Wednesday, advertised as being “from the twisted mind of Tim Burton,” is Netflix’s new and extremely popular series, even passing Stranger Things in its number of views. All across social media platforms you’ll find content from the show, including cosplays, edits, and influencers doing Wednesday Addams’s now iconic dance from the show. It seems everyone can’t get enough of this series. But is Wednesday really worth the hype, or is it overrated? 

The show begins with the beloved character Wednesday Addams getting expelled from her average public high school for sending piranhas after a boy who bullied her brother. She is sent to the haunting school of Nevermore, specifically for outcasts, that her parents once attended. She meets a bubbly and pastel-wearing girl named Enid, and the queen bee of the school, Bianca. The story plays out with her meeting two boys, Xavier and Tyler, her uptight principal, and the friendly human librarian along the way of her adventures. She attempts escape, learns her father is thought to be a murderer by the sheriff, is nearly killed by a monster in the woods, and tries to uncover many mysteries through the course of the story. In the end, she finds her beloved Tyler was the monster all along, with that friendly librarian as his master. She fights the resurrected founder of the town, an old Addams Family enemy, who has sworn to destroy all outcasts, and of course saves the day. But this season of the show ends with a shot of Tyler and Wednesday being shown to have a stalker. 

Fans are absolutely raving for this show, as previously mentioned, and it was number one on Netflix’s top shows for quite a bit of time. After all, the story is interesting, and the actors do a great job. But some of the fans completely dismiss the meaning of the show in certain ways, seeing the homicidal and downright problematic protagonist of Wednesday as nothing more than a goth girl who does a funny dance. Although this happens to all shows in some respect, it still goes to show that a lot of the hype around the show is more for the Tim Burton aesthetic than the actual plot and character development. The popularity of shows can diminish their meaning, and this group of fans clearly exhibits that. 

Wednesday is a well done show with wonderful performances by the actors, especially Jenna Ortega as Wednesday herself. The plot is intriguing, the settings are beautiful, and the characters are unique and developed well. The fanbase leaves a lot to be desired, though. The popularity of Wednesday has changed how it is seen, and definitely made the show arguably overrated and misunderstood. Although this show is still a must-watch, wonderfully done series, take how the fans represent it with a grain of salt. 

Citations: 

Bell, B. A. (2022, November 30). Netflix top 10: ‘Wednesday’ snaps ‘stranger things 4’ record for most hours viewed in a week with 341 million. Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/wednesday-stranger-things-4-record-most-hours-viewed-in-a-week-341-million-1235444385/