT. They have a lot of HC about them and they interpret canon material in ways that support that.
What I don’t get was what the fuck kind of signals Tyler and Xavier got from Wednesday. There was zero chemistry between them and she treated them more like group project members than potential suitors. If they realllyyyyyy wanted to crowbar in a romance subplot, it would’ve made more sense to just focus on Tyler so we could go
(Spoiler warning)
*
*
*
“Ohh the only reason he kept pursuing her was cuz he wanted to manipulate her.” Plus there might actually be some impact when the guy we’re rooting for turns out to be bad instead of needlessly dividing our attention between two equally bland dudes
I would like the show more if Wednesday wasn’t written to be such a bully to others
They definitely did that on purpose but didn't do a good payoff on it
bully? Lmao she aint close to bully. Being alone and neglecting others aint bullying. Being bully is going against others in harmful way both psychologicaly and physically.
@@ExtremeMan10Regardless, she’s a complete asshole for most of the season. She treats Enid like crap majority of the time and never respects her as a person until the end. Wednesday should have been held accountable more than she was. Her snarky and cold remarks were funny at the start, but they turned into straight up belittling of everyone around her and it just got annoying.
@@MeemahSN And? Who isnt? Many people, mainly young children who had rough childhood or upbringing mature faster which is bad for them and thus they see only bad things in people, it was literally explained in the show. On the other hand, poeple sheltered from life and pain tend to grow carefree which is also bad, that is referenced in Enid.
Wednesday acting like that is because of how Nero got killed and how Uncle Fester and her parents raised her, many fictional characters have the same thing, hell during 80s many young men were raised this way in order to prepare them for potentional war.
@@ExtremeMan10 I don't think that having had one traumatic event in her life and loving parents who gave her too much freedom JUSTIFIES everything.
Yes, some (and not all) people develop a negative mindset because of trauma and it might explain things but that doesn't excuse their behaviors.
She treats everyone like crap and doesn't respect anyone and this should have had more consequences than people getting angry for like a day but conveniently getting over it when she needs them.
At least she does apologize and people do get angry and confront her which is more than most jerk-ass MC get ...
And I speak as someone
Heartbreakingly, there was a murder mystery in my high school experience. A friend’s sister went missing and her car was found empty, towed to the yard. She was found in the trunk days later.
May she rest in peace. I'm so sorry
im sorry for your loss :(
i personally feel like a show like Wednesday, in an ideal world SHOULD NOT give a love interest to Wednesday. This idea of attaching a love interest with a "weirdo, outcasted" girl only reinforces that the end goal is to find someone and marry them. Don't get me wrong, i love love, but with a character like Wednesday who is inherently different, I don't think she would be too preoccupied with love if the writing wasn't bad. They could have used these bland love interests to show that marriage/love is not the end goal. I mean Tim Burton did a bad job with this, plus Wednesday is very young so this pressure of giving her a love interest was very loud during the show. Like these two are the only "potentials" she talks to? Where are male friends? No, I am not talking about Eugene who is only her friend because he is naive and reminds her of her brother. I am talking about genuine male friendships, or even female friendships. Or Wednesday without friends. The whole idea of portraying an outcast is to show how they find it difficult to make friends, or how people find them weird. But again, this is Hollywood and god forbid, the main character does not find a best friend within the span of like half an episode. The idea of "normal" social relationships feels very forced. Wednesday should have navigated the world alone and later realised how socialising is important, but they spoonfed it all to her just because she is "beautiful, not like other girls" and everyone seems to be excusing her rude behaviour, which isn't rude but again, i could go on and on elaborating. I will stop now.
Finally! I watched Wednesday because of all the positive feedback it was getting and couldn't believe how much it missed the mark. The "boy bands" crack in the year of our lord 2022 and the conversion therapy thing and Wednesday constantly being framed through the perspective of bland white boys...! I've felt like an alien trying to figure out why nobody else was saying this! Subscribed, and thank you for making and posting this!
Honestly?? The show was extremely underwhelming.
I've loved Jenna as an actress ever since her Disney days, and the Addams family since I was a toddler -- she did the best she could with the plot she was given but I think that both she and the character of Wednesday deserved better writing.
The love triangle was, needless to say, so very underwhelming -- it felt like none of these people knew each other, there was 0 chemistry or palpable foundation for either relationship to happen or even be hinted at.
I was so excited to see the friendship between Wednesday and Enid but it ended up being a disappointment, I felt no spark between them, not even during banter and that's a shame because they could've done so much more in that department.
Wednesday didn't feel like a cold and calculating, yet sarcastic and witty evil genius child, but a self absorbed emo 13 year old pretending to be a sociopath, the mystery solving plotline felt very forced and Wednesday being disappointed and angry with her father being a murder suspect just kinda...counters, the fact that she had zero issues attempting to murder a group of boys in a very gory way, in the very first scene.
They had a lot of great ideas and characters, but never developed a single one of them fully and made a mediocre mess with a good cast and reputation.
I feel like if there's any character that doesn't need a love interest it's Wednesday Addams. I do however like how it was set up similar to Joel Glicker, where she's really not interested and they just decide for themselves to pursue, it's something I experience often as an Aro individual. I think it's realistic that she wouldn't understand why people are fond of her because she's very self aware. It could have been done in an effective way that says something... but it was handled in a way that's messy. Thing messing with her interpersonal relationships and encouraging the relationship with the barista guy (can't remember the name right now) was a little weird too. I would have liked to see him be suspicious in the ways he was of Debbie and the Tulleys. It's just really hard to pull one over on the Addams.
Also, I really loved this portrayal of this Gomez, I feel like Luis Guzman naild the sadistic loveable idiot vibe, but agree that the duo lacked chemistry and this portrayal of Morticia is unfamiliar and flat outside the one episode she and Wednesday work together.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one disappointed & let down by the writing. It just felt like it couldn't commit & it could've been really something. I really wanted to love it, and as an autistic person, a lot of the community is relating to Wednesday as a headcanon. It just isn't for me, and that's okay 🖤☠
The weird thing about the lycanthropy conversion camp thing for me is that, well, as she said it's not a good metaphor, but if the writers were really going with that angle, having Enid actually become a werewolf at the end made the entire thing fall flat to me. Like... the conclusion to that conflict was her "becoming straight", or "becoming normal" in the eyes of her family which is just... weird.
It felt like they had Enid's arc about coming into herself already planned out, and then thoughtlessly shoehorned in that conversion camp thing to make the story seem more woke or something.
I have heard from another channel they think Wednesday is autistic so you're not the only one seeing it. Also remember the term neurodivergent is only recently popular, ADHD and autism have a very recent development in research, treatment and understanding. The Addams family is an old franchise and these diagnoses were barely known or understood when the series was first created. Wednesday was not created as an autistic character. Noticing her character matches those traits is something we can do now with how much more common the knowledge of it is. So....I think it makes sense Wednesday is not explicitly shown to be neurodivergent. Maybe someday they will include her getting a diagnosis but that hardly seems in character. If someone suggested it to her I would imagine she wouldn't care and I doubt her family would see a need to get her evaluated.
I have to disagree with this, I dislike it when people describe characters who don't fit the norm as neurodivergent/autistic. It just feeds into this stereotype that neurodivergent people supposedly are antisocial, self-absorbed assholes and it would't even be good repesentation, especially when Wednesday is portrayed to be insufferable and selfish.
@@red-firefox good point. I don't have much exposure to Autism in real life so thanks for this perspective
@@red-firefox autistic person here: she's not described as neurodivergent bc shes outside the norm. she's described as neurodivergent bc she hits many textbook bits of the autistic experience. many other autistic ppl i talk to this show abt also agree. re: insufferable and selfish: i was insufferable and selfish before i got my character development lmao
another thing, if goody is supposed to be her ancestor from her mum’s side (which i’m assuming she must be as her dad is a recent generation from mexico) then why is her last name addams? shouldn’t it be morticia’s maiden name? if she’s an addams then the addams line would continue in jericho not mexico?
late to the party but gotta say as a trans person i felt so confused by enids story bc to me it DID feel like a queer allegory but for being trans not wlw (although that wouldve made an actually good relationship arc for wednesday) like the whole late bloomer thing can be related to having an unconventional puberty experience and feeling physically behind cis peers. also especially as shes hyper feminine and has white, pink and blue hair like ????? it felt like it was on the nose while also being entirely in my own mind bc ofc that wasn't how it developed and it made the whole conversion camp thing feel even more stupid and performative (like i already knew that it wasn't gonna be canon and conversion camps are not strongly associated with bring trans anyway)
I don't know if anyone agrees, but I would've loved for this show to be a slice of life mystery show, instead of something supernatural and adventure like. The first episode kind of made me think they were going that route. And honestly, I kind of think they shouldn't have had it be based around a monster high like school. I think this show definitely had a lot of potential, but in the end, it was just okay.
can you explain your idea of it being a slice of life mystery more? like how would that have played out? new mysteries every few episodes? but nothing super heavy?
@@sleepy.timaeus.arts. probably like Gravity Falls?
@@liminalusts that would actually be so cool instead of something generic
I was so happy that there was black/poc in Wednesday but then I found out most of the black characters were villains/mean I was kinda upset, not saying casting black people as villains is automatically racist it's just with Tim Burton's history with poc...kinda put me off yk.
It would've been really fun if Wednesday was convinced the old colonialist would've been raised from the dead only to find out that since Mrs Thornhill hates magic she just grabs a pilgrim hat and burns the school herself or something. Also, why did they amp up the big battle at the end only for the dude to be killed in one hit? I may be biased as a video game lover but the final boss needs to be harder to hit than the conservative boys from the town next door.
i honestly felt the same watching it 😭 he was too easy
to be fair, i dont think her not being labeled in-canon as autistic is "empty representation" when the show (to my knowledge) was never marketed as such. if they said this was the first time Wednesday would be explicitly autistic, then i could agree, but i havent heard that at all besides fan theories
I really disliked how they wrote Wednesday and Jenna is 100% the only reason why I watched it. I feel they should’ve done one of two things.
1) Keep her as the cooky Addams family outcast who doesn’t understand society by putting her in an environment that makes that more obvious
OR (and my preference for an episodic TV show on one character only)
2) Have Wednesday evolve to become more emotional, sympathetic, and show general mental and social growth. They don’t have to leap into her having sleepovers with Enid where they paint their nails and giggle and talk about boys. But have her do little tiny things that matter to the people closest to her. HAVE her paint Enid’s fingernails and vice versa (even if hers remains black lol) BECAUSE it’s something Enid seems to enjoy. HAVE her be a little vulnerable and tell Tyler small things that he could then use against her.
The thing with emotionally static characters is that they get stale and campy too fast. They become predictable and boring to watch. Ortega can only carry this performance so much before it falls flat eventually.
I really like that second approach as well. There was some character development in the show, but for me it was inorganic and not satisfying.
I think that's a misunderstanding due to two different definitions of "outcasts". This creator, and a lot of other people, see outcasts = marginalised groups. Those out cast by society for inherent qualities that are part of their identity.
Tim Burton is using it like outcasts = the goth kids at a high school in the 1980s, those cast out of the popular "normie" experience because they wore fishnet and black lipstick.
Tim Burton has never been referring to other ethnicities, the LGBT+, at all. He's strictly been using The Addams Family version of "outcasts". He's never had any interest in including them in his work. He wants a Johnny Depp and a Helena Bonham Carter and that's it. Pale goth weirdos like him and his friends were when they were chainsmoking and drinking coffee while blasting The Cure in all black, while other students sneered at them. The South Park goths lol.
The only reason he's included anyone other than that specific white, goth - like unpopular but never really faced with any true adversity and just put the khakis and polo shirts his mom buys him when he wants to really flex his white privilege - flavour of character is because people told him he had to and he caved to the pressure.
That's why he complains about forced diversity. He was literally forced to include actors who weren't straight, white, American goths in his projects lol. I guarantee he never would've done that voluntarily.
Is Tim Burton racist? Well yes obviously lol. To what extent? Probably to the extent that he would vehemently deny being a racist and would get upset about being called racist, but like... It speaks for itself.
I suppose it's up to you how big of a problem you see it to be. Unfortunately we have to make judgement calls on art and artists all the time. People are people.
One thing, they did NOT lighten her skin tone?? She said during an interview that she spent months in the romanian winter, and by the end of filming she had lost nearly all of her tan. (You said this while showing a clip if that interview? So I dont know how you missed it)
I’m Irish and don’t see the sun 99% of the time and even I’m not as pale as Wednesday. There’s even differences between the behind the scenes footage and the final product so though maybe Ortega was paler than usual, they 100% lightened her skin
@@elleliteracy she said there was filters placed over most scenes so yeah im sure it changed alittle. And you can see her tan in scenes as well, so I dont think its fair to say tim burton was trying to make her white
never said he was trying to make her white!
@@elleliteracy okay then, "trying to lighten her skin tone" I feel like if they were intentionally trying to change her skin tone to be "more appealing to that aesthetic" they wouldnt have left it regular in some scenes and she wouldnt have said that in an interview (especially when she brung it up, its not like someone said "did they lighten your skin" and then she responded)
(But I agree with everything else you said, and I know tim burton has a bad reputation for those things, I just feel like the actresses statment is pretty important here)
@@elleliteracy also i didnt mean white as in race, you said something along the lines of "people dont have to be white and ghostly to fit this aesthetic" and thats what I was preferring to, white as in pale
with speaking spanish in wednesday i actually thought it made sense her and pugsly mainly spoke English while their dad says some things in Spanish, although I wish the parents spoke more Spanish cause it reminds me of my own family. spanglish would make more sense just for me personally since at home there's more Spanish but in public there's more english and a lot of the time we mix the two in things we say but overall it wasnt terrible.
THANK YOU FOR THIS. Everyone absolutely adored this show and I do too but there’s just so many plot holes and situations which could’ve been approached better but just weren’t. my main problem was with the family themselves, I personally fine the casting for the parents too to be suitable (unlike others which is understandable) but I absolutely DESPISED the father-murderer subplot or at least the way it was so unevenly handled and written. Wednesday almost kills a dude at the beginning of the show, even agreeing that it’s unfortunate that “she didn’t get the job done”. But when her father was revealed to have killed someone, it’s suddenly out of character and he’s not capable?? In the older shows and movies, it’s talked about how Gomez openly murders people in cold-blood without even a hint of regret. It’s strange how Tim Burton went for a rather timid approach to him over here. And moreover, why was Morticia so mortified when Gomez was fighting off garret?? It would be understandable if she was horrified of garret and his foaming but she was clearly concerned about the fact that someone was murdered. That’s definitely Not something she would usually do…And don’t even get me started on the love triangle oh god…however I am glad that Tyler is technically out of the picture now (I personally do not believe in and do not hope for a redemption arc because he was playing with Wednesday and is deeply upset towards her family, and even if he does genuinely fall for Wednesday, hydes are said to be extremely loyal to their masters so I doubt he would betray Mrs. Thornhill. Plus #TeamXaiver I’m sorry y’all😭😭) and I do hope that she continues to see Xavier as just a friend because this unnecessary love triangle is not doing it.
I agree 100% that this show just feels full of wasted potential. I think without the inclusion of Wednesday or even just not focusing on her, it could have been maybe more interesting (Bianca or the werewolf girl seem like they would have made good alternative MC's, personally).
Almost all my problems in this show come from character inconsistencies and the forced conflict just.... Everywhere.
I grew up in a basically the poor version of an Addams family home, kids who are loved, supported, and have boundaries but not really limits don't have a lot to push back on. It would have made more sense for Wednesday to feel like she needed to be better than Morticia (ex, in the scene with the charm, instead of insulting her mother, Wednesday produced an *even nicer* charm to give her in return. One upping the gift).
I have a lot of grievances with the show, but even plotholes I could overlook if the characters felt like real people and were charismatic.
I am actually glad that they didn't confirm that she is authistic in the story... I feel represented with out them saying that, she was like that in the other movies as well, I can't really explain but it would have been like another : "See we're representing something!" thing.
I stand behind you're other points tho
This review is a breath of fresh air, thank you
This series reminds me of Glee when Mr Shue told the glee club that they were all minorities🤨 I think something small like making Enid a POC would’ve been a step in the right direction cuz it’s odd that Tim thinks making the gothic protagonist’s best friends a hyperfeminine aryan child is diverse
thank you so much for talking about the ableism in this show. i remember it really annoyed me that they used words like psycho in an insulting way and the whole thing linking trauma to monstrosity is disgusting too. i think it just goes to further show tim burton's hypocrisy--he claims to want to represent outcasted/marginalized people and "weirdos" but only as long as they're white, cishet, conventionally attractive, and not too "weird"!
THANK YOU!! i felt like i was going insane because EVERYONE was talking about how great this show was, but I had the EXACT same issues and only managed to get through the first episode. I was so ready to like this show, but it felt like it was trying SO HARD to be funny in an ironic way or something? And I felt like it didn't trust the audience to follow the story, so I felt like nothing was subtle. It felt almost condescending. The only highlight was Ortega, and I heard she had to constantly fight against some of the lines she was given, and I'm not surprised.
Anyway, thanks for this video!! It's so refreshing to know that I'm not just imagining how disappointing it turned out to be 😔
Tyler before the last episodes fit so much in the "everyman" trope, as soon as i saw him i was certain it would go this route. Glad it didn't, cause it's one of the most stupid tropes, i really have a pet peeve with it (but there's still chances it could happen with other characters in the next season, so yeah)
The only character with Spanish (not Mexican) origins is Gómez, who in the TV series from the 60s had Spanish ancestry, from Castilla, to be exact.
Charles Addams, the creator of the Addams, never mentioned anything about a Spanish/Latin background. This is a concept that was developed later on and with the inclusion of new versions and adaptations of the original comic 🤷🏻♀️
So it makes sense for Gómez to be the only one in the family to drop Spanish phrases and words here and there, (as portrayed in Burton's series). After all he was a DESCENDENT of Spanish immigrants (which implies he was born in American soil), thus there is very little Spanish heritage (from a DNA viewpoint, as well as cultural, linguistic and behavioural) left in Wednesday and Pugsley themselves.
Yes, I am Spanish and yes, I have done my research. It's a pity you did not
Why are you talking about Gomez like he's a real historical character 😂 this is a new tv show and they can do whatever they want with him, they can make it so he was born in puerto rico
Shut up colonizer
Is nobody gonna talk about the weird “cat” jokes and references that Enid… a werewolf… makes?? I was like “You’re a wolf not a cat”??? Like what?? 😭
Considering that the Addams Family started as a newspaper comic, a lack of visual comedy seems like a big misstep
Sometimes i feel like she hates the killings because the people didn’t deserve it because she tried to killed someone who messed with her. She only punishes people who messed with her but, thats sometimes mostly my opinion right? Or am I extremely wrong
yeah i feel like that could be the case. killing for her brother was justice, but the hyde killings had no plausible justice she could see (but honestly how would she know? she had just gotten there, and in her mind the murderer couldve been done wrong by any of the people they were killing bc she doesnt know their backstory)
It's funny and sad to see and Adam's Family adapatation that's so...troupey. The Adam's family movies (I don't know enough about the original show and comics to comment about those) often turned tropes on their head or played around with them to make them fun and fresh. But this...As soon as I realized there was another uninteresting love triangle I quickly noped out. I can't stand love triangles anymore (or as I like to call them, love corners because a "real" love triangle would technically be person A loves person B while person B loves person C and person C loves person A and that is far more interesting and so underutilized)
But there are still so many issues I have with the series and you've basically summed them all up. But still Jenna Ortega (probably spelt that wrong) is amazing as Wednesday. I'm amazed at her range since I only know her from Stuck in the Middle where she plays a much more expressive and cheery character, completely opposite to Wednesday.
Thank you for putting this feeling toward Wednesday into words! After watching I felt the same way about Wednesday not living up to expectation
so true bestie. I was so excited to find out what kind of were-creature Enid would end up being and when she became a werewolf, I felt gross that they just made her differences a "pre-pubescent phase"?
The love triangle was definitely unnecessary and pointless, yeah. That sucked. Enid would’ve honestly been a better reveal as the Hyde if things were done differently
that would’ve been a crazy twist omg
@@leeshapon I know! Like imagine if the show had Wednesday and Enid slowly bonding. And maybe have her be ecstatic because she suddenly ‘wolfs out’ one night. And is so excited that she doesn’t think anything of the fact that she remembers nothing, and had bloodstains or something, just assuming she got out of control. And at the end it’s revealed it’s some mind control thing, and really forces wednesday to confront her closest relationship and make it a million times more related to her
It just didn't feel Addams-y which is such a shame because the Addams are such an interesting family!! Also, the fact that there were so clearly defined cliques at Nevermore was really annoying to me. Werewolves, vampires, sirens, just the most basic fantastical creatures they could find. Whereas you look at the Addams movies and it's like, what are the creatures? What is Thing, or Cousin Itt, or Lurch? I love that (tho you can sometimes tell what they're inspired by) you can't tell exactly what they are!!
I’m not Latina but as a 2nd generation American I can say that it varies. Some immigrants will exclusively speak their first language at home to their kids, some will do both, some will just speak English. Mine did both. From what I’ve seen, both is the most common. I’d say not speaking their first language at all is the least common so your point is definitively valid.
Thank you for this! As someone who really relates to the Addams family and has a similar family dynamic of actually loving each other, I was honestly a little bit shocked by the fact that Wednesday hated her parents for honestly no reason. I’ll also admit that with most of the students at that school acting like two dimensional high school drama characters, I kept almost forgetting that it was supposed to be a school for outcasts. And overall, Wednesday herself was a bitch. Those are my three takes, I honestly don’t know much else about the show because I stopped watching after about two episodes.
Edit: What is it with Netflix and teen drama? They’ve already made this horrible Resident Evil teen bullshit that didn’t feel like RE at all, and now they did it to the Addams Family (important note: we almost never get loving families in media). As disappointing as this is, I really can’t help wondering what classic franchise is next on the list of Netflix’s shitty teen dramas.
i was disappointed the murder mystery wasn't more of a mystery-there wasn't much to figure out and we weren't given like any hints, at least that I picked up on,(SPOILERS) that tyler is the monster. I agree that they definetly should have leaned in the genre more. I also wish they made someone queer! The only LGBT representation in this show about a school full of outcasts was the two moms.
I completely agree with the assessment.
I was pretty disappointed with how her character embodied a misanthrope so completely that it no longer felt real. The original spirit of the Addams Family had an authentic and oblivious weirdness while this rendition really leaned hard into letting everyone know just how weird and misanthropic Wednesday is. It kind of made me sad, because the whole embracing of outcasts is better conveyed by the former than the latter.
This is EXACTLY what I’ve been feeling since I started and ended the show!!! Thank you for putting this out there ❤
Wasnt Gomez supposed to be puerto rican??? Why is would the Addams family be celebrating dia de los muertos??? I dont get it.
I just don't understand why the love interest wouldn't be some quiet, shy boy who would follow her around like in the 90s movies of the adams family.
“Addam(n) shame” at 8:51 has me dead 👴🏾😭
Overall I like Wednesday, I felt it was one of the better shows of the year.
I know in this video you seemed to not like the outcast world developed for the world. For me, however, I very much liked that they expanded the world the Addams Family inhabit. That being said I feel like the creators did not take world development seriously. Given the world only going surface-level feel. And if they had put more into it the show would have had a deeper feel to it. ( If I list all the things they could have done this would become an essay.)
I also feel the creators only had a surface-level understanding of the supporting characters. I notice the feeling of underdevelopment most of all in Wednesday's family, Xavier, and Eugene. to a lesser extent Tyler and Enid. The thing was the only supporting character I feel had a lot of work put into his character.
I will say, I felt there were a lot of good character building blocks for Xavier, Eugene, and Eugene. And I would have loved to see more of their characters and their powers.
I did not like the love triangle, I think they should have focused on Wednesday developing friendships. I think having a one-sided crush on Xavier would have been fine and her using it to look into him, because of suspicion of him. Then after she hurt him because of it the two reconcile as tentative friends with Wednesday realizing manipulating his feeling was wrong especially given he was innocent.
honestly i had a lot of gripes with the show but one thing that immediately annoyed me was tylers casting-- i was legit shocked when they tried to make him a love interest cause he looks like he's meant to be in his early to mid 20s. like it just made the unnecessary love triangle even worse imo
It’s crazy how people make theories after headcanons after headcanons about Enid being possibly queer despite not being hinted to be, but not many people talk about Wednesday being possibly Autistic with more “hints” to it.