Even Jenna Ortega's commitment to not blinking can't save this series from its dull costume, flat characters and an even duller, nonsensical plot.

The first version of Charles Addams's The Addams Family was published as a cartoon in The New Yorker (1938) and since then, there have been several adaptations and reimagining of these characters. Regardless of your favourite version, you can count on two things - the oddness of the Addams and their unbreakable family bond. With the latest spinoff, the one thing you can count on is your disappointment.

Created by Smallville's Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, and directed by Tim Burton, Wednesday starts off with a strong scene as Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) scares Pugsley's bullies straight by throwing piranhas into the pool. From that scene, it goes downhill and never back up. We are immediately confronted with a bunch of Addams Family contradictions -  Wednesday has a trite relationship with her mother, an aloof relationship with her brother and is just generally distrustful of her parents. Also, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) appears to have been bullied into submission and meekness. The energetic, prank-prone member of The Addams Family is nowhere in sight.

Wednesday Addams has somehow been reduced to a typical rebellious mom-hating teenager and this decision plays very little to the plot. The relationship between Morticia and Gomez is not spared as Wednesday's Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and  Gomez (Luis Guzman) have negative chemistry. The scene where he repeatedly kisses her hand was pretty heavy on the cringe scale.

It gets worse -  After getting expelled from her previous school, Wednesday is enrolled in a school of fellow odd and supernatural teens - Nevermore, her parents' alma matter - but these supernatural teens are so dreadfully dull that it's easy to forget they're meant to have supernatural powers. (The scene where Enid (Emma Myers) summons her caricature wolfie claws is so gimmicky, it was almost laughable.)




Maybe the plot would save this failed Addams Family spinoff? Absolutely not. The entire plot is that Wednesday is a foretold saviour/destroyer (choose your preferred poison) of Nevermore and she investigates to find out exactly what that means. In the midst of this investigation, she discovers an unexciting "secret" cult, a handful of murders, gets into a will-they-be-be-best-friends dynamic with her chipper roommate and gets thrust into the dullest and blandest love triangle ever shown on TV.

In the end, Wednesday is able to solve the murder mystery with the help of her supernatural classmates who seem completely enamoured with her deadpan expression, dismissive attitude and her look-at-me-I'm-edgy one-liners.

Wednesday's 2-second  it girl and Wednesday Addam's plot-forced nemesis, Joy (played by Bianca Barclay)

It's not entirely new for adaptations to drastically change characters and what we know of them and while some shows - like the first season of Riverdale - could have succeeded without being based on our favourite characters, it's difficult to say the same of Wednesday. Without The Addams family name, all the show would have is a bunch of unimpressive teenagers scurrying around to solve an unimaginative murder mystery championed by a dull villain with a dull goal. For nostalgia, Addams Family fans can cling tightly to the living severed hand, Thing and the two snaps from the theme song.

Perhaps, this show was created for kids and it is entirely my fault for thinking my late-twenties self was the intended audience.


PS: To be fair, every scene of Wednesday playing the cello was an absolute hit.