The show’s better qualities are obscured by a slow start and bloated cast
BY JULIE HUANG — arts@theaggie.org
After nearly three years, the second season of “Wednesday” has finished airing on Netflix. Split into two parts, the first four episodes were released on Aug. 6, followed by the last four episodes on Sept. 4.
The decision to spread these episodes out over a month was presumably intended to build up suspense and excitement, and yet it ends up detracting instead of adding to the viewing experience.
Though the show retains the dramatic visuals and generally dark atmosphere that season one became noteworthy for, the first half of the new season is unbearably slow.
Some lingering threads from season one are quickly brushed off, such as what happened to Wednesday’s potential love-interest Xavier Thorpe (transferred to an academy in Switzerland), after actor Percy Hynes White left the show in 2023 after being accused of sexual misconduct, which he denies.
New characters, from a new love interest for Wednesday’s roommate Enid to a suspicious psychiatrist named Dr. Fairburn, are introduced left and right, but they mostly serve as landmarks in the background while titular character Wednesday runs around in circles. It is true that some of these new figures, such as new headmaster Principal Barry Dort, play more important roles in the second half of the season, but it still feels wasteful to introduce so many new faces just to have them spend half of a long-awaited season standing around.
It is also not quite clear what Wednesday herself accomplishes in these four episodes. She spends every one conducting an investigation; first to uncover the identity of her new stalker, then to uncover the identity of a new murderer and then to find a way to save her roommate and best friend Enid from an unclear but impending doom.
In theory, exciting stuff. Yet much of this excitement is lost in the process of execution, because the show insists on adding an overwrought feeling of intrigue to nearly every moment of every episode without distinction.
Instead of cultivating a cohesive experience, this heavy-handed emotional homogeneity makes it impossible for tension to crescendo in an organic manner. Every new twist and reveal is treated with the same level of intensity, no matter how insipid.
The first half of the season ends on a cliffhanger that feels contrived from its inception and is indeed swiftly resolved in the first few minutes of the very next episode.
The second half of the season improves in viewing experience as the show begins to devote time to developing the characters in ways that last. Five-minute revelations are replaced with plot twists and character interactions that begin to build on each other. Surprisingly, one such moment occurs when Enid and Wednesday’s stalker have a touching moment of connection.
One of the major strengths of “Wednesday” is how it portrays the dynamics between a cast of characters that all have their own quirks and oddities, each an “outcast” in their own way. In season one, the relationship between Wednesday and Enid provided entertainment through the exaggeration of their more extreme character traits in contrast with each other.
This season, new student Agnes DeMille is among the more notable introductions. The interplay between her obsessive nature and Wednesday’s standoffish attitude is promising, especially by season’s end.
Greater focus is also given to other Addams family members, with varying degrees of success. Wednesday’s younger brother Pugsley starts at Nevermore, the school for outcasts, but his trouble-making friend is treated as a plot driver while its potential for emotional payoff is largely ignored. Viewers are repeatedly informed of Wednesday’s feud with her mother Morticia, though the reasons for its existence feel flimsy and unjustified.
Some of these open-ended character dynamics, along with certain plot threads, have doubtless been left unresolved in order to leave new material for a third season, which has already been announced by Netflix.
The choices made surrounding release timing is reflected in the narrative structure and quality of this season. The first half is less devoted to the development of characters and their relationships. Instead, the show attempts to cultivate a threatening atmosphere of paranoia that fulfills the show’s aesthetic, casting a shadow onto the stronger second half, whose handling of character development could have stood on its own but struggles to make up for the emptiness of the preceding episodes.
The second season of “Wednesday” makes obvious missteps during the process of building up to a satisfying conclusion. Still, when taken as part of an ongoing project that promises further plot and character development, it may reveal itself to be worth the watch nonetheless.
Written by: Julie Huang — arts@theaggie.org
