SiftPop

by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer

It’s been a month since we last saw Wednesday Addams fighting for her life (LOL, she’s totally dead guys) at the midseason cliffhanger of Wednesday Season Two, and it’s back on Netflix to finish off the final half of its sophomore season.

(Author’s note: If you don’t want to know anything about the back half of the season, leave now — trailer spoilers ahead.)

As we rejoin the Addamses and Nevermore Academy, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is in a coma following the asylum break and the gala approaches as pieces are moving around the board. 

Boy, does the second half hit the ground running.

The premiere is absolutely fantastic — to the point where it almost feels like a second midseason finale. A big reason for that is the injection the return of the late Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie) gives to the show. She serves two major roles. The first is as Wednesday’s new spirit guide in helping her re-unlock her powers. Is the way they get there just a cheap excuse to bring her back? Obviously. Does it matter? Not when she steals the show. The tête-à-tête between the pair is the best part of the show’s second season. It’s where the dialogue is the strongest, because it’s at its snappiest and sharpest. She’s also a character that’s particularly effective in further exploring the Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones)/Wednesday relationship I thought was given some more juice in the first half of the season. The midseason premiere also gives me my favorite moment from Gomez, a character I haven’t been overly impressed with (the appropriation joke killed me.) 

Once we get through the premiere, we get a great Freaky Friday plotline. This, like the Weems reintroduction, serves dual purposes. First, it utilizes a plot device that was always going to work, given the fact that Wednesday and Enid (Emma Myers) are polar opposites. Both actresses nail the assignments of getting into character as each other brilliantly. Secondly, it mends the rift that was a bit frustrating from the first part of the season, allowing for the great character dynamic between the two to continue. 

My big takeaway is everything just flows much more smoothly. Storylines were built up in the previous half, so there’s a lot of energy to the back half, which means there’s a lot of fun to be had. Even the penultimate episode concerning the gala had so much buildup in the six episodes preceding it, and it manages to deliver. The show just really knows how to pull off a dance scene, I guess. If anything, it usurps the actual finale itself. However, I think its still stronger than the last season finale — though, immediately after, I mentally expressed that sentiment there was a real “Tom Marvolo Riddle/I am Lord Voldemort” moment that literally made me shout, “Oh, come on!” at my television. But Part Two starts off with three of the strongest episodes of the season (which is hopefully not just recency bias) that make it feel like the season is really peaking.

Even technically, the visuals are much stronger. Though there are a couple janky moments, it’s in a way that feels very Tim Burton-y, and is less distracting. 

Overall, pretty much all the rough edges from part one are taken care of. It never rises to the level of something that I’d call great television, nor will it be mentioned alongside the absolute best that prestige television has to offer this year. However, what it does offer in spades is an entertaining time. I really enjoyed this half, and it’s almost like cutting things off at the halfway point was detrimental, as I didn’t yet have the full picture. Thankfully, Netflix would never further dilute a property by breaking it up even more. Could you imagine?

Wait… where’s that synth coming from? 

Rating: Liked It

Wednesday is currently streaming on Netflix

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You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Bluesky and Letterboxd