Three years after the award-winning Netflix original series “Wednesday” first graced screens with its gothic glamour and witty cynicism, the delightfully dark series returned with an equally twisted season two. Despite this season’s sometimes overwhelming web of subplots and its detrimental release schedule, it was still bingeworthy.
Netflix released season two of “Wednesday” in two four-episode parts. Part one premiered on Wednesday, Aug. 6, and part two on Wednesday, Sept. 3. After the nearly three-year wait, a month between releases felt tantamount to torture. While Wednesday might “admire the sadism,” I personally do not.
In season two, Wednesday Addams returns to Jericho and Nevermore Academy for another year of courting danger and mingling with monsters. The show — created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar — and based on characters by Charles Addams, notably features creative input from Tim Burton. Burton takes on the role of executive producer and director in the series, directing four episodes this season. Paco Cabezas and Angela Robinson take on the remaining directorial load.
One highlight of season two was Burton’s short, monochrome animation that tells the story of a boy, a former Nevermore student, with a clockwork heart. Animated in Burton’s classic stop-motion style, this addition to the series solidifies its macabre aesthetic and is a fitting nod to Burton’s contribution to the show as well as his career-long dedication to the slightly strange and spooky.
Season two resembles season one in many defining aspects — woefully-worded episode titles, sardonic one-liners, fencing duels that negate the need for difficult conversations, familial tension that begs to be cut with a knife and, of course, secrets buried upon secrets. Themes of inheritance, authority, culture and identity remain hallmarks of the series. Save for the addition of a few new characters and the absence of Percy Hynes White, who played tortured artist Xavier Thorpe in season one, the cast is largely unchanged. Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams alongside Emma Myers’ Enid Sinclair, Hunter Doohan’s Tyler Galpin and Evie Templeton’s Wednesday-wannabe Agnus Demille. As for the Addams family, Victor Dorobantu’s Thing, Isaac Ordonez’s Pugsley, Luis Guzman’s Gomez and Catherine Zeta-Jones’s Morticia are back and closer to Wednesday than ever, even if only in proximity. Grandmama Hester Frump, played by Joanna Lumley, joins the Addams clan this season — much to the horror of daughter Morticia — whose efforts to save Wednesday from herself are challenged by her mother’s malicious intervention.
Staggering the release of this season doomed the plot to appear discontinuous, so while each episode’s execution is satisfactory in isolation, the season falls short as a whole. The main mystery storyline of part one is solved in just four episodes, leaving the characters to navigate part two without the unifying thread of investigative intrigue. The plot lines that remain in episodes five through eight unfold independently, and the season finishes with a 48-minute finale — the shortest episode of the season that is more weak than wicked. Despite being action-packed and stuffed to the brim with pulse-pounding plot twists, the finale’s shorter duration reflects how the plot thins out over the course of the season.
Another significant change in this season is the distribution of screen time. Season one established Wednesday as the beating black heart of the series, but in season two, she shares more of the limelight with her Nevermore cohort and growing array of relatives. As a result, the plot — a fast-paced, complicated tapestry of more storylines than is strictly necessary — attempts to balance these characters’ competing personalities and individual aesthetics. It succeeds for the most part, but a feeling of inconsistency persists.
That being said, the music of season two is just as impeccable as the first season. The artfully curated soundtrack strikes a balance between classical concertos and timeless hits, such as The Cranberries’ “Zombie” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.” The latter, sung by Billie Piper and Catherine Zeta-Jones as an acoustic campfire duet, makes for a delectably ominous moment in episode three, “Call of the Woe,” and remains one of my favorite moments in the season. It is the new characters of the season, such as Billie Piper’s Ms. Capri and Steve Buscemi’s Principal Dort, who bring to Nevermore a newfound amount of outcast pride, whose stories function as a unifying thread between the two parts.
“Wednesday” draws upon the life and works of American writer and poet Edgar Allen Poe to achieve its popular aesthetic. Poe — who the show refers to as “Nevermore’s most famous alumni” — had a penchant for the gothic, making his works as horrifically intriguing as the mind of aspiring author, Wednesday. Though references to Poe are scarce in the recent season, similarly tragic literary references — such as H.G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” — adequately make up for it.
In following with the first season, season two is brought to a close with a voiceover by Wednesday, in which she summarizes the concluding events and makes clear that loose ends remain untied. The short scenes — which unfold as she narrates — give us a glimpse into those loose ends, introduce new mysteries and set up the next season.
Though this season had its faults, its ability to leave viewers with questions and theories about what is to come is not one of them. Lots changed in Jericho over the course of the eight episodes, but we viewers end up right where we started — waiting for more. With season three set to release in 2027, as was announced before season two premiered, I can only hope it will once again be worth the woefully long wait.