Jenna Ortega is back as the eponymous Addams Family daughter in Wednesday: Season 2, and the first reviews affirm that her return was worth the wait. Three years after the show’s Netflix debut, Ortega remains the primary reason to watch, while Tim Burton fans continue to receive the best of the filmmaker’s trademarks on the small screen. Critics are divided, however, on whether certain changes and uniformities are favorable or not, and the decision to divide the season into two parts sounds awfully frustrating.
Here’s what critics are saying about Wednesday: Season 2:
As much as it would pain Wednesday Addams to hear me say it, season 2 of Netflix’s Wednesday brought me great cheer.
A near three-year delay would have killed off a lesser show, but Wednesday’s murderously enjoyable second season proves worth the wait.
If you liked [season 1], you’ll like the second season, as well… because in a lot of ways it’s more of the same.
This show is mayhem in the best way possible, finally living up to the unparalleled popularity that season 1 (perhaps unfairly) earned.
Wednesday isn’t what it was, and that’s OK. It still works as a spooky comedy about a girl and her severed hand.
Those excited about the return to Nevermore should only prepare for a short stay now, and an annoying wait for the rest.
The season remains just as thrilling as the first… The show is still as twisted, enticing, and devourable as it was when it first debuted three years ago.
It feels a lot less YA than its first season, with more time to spend with the rest of the Addams family.
Wednesday season 2, part 1 is a more confident and daring improvement from its first season that takes advantage of the leeway that it’s been granted.
Season 2 does exactly what a second season should. It builds on what made the first so popular while improving on what didn’t work.
It’s more of the same, only more convoluted and less Ortega-y — which, I assume, was what the busy young thespian wanted, but not what this viewer hoped for.
It’s impossible to recapture the magic of the first season, and Wednesday season 2 isn’t quite as crisp or surprising.
Overall, it looks like a follow-up made with half the budget of season 1.
The first half of season 2 remains highly memeable.
There may not be any moments this season that match Wednesday’s iconic dance scene from the first season, but there’s a swordfight with Morticia in the woods that gets close.
There are no signs yet of a big viral dance moment, but there is a very fun Bruce Springsteen needle drop and composer Chris Bacon sneaks some pop-rock covers into the orchestral soundtrack.
The second season doesn’t attempt to immediately reproduce the dance scene, and thank heavens for that. But nothing so far has counted as the equivalent of that scene or an attempt to one-up that scene.
(Photo by Netflix)
Wednesday season 2, part 1 offers the same visual delights that have made all of Burton’s worlds so fascinating.
Burton’s efforts this season indicate that he has a lot more gas in the tank here than he did in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
Nowhere is his trademark aesthetic clearer than it is in this loving continuation of the animation he celebrated in classics like The Corpse Bride.
A short ghost story about a boy with a clockwork heart buried under the Skull Tree is told via Burton claymation, in black-and-white, in the spirit of Frankenweenie. It’s beautiful, sweet, and sorrow-filled.
Burton directs episodes 1 and 4, but aside from a black-and-white stop-motion sequence featuring his signature animated style, there’s little evidence that the maestro of gothic melancholy is inspired by this material.
This season’s Wednesday is laser-focused on improving her psychic abilities, saving her friend’s life from a potential untimely end, and uncovering a bird-related murder mystery that seems virtually unsolvable – she doesn’t have time for anything else.
[Wednesday is] far more focused on her personal quests this season than she is on romance. (The writers were paying attention to Ortega’s notes about that aspect of season 1, it appears.)
There is definitely more gore this time around. You may want to avoid squishy foods while bingeing.
There’s less focus on the teen cast in general, which might not go down well with younger viewers, although this means that there’s a welcome shift towards more of the Addams family instead.
Whereas my original review of the first season praised Wednesday for having the restraint and focus to not simply become The Addams Family… Wednesday has simply become The Addams Family.
Ortega’s performance in season 1 was already a fundamental reason why the show works as well as it does, and here she’s further honed it to perfection, especially when it comes to minute changes in the character’s incredibly stoic physicality.
The series is carried by Ortega, who continues to thrive in a role that expertly showcases her talents… It is Ortega’s sardonic and acoustically entertaining turn that saved the first season and delivered an even better second.
Jenna Ortega continues to be the show’s secret ingredient, embodying the iconic character with a steely deadpan and hilarious, sardonic one-liners.
Ortega remains the show’s only sustaining highlight, giving a performance that’s as precise as her character is pliable.
On a performance level, Jenna Ortega is even more comfortable and confident in this role. She makes it her own, but in the best way possible.
Ortega’s deadpan remains impeccable and her mournful gaze allows for viewer projection that goes beyond anything on the page, but Wednesday too often comes across as a piece of an ensemble at this point.
Wednesday’s dry one-liners remain a highlight, stinging in their emo absurdity.
Wednesday’s zingers aren’t as wickedly sharp as they once were.
Wednesday’s dry, morbid humor is, at best, noticeable, but too often forgettable and sometimes actively lazy.
As many bon mots as Wednesday drops, Ortega’s delivery is not especially funny.
(Photo by Jonathan Hession/Netflix)
Ortega and Zeta-Jones are perfect jousting partners, both on and off the court.
The most rewarding relationship on display this season is between Morticia and Wednesday, who clash often over the latter’s overuse of their psychic abilities.
Wednesday and Morticia’s ongoing battle of wills is too vague and toothless to expect anything beyond an amicable resolution (by Addams Family standards, at least).
Steve Buscemi is instantly a perfect fit for this series, settling into the established milieu perfectly while still preserving his own unique energy.
Lumley gives an irreverent masterclass as Wednesday’s naughty grandmother, Hester Frump, her American accent as flawless as her black and white-streaked wig.
Even if Burton hadn’t already made a movie celebrating his appreciation of big eyes, you’d know that Templeton is the director’s preferred brand of ingenue, and she stands out from the frantically overstuffed cast.
It’s much the same as last season. There’s another mystery to solve, but this time it involves killer surveillance crows, a hooded stalker, and at least a few visits to an insane asylum.
The stakes are high this season, and the writers aren’t messing around. The mystery is complex, and it’s exciting. Even more exciting are the plot twists, which are both surprising and refreshing.
Luckily, the show’s soft pivot allows you to sink into the new season with relative ease, without having to wrack your brain too hard for what happened in the first eight episodes.
One major critique of this season is that there was no need to split its episodes in half.
I can’t think of any more damning criticism for these four new episodes of Wednesday that, just two days after watching them, I legitimately can’t remember anything that Wednesday is trying to accomplish this season, nor any single withering line of dialogue.
It’s still not able to rid itself of its clumsiest habits, like a too-tight skin that it’s unable to shed from and evolve.
Given how the fourth episode ends, I’m sure there’s a lot more to come – and the expectation has been set for even higher stakes.
The first four episodes continue to escalate before culminating in a mid-season closer that’s as unexpected as it is unhinged. No matter where you think it’s going, you’re not adding enough madness and mayhem to your predictions.
It’s the rare split that actually makes sense, and Netflix would do well to remember this for other big originals of this kind moving forward.
That one dramatic moment, on its own merits, doesn’t quite have the impact necessary to do anything other than aggravate the viewer.
Wednesday: Season 2 is currently available to stream on Hulu.
