Netflix’s Wednesday opens with its hero dumping live piranhas into a school swimming pool, and the show never quite tops that image. Jenna Ortega plays Wednesday Addams, expelled for the prank and shipped by her parents Gomez and Morticia to Nevermore Academy, the Vermont private school for outcasts and monsters they once attended. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the series premiered on Netflix on November 23, 2022, after a November 16 premiere, and runs three seasons and 16 episodes, ending September 3, 2025.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Jenna Ortega and the Case for Nevermore
Ortega is the reason to watch, and the reason the show survives its own clutter. Wednesday arrives at Nevermore cold, defiant and unable to connect with her schoolmates, running afoul of principal Larissa Weems, played by Gwendoline Christie. Then she discovers she inherited her mother’s psychic abilities, which let her solve a local murder mystery.
The casting was deliberate. The creative team wanted a Latina in the role to match Gomez’s heritage, an aspect already written into the script, and Ortega, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, was cast in May 2021. Millar said the team knew on their first Zoom call that “nobody else on this planet” was better suited. Ortega has said she hesitated, given her past work on teen-oriented Disney Channel shows and a plan to prioritize film, and joined after meeting Tim Burton on Zoom.
Burton directed four episodes of each season and serves as executive producer. He had been approached for the 1991 film The Addams Family and later worked on a canceled stop-motion Addams Family feature. Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in that 1991 film and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values, was asked by Burton to join in a supporting role.
A Cast Built to Fill Ophelia Hall
The ensemble is deep, and uneven. Around Ortega:
- Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair, Wednesday’s werewolf roommate in Ophelia Hall — Myers first auditioned for the title role.
- Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay, a siren queen bee in Puck Hall and Xavier’s ex-girlfriend.
- Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin, a barista and the sheriff’s son, later revealed to be a Hyde.
- Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Ottinger, a student in Caliban Hall.
- Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus, a gorgon with a romantic interest in Enid.
- Victor Dorobantu as Thing, the disembodied hand.
Percy Hynes White played Xavier Thorpe, a psychic who sees visions in his dreams and can make art come to life. Riki Lindhome was Dr. Valerie Kinbott, Wednesday’s Nevermore-appointed therapist from Jericho. Jamie McShane played Sheriff Donovan Galpin. Naomi J. Ogawa was Yoko Tanaka, a vampire student. Isaac Ordonez played Pugsley Addams.
Ricci appeared as Marilyn Thornhill, also known as Laurel Gates — the botany teacher and dorm mother of Wednesday and Enid. She replaced Thora Birch, who left the series in December 2021 and whose character, dorm mother Tamara Novak, was left in unclear status.
What Season 2 Does With Barry Dort
The second season returns Wednesday to Nevermore, where she develops her psychic abilities, faces a new tormentor and must prevent her roommate’s death. Pugsley enrolls at Nevermore. Steve Buscemi joins as Barry Dort, Weems’ successor, who has Morticia take on a fundraising role while he looks after his own interests. Gwendoline Christie returns as a recurring presence, with Weems serving as Wednesday’s spirit guide because the two are 13th cousins twice removed. Billie Piper plays Isadora Capri, Owen Painter plays Slurp and Isaac Night, and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo plays Sheriff Ritchie Santiago.
That is a lot of machinery, and it is where the show’s problems start. Wednesday works best as a closed mystery with a small circle of suspects. It works worst when it stacks new characters on top of old ones without retiring anyone.
The reception was real. Within three weeks of release, Wednesday became the second-most watched English-language Netflix series. It drew three Golden Globe nominations — Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and two Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Ortega — and won four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Where the Show Loses Its Nerve
The premise is sharp: a girl who cannot connect with anyone, dropped into a school full of people who cannot connect with anyone, and solving murders anyway. The show knows this. It just keeps reaching for a bigger story instead of a better one.
Ranking what Wednesday actually gets right:
- Ortega’s performance, which carries the tone even when the scripts stall.
- The Nevermore setting, a private school for outcasts that gives the comedy a real frame.
- The first season’s murder mystery, which gives Wednesday something to do besides sneer.
- The second season’s expansion, which adds Buscemi and a new tormentor but thins the focus.
The Addams Family has been adapted before, and this one earns its place by handing the title character the whole story instead of the punchline. The 1991 film and its 1993 sequel made Wednesday a supporting player in her own family. Here she is the lead, and the show is better for it.
What holds it back is discipline. Three seasons and 16 episodes is a lean run, and it still feels padded. The psychic visions, the Hyde, the spirit guide, the fundraising subplot — each is a thread the show picks up and drops. A tighter series would cut two of them.
The show’s standing is secure regardless. Four Emmys and three Golden Globe nominations do not happen to a series that missed. But awards measure reach, not craft, and Wednesday’s craft is uneven in a way its popularity hides.
The part worth watching is Ortega. She plays the deadpan without turning it into a tic, and she holds scenes opposite Christie, Myers and Buscemi without giving ground. If the show ever decides that Wednesday’s interior life is the mystery worth solving, it will be a genuinely great series. Right now it is a good one with a great lead.
Wednesday scores 6.6 of 10.
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