Wednesday season two eps 1-4 reviews

 It seems such a very long time since we last caught up with Wednesday Addams and her Outcast classmates so much so that the returning cast are clearly older in this second season – which is acknowledged- but the question must be whether the wait has been worth it.  Even some of the promotional material has alluded to it (see below) and anticipation has been building. Netflix have even created a special Thing ident for it. After such a lengthy gap (though admittedly not as long as the wait for season 5 of Stranger Things) can Wednesday match it's early promise and engage with an audience who are also now older?

 

This sophomore season begins with `Here We Woe Again` (yes the episode titles are all silly puns) an exceptional piece of work and probably the best thing Tim Burton has done in a while. It bristles with activity, making sweeping tonal changes that move seamlessly from horror to dark comedy to teenage drama, to mystery and more. It manages to incorporate multiple storylines including a large cast with ease fitting as much material into an hour as many films do in twice that time.

If the first season sometimes lapsed into more traditional teenage drama – albeit with our deadpan main character at the helm- this episode dials up the strangeness in every direction enabling Burton to pull out some great moves. Principal amongst these is a black and white stop motion animation relating the Tale of the Skull Tree, which relates the story of a fragile Nevermore pupil whose weak heart was replaced by a clockwork model of his own design. He continued to perform increasingly risky experiments until he was killed and then buried at the foot of a tree whose bark resembles a skull.  

Heralding back to the director’s early days and the likes of Frankenweenie and the mystical stories like Edward Scissorhands, this is worth watching the episode for alone. It’s also more than just a spooky tale bearing a lot of relevance to one of the series’ narratives. It fits too with the theme of Outcast traditions and the spooky ambience that creeps into proceedings when you least expect it. There’s even a jump scare that really does make you a jump. Elsewhere Burton can give a classy sheen to everything from a panning shot swooping over a huge wooden bird structure bathed in purple light or a scene where a man is attacked by a murder of crows. The whole tone is edgy, yet enjoyably scary and even starts with a cliffhanger of an adventure that Wednesday has been having during the summer. Out first shot of her is tied up at a table with a lot of creepy dolls. Very Tim Burton!

The episode also kicks off a multitude of plots and possibilities including the idea of the whole Addams clan staying at the school so Morticia an lead a fundraising committee, the new cheerily manipulative head teacher Barry Dort (a brilliantly manic Steve Buscemi), that murder and also a blackmailer whose theft of the only copy of Wednesday’s novel leads her into danger underneath that pyre atop which the bird sits. There are visions too notably at the end when one which Wednesday sees suggests Enid’s death.

On top of that there is all the arriving and reacquainting of characters so a lot going on but it is marshalled expertly. The different tones seem to slide together so well – an accidental car crash that the Addams cause on their way to the school plays out in the background and is very funny even though there are vehicles exploding. The way Enid has befriended Thing is delightfully quirky too. Then there’s other strands like Galpin investigating the murder even though he’s no longer the Sherrif and Pugsley joining the school and ending up reviving that clockwork heart character in a delightfully extra gothic end of episode scene.

What the episode does well too is draw a parallel between the real-life success of the series and the fame that brought its stars with the (unwanted) attention Wednesday now receives as the hero who saved the school.  The first season has been one of the most successful streaming shows ever and brought a shedload of acclaim, memes and of course fame for its cast especially Jenna Ortega. Here she refines that performance just a touch; there is no let-up of Wednesday’s innate splendid isolation and dislike of both attention and fun but the actor and script have both added a more identifiable reason for this. Whereas last time the character’s grumpiness could be enjoyed from a distance, we now get to see at least partly why she is like that and it seems perfectly normal! It is a fantastic performance.

 

Episode two, The Devil You Woe, sees several plots up and running though not perhaps as we might have expected. It does show how much the combination of writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar plus director Tim Burton bring to the series as none of them are directly involved in this episode. So, a couple of key plots built up so well in episode one sort of fall over here. The idea of Wednesday having a stalker which has been lurking in the previous episode ends up being the reveal that it’s a fan who ends up kidnapping Enid and Bruno placing them in considerable peril. It’s an unexpected idea that ties in with Wednesday’s own wariness of fame but I’m not sure it quite plays too well in the end. Plus, it frees up the murder mystery as it never seemed to fit with the stalker side of things.

The skull tree boy’s revival at the end of part one, which was filled with melodrama, also doesn’t go where you might expect it as Pugsley decides to keep the creature he christens Slurp in the bee shed trying to work out what food it likes. This reduces the threat to that of more comedic zombie at least till it escapes later on. Actor Owen Painter is inside the gruesome make up and does a fantastic job even if the script can’t decide if we should be amused or terrified by the creature. Perhaps that’s the idea?

Better is a strand involving Dort’s attempts to get Morticia to persuade her mother to contribute a large amount to the fundraiser (great to see Catherine Zeta Jones having a larger role this season). What is the fundraiser really for we wonder? The ongoing murders are well handled too - the scene where Wednesday finds the body of Galpin and crows fly out of the corpse is a creepy spectacle. Wednesday’s visit to see Tyler who is ensconced in a high security institution is the dramatic high point with Hunter Doohan making the most of the scene- just the way his expression changes when he first sees her is interesting. Admittedly the point of the visit was somewhat vague but whenever a series shows you a dangerous individual seemingly incarcerated behind impenetrable security nine times out of ten, they either escape or are controlling forces from inside. Is Tyler the source controlling those murderous crows? Overall, the episode isn’t as focussed as the opener yet still packs a punch as the series finds good ways to deal with an extended cast and balance the comedy with the darkness. One amusing thing that goes unmentioned on screen is how Morticia and Gomez have completely refitted their rental house with gothic accoutrements.

There’s a sub-genre of film in which a bunch of teenagers are packed off to an outdoor camp in the middle of nowhere and over the course of the movie there are various plots that end up coming together at the end and everyone falls out, then bonds and are all enriched by the experience. Episode three, Call of the Woe, is sort of like that. Several separate plot strands mesh together when the school takes a trip to Camp Jericho, a wooden encampment in the woods. For the most part it’s a lighter episode with some amusing visual moments such as the way the first purple school buses knock the sign off as it drives though, the Addams’ mansion shaped tent and Pugsley’s arrival with a coffin (in which Slurp is being concealed).

The comedic happenings extend when a platoon of army cadets seme to have been double booked into the place and the two side have to undertake a competitive manoeuvre to decide who stays. The cadets are led by another Eighties icon Anthony Michael Hall though few would recognise the non nonsense soldier here with the geeky characters he played back in the day. He has a lot of fun though barking orders at his well drilled troops and being flabbergasted when they lose the challenge.

Wednesday herself is a surprise camp attendee though with the ulterior motive of finding a cottage that belonged to Galpin. Here she finds evidence suggesting Willow Hill might be experimenting on Outcasts admitted to the institution. She’s also trying to get that book back ending up challenging her mother to a blindfolded sword duel to do so. In fact, Wednesday is quite the action hero this episode leading the chase to beat the cadets and also skewering Slurp who inevitably escapes his coffin and wreaks some havoc. She does all of this action with her usual deadpan face. The writers have made her more heroic and almost super powered to some extent but as she does everything with a scowl it is still amusing as well.

The arrival of Morticia and Gomez at the camp as well as the cadets ensures it’s a busy episode and the tone thus feels slightly rushed. There do seem to be too many characters so the scene with Ajax finally getting to confront Enid seems hastily written though I like the idea that it’s Enid’s wolfing out that’s made her more confident.  Despite the tangle of plots, matters coalesce in a satisfying manner plus we get a glimpse at the end of the avian whom Wednesday believes is controlling the crows plus we see Thornhill aka Lauren Gates arriving at Willow Hill, the real shock here being the strange Kes from Star Trek Voyager hairstyle. I hardly recognised her; was there a point behind this out of character barnet?

I think the episode would work better without the cadet plotline which would allow the characters we know to interact in a different environment. That’s what those films I mentioned used to do so that after a weekend people viewed each other differently. As happened sometimes in season one there is a risk that being so arch all the time means there’s not much progression. That being said Wednesday is a series that loves to pull out surprises.

If the show does sometimes struggle to pull its disparate strands together other times it happens with a gorgeous fluidity and episode four, If These Woes Could Talk, is a peak example of that. The various plot lines converge on Willow Hill as had seemed inevitable yet the episode also successfully adds to the cast bringing in Uncle Fester and debuting Joanna Lumley’s Hester. There may be a certain predictability to events- as many viewers where no doubt also able, I’d worked out generally what was going to happen within a few minutes of the episode starting but sometimes that can be good too. With Tim Burton back directing the pace is up and the imagery at the more unsettling end. He almost causally dispenses memorable moments- like Billie Piper’s over the top piano playing set against other goings on, the rapid opening of the cell doors to briefly glimpse those inside, the length of those Willow Hill corridors being perfect for rampaging beasts charging towards the camera. The smaller moments too are so strongly framed and there’s plenty of humour sprinkled about, notably when Fester’s endless aliases are revealed and his later behaviour in the institution.

Wednesday herself has to share focus with several others this time as she tries to unravel the mystery of who is controlling those crows and needs some help. The only less than expected aspect of the episode is that it turns out to be a side character surely nobody had suspected but her involvement ends moments after she’s revealed.

The real meat of the episode is Thornhill’s attempts to see Tyler while Fester goes undercover to try and find the mysterious Lois (which turns out to be an acronym rather than a person) along the way becoming involved in a brief affair with a dinner lady. This gives the episode some lighter material thanks to Fred Armisen’s expressive face and cheery demeanour even when being electrocuted! The LOIS plot harks back to things Galpin discovered in season one that made him fearful over his son which is a good callback even if the experiment is wrecked by the end of the episode. I suspect the series will move on but it would have been rewarding for a little more coverage of what is a fairly horrific concept though I suppose these peole have to be recaptured somehow.

Joanna Lumley only gets a handful of scenes but makes an impression as the imperious Hester. The scene between her and Catherine Zeta Jones is electric especially when Morticia burns Goody’s book rather than give it back to Wednesday and thus risk losing the donation to the fundraiser. She is putting her daughter first. Some more diehard Addams Family fans have commented that this familial tension is not really in the tradition of the original and it is true that it drifts close to soap opera at times. However, as the writers have said there is actually only a slim lore (the Sixties show was ostensibly a sitcom without rolling plotlines) so they have opted to build that up given the richness of characters. Plus assembling such a cast and not letting their characters disagree and evolve would be a shame. 

Actual electricity is aplenty during an extended sequence inside Willow Hill in which a number of plotlines crash into each other and several characters are despatched. Wednesday herself ends the episode having been hurled out of a window by the released Hyde though as this is only the halfway point we can assume she is not dead. She’s even still narrating!

Nonetheless this is an excellent mid-season cliffhanger with two dangerous beasts now free as Slurp also released. Come to think of it there are now a dozen dangerous characters running about. Though Slurp has now killed probably more people than the Hyde my conjecture is somehow he will be vital to stopping the latter. Slurp seems to become more human as he eats which may mean he ends up looking totally normal eventually. Mind you this is a show with so many madcap ideas that it would be foolish to try and predict what might happen. One new mystery is the identity of that fearful woman whom Wednesday rescues near the end. There’s been speculation its Tyler’s mother but surely, he would have recognised her even while in his Hyde state as she was with Wednesday when he attacked? The stronger speculation has her as Aunt Ofelia. As Tyler appears to have killed Laurel he is now without a master and theoretically will die but I’m sure there’ some sneaky twist lurking.

This first half of the season has been exhilarating, imaginative and involving despite the huge cast and multiple plotlines. It may have taken the best part of three years to reach us but it has been worth the wait.