Wednesday Season 2 Review: Tim Burton & Jenna Ortega's Netflix Series Wisely Gives The Addams Family More To Do

What's to be done about those who are themselves strange and unusual? The typical answer is for culture to either assimilate or reject the outcasts; if their quirks cannot be embraced and worked into more digestible form for the masses, then they must be renounced, laughed at, and diminished. This is the artistic struggle that filmmaker Tim Burton has dealt with for the entirety of his career, and he's been around long enough to have experienced all the facets of issues with trendiness and conformity. For the first half of his career, Burton's oddball traits were resoundingly praised. Then, like his Edward Scissorhands or Oswald Cobblepot, the luster faded, either in his own work or the public's liking of it (or perhaps a mixture of both), and he endured a period of great financial success mixed with ill reception. In the last several years, Burton has appeared to reach a sort of career equilibrium; he hasn't made a comeback so much as settled into being an acquired taste.

However, setting qualms about the quality of the man's specific films and shows aside (and I certainly have my own), the thing that's been most admirable about Burton is how resolutely true to himself he's remained. This is something he has in common with The Addams Family themselves. The fictional family created by cartoonist Charles Addams have enjoyed numerous interpretations throughout several mediums, chief among them the classic '60s sitcom and the pair of feature films from the early '90s. Though their looks and their humor have changed and evolved given the time period they're inhabiting, the Addams Family have remained steadfastly counter culture, always poking social norms and tropes in the eye even while simultaneously indulging in them. That's what subversion is, after all, and the Addamses are always subversive.

When the Netflix original series "Wednesday" premiered in 2022, some decried the series as a naked attempt to wedge the titular precocious misfit character into a "Hot Topic"-friendly prestige TV mold (including this very website); "Harry Potter" for goth kids. While there's no doubt that the executives and merchandisers saw such an equation and salivated over it, and that "Wednesday" certainly resembles such a mash-up on the surface, the series became strange and subversive under Burton's steady hand nonetheless. The second season of "Wednesday" doubles down on what worked in the first season, and dials up the spooky and the ooky to boot. Though I've only seen the first four episodes, it's clear that Burton, star Jenna Ortega, and the rest of the "Wednesday" misfits are up to some delightfully dastardly deeds here.

If you made like a snake and were charmed by the first season of "Wednesday," you'll be pleased to know that most of the highlights of that season have returned intact here. Yes, "Wednesday" is not a series that's precious about its characters or actors, and thus there are several guest stars and recurring characters who met their demise in the first season and do not return here. That said, some luminary alumni get more time to shine this go around, particularly Emma Myers as Wednesday's chipper werewolf roommate, Enid, and Joy Sunday as the ethically tortured siren Bianca. The series also makes some delightful new additions, as with Steve Buscemi's new headmaster of Nevermore Academy, Barry, and Billie Piper's mysterious, insightful music teacher, Isadora.

Yet the biggest switch-up in the series' structure is the introduction of the rest of the Addams clan to Nevermore on a regular basis. Thing (Victor Dorobantu) is once again a mainstay, of course, but Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) is now a student at Nevermore, and quickly gets up to some shenanigans involving a pet zombie. Where the first season saw Wednesday's parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) turn up occasionally, this second season has cause to have them both around all the time, as Barry insists on Morticia heading up a fundraising campaign for the school following the near-disastrous events of the first season. Barry is desperate for Morticia to land a donation from her estranged mother, Grandmama, Hester, and the woman does indeed turn up eventually, played with relish by Joanna Lumley. Although Grandmama, Lurch (Joonas Suotamo), and Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen, reprising his role from the first season) aren't around for every episode, the fact that the entire Addams clan is now a distinct presence in "Wednesday" makes it feel that much more like a proper "Addams Family" story and less like a spin-off.

What "Wednesday" season 2 really gets right, even more so than the first season, is its blending of a serialized whodunit story with episodic plotlines. Netflix series have a tendency to fall into a trap of "one story stretched out over X episodes," which can leave them feeling tiresome as their narrative length extends beyond the point which it perhaps should. While "Wednesday" is still built around a single intricate storyline involving Wednesday (Ortega) on the trail of a murderer who has the ability to control birds and also has a vendetta against the sullen girl, the series cleverly weaves in some subplots and episode-length setups which break up any potential monotony. Granted, this doesn't go as far as something like "The X-Files" splitting its time between "monster of the week" and "mythology" episodes, but it does allow "Wednesday" to engage audiences on a macro and micro level, and not get bogged down in single-mindedness.

Something which goes a long way toward helping this is how the series indulges its artists. It's clear that Burton has the most creative influence over the series, as the show bears a ton of his trademarks, everything from circus-goth chic production design to, in the first episode, a stop-motion animation sequence. In working with writers and creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar as well as Lauren Otero, Burton brings to "Wednesday" the same winning combination of offbeat comedy and putrid horror that was on display in "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." Director Paco Cabezas (taking directing duties for two of the four episodes) along with writers Matt Lambert and Valentina Garza pick up the baton ably, giving concepts like a schoolwide Prank Day and a camping trip some suitable Burtonisms.

The biggest detriment to all of this is how Wednesday's detective work can begin to feel perfunctory. That aspect of her personality really isn't the star of the series, while Wednesday herself absolutely is. As such, the character has to spend her time serving just about every storyline, which can leave the mystery feeling a little thin at times. In addition, it feels like the series wants to give Wednesday an arch-nemesis in the form of Tyler (Hunter Doohan), who was revealed as the evil Hyde last season. With the monster locked up in Willow Hill sanitarium, the series treats Tyler as the Joker to her Batman (or maybe the Moriarity to her Sherlock Holmes), and it doesn't feel like either character has earned such a position.

The thing that "Wednesday" does so well, and that its second season appears to perfect, is bringing the spirit of the "Addams Family" characters more firmly into a horror space without sacrificing the comedy. The initial versions of the Addams Family were all about upending societal constructs, letting so-called normal folks interact with a group who were heavily implied to be up to some ghastly things on the regular. "Wednesday" stays true to "Addams" tradition by not depicting many of these ghastly pastimes, yet the fact that Hydes and Sirens and werewolves are roaming around as well lends them that much more spooky legitimacy. It's a clever reversal for the Addams clan to be our "normal" audience proxy characters in a world full of horror creatures, while still allowing the Addamses to be kooky and ooky to everyone else around them.

That idiosyncratic spirit is alive and well thanks to Burton and Ortega's hands on the wheel. For better or worse, whether you love him or hate him, "Wednesday" is a show that absolutely caters to the interests of the filmmaker and his collaborators, no matter how many cereal boxes and T-shirts are adorned with Wednesday's face. It helps immensely that the literal face of Wednesday Addams is Ortega's, because it's still astonishing how brilliantly the actress inhabits such a long-running iconic character. Ortega's become known for vocalizing her honest thoughts about the series and taste in films in the press, and this only makes Wednesday's frequent sarcastic put-downs and aggressive individuality that much more vibrant. Where Wednesday the character is vehemently rebellious, "Wednesday" the series is more slyly subversive, delivering genre thrills and witty satire with panache. Sure, it's possible that the remaining four episodes of the season could lose the plot (or become consumed by it), but given what a strong start this first batch is, I think the only one who'll be full of woe by the end of "Wednesday" is Wednesday herself.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

"Wednesday" season 2 part 1 begins streaming on Netflix on August 6, 2025.