Wednesday 23 November was the Netflix release of Wednesday, the daughter of the Addams Family. The trailer was already hilarious. The rest of this TV show exceeded my expectations. Hence, I gave Wednesday a 10 on IMDb; its current average is #8.5. The lead actress, Jenna Ortega, is superb.
Wednesday combines several ingredients in a splendid mix: humour, drama, fantasy, “horror”, and wit. I put “horror” between brackets as those scenes are neither scary nor come as a surprise. Wednesday reminds me of Harry Potter (eg, Hogwarts vs Nevermore, its “houses“, muggles vs normies).
Wiki: “Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters.” Hence, it’s much more likely that J.K. Rowling (b.1965) borrowed ideas from Charles Addams (1912-1988) than vice versa.
Wiki: “Filming on the series began in September 2021 in Bușteni, Romania, and concluded in March 2022.” The Romanian filming location works well with the (second) analogy, being Frankenstein (rather than Count Dracula), a British fictional character by author Mary Shelley (1797-1851).
There are several more historic markers in Wednesday: the American town of Jericho (est. 1625; “home of Pilgrim World”) might be a reminder of Plymouth Colony (1620-1691). Latter was founded by the Pilgrim Fathers, who escaped England and sailed to Providence (eg, Eagles song lyrics).
The 3rd analogy is with a Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). That book is about someone “who investigates a series of strange occurrences” on a “murderous criminal named Edward Hyde”. The creature in Wednesday is called a Hyde.
Those three analogies may make Wednesday Addams feel (very) authentic.
Its humour and wit make it a must-see.
Wednesday Addams, a 2022 Netflix series
trailer
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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