Wednesday - Wednesday's Child Is Full of Woe

The first episode of Netflix's Wednesday sets the stage for the show around the oldest child of the Addams family heading off to a private boarding school after getting in trouble at her latest high school for the attempted murder of the several students in the school pool. While the opening scenes certainly provide a vivid introduction to Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), the first episode doesn't every really explore why Gozmez (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) kept trying to put their daughter in regular public schools (or how she's stayed out of jail). Now headed to the private school where her parents met, it doesn't take long before Wednesday attempts her first escape. However, she will make some discoveries that lead to reasons to stick around.

Other important characters introduced in the first episode include Wednesday's roommate Enid (Emma Myers), whose love of color and bright spirit offers a stark contract to our star, Gwendoline Christie as the school's principal, Riki Lindhome as Wednesday's new psychiatrist, Jamie McShane as the local sheriff and Hunter Doohan as his son, a townie Wednesday befriends, Percy Hynes White as a student with ties to Wednesday's past, Joy Sunday as a school rival for our girl, and Calum Ross as student who brings Wednesday's attention to a prophecy and a strange creature lurking in the woods.

Ortega is the best thing about the show which takes steps to properly frame Wednesday as different than everyone, even the weird outcasts at her new school. I'm not loving the visions/prophecy angle idea of Wednesday's glimpses of the future, but I'm willing to give it time to properly pay off. Given the introduction of two potential suitors for Wednesday introduced in a single episode, I'm hoping we don't go into CW love triangle territory and that showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ultimately have something more interesting in mind.

• Title: Wednesday - Wednesday's Child Is Full of Woe
• IMDb: link

• Title: Wednesday - Wednesday's Child Is Full of Woe
• IMDb: link