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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, netflix's wednesday combines teen angst and murder.

Netflix’s Addams Family series “Wednesday” successfully combines two genres in a way that makes more sense than most—the teen coming-of-age story and the murder-mystery plot. Over the last decade or so, there’s been a lot of shows that have merged the two, using violence to juice up the general teen fair of crushes, college admissions, and meddlesome parents. But where shows like “ Riverdale ” can feel forced to the point of silliness, “Wednesday” succeeds thanks to its familiar protagonist and her macabre-loving family.

Fans of the Addams clan get plenty of service in this eight-part series. Thing, the living, moving severed hand, is a full-fledged character with ongoing gags about skincare and manicures, plus an (only metaphysical) heart of his own. Fred Armisen shows up for episode seven as Uncle Fester, winkingly playing the bald criminal. And the show plays with the highly sexually charged dynamic between Morticia ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ) and Gomez ( Luis Guzmán ). There’s even a bit with the two snaps from the famous theme song. For those with only a passing affection for the Addams family or the aesthetic of executive producer and director of half the episodes, Tim Burton , some of these bits may come to grate (we get it—they’re dark!). But there’s enough other stuff for fans and non-fans to enjoy.

Jenna Ortega 's performance as Wednesday elevates the series above pure nostalgia. She’s become a force in horror thanks to roles in 2022’s “Scream,” A24’s “ X ,” and Netflix’s “You” but while Wednesday may fancy herself to be living in a scary movie, her adventures are less blood-drenched and more camp comedy. Ortega excels in the role, leaning into a deadpan humor made all the funnier by her character’s lack of interest in anything approaching laughter.

The show’s directors get a lot of mileage out of Jenna Ortega ’s physicality, particularly in the high school dance scene, where she manages to own the floor while staying true to her dark nature. And it’s not just for comedy—more than once, we see the smallness of her body on the screen as she faces off again forces much bigger than her. These angles give her confrontations extra power, marking her as an underdog even as her superior insight and tenacity set her up to be the story's clear winner.

The show also leverages classic teen tropes to bring lightness to its dark halls, starting with the “ Clueless ” tour of the cliques at Wednesday’s new school. There’s also a convoluted sporting event that's a clear parallel to Harry Potter’s Quidditch . The aforementioned prom/dance comes complete with a (what else?) “ Carrie ” moment. And there’s so much more—the stuffy headmistress, the love triangle, the secret society.

Along the way, everything works. The mystery is hard to figure out but clearly in place all along and concludes satisfactorily. The action is suspenseful with real danger looming for likable (if mostly side) characters. And the social commentary—about the vileness of settler colonialism—is gratifying. 

Adding to these elements is Wednesday’s evolution out of, or at least through teen angst. She’s extremely sure of herself but with plenty of growing up to do. That makes her both an extraordinary and typical teen, someone who thinks they know everything while continuously being made to learn more. Over the series, we see her come to better understand her parents (even her mother!) as she comes into a more mature, less knee-jerk contradictory understanding of herself.

It’s rare to see a show so successfully mix coming-to-age character development with gross and gory ghouls and a serial murder plot on top of it all. By the end, I was smiling broadly, happy to have been back with these old friends and witnessing their familiar, family-driven hijinks. 

If there’s ever a character for whom death and darkness don’t weigh her down but are a normal part of her high school years, it’s Wednesday Addams. And Netflix’s “Wednesday” makes the most of its heroine’s unique disposition.

All eight episodes screened for review. "Wednesday" premieres on Netflix on November 23rd.

Cristina Escobar

Cristina Escobar is the co-founder of LatinaMedia.Co, a digital publication uplifting Latina and gender non-conforming Latinx perspectives in media.

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‘Wednesday’ Review: The Strange Girl Is on the Case

Netflix’s addition to the Addams Family universe turns the death-obsessed daughter into a high school sleuth.

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By Mike Hale

The news that Tim Burton would be directing half the episodes of “Wednesday,” Netflix’s new dramedy about the Addams Family’s death-obsessed young daughter, piqued interest. It would be Burton’s first real television work in nearly 40 years, since he directed episodes of “Faerie Tale Theatre” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” And Burton, an often magical storyteller attracted to off-kilter material, seemed as if he might be a good match for Charles Addams’s macabre cartoon family.

But neither Addams nor Burton appears to be the primary force behind “Wednesday,” whose eight episodes premiere on the appropriate day this week. The show was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, best known for the young-Superman series “Smallville,” and the sensibility of “Wednesday” lines up with that earlier work: high-minded teenage melodrama. More focused on morbid humor, for sure, and, like “Smallville,” reasonably well executed and entertaining. But still, teenage melodrama.

Toward that end, the rest of the Addams Family is mostly absent from the show, though the actors playing those well-known characters are the big names in the cast. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, as Wednesday’s parents, Morticia and Gomez, feature largely in just one episode; the same goes for Fred Armisen as her Uncle Fester. Besides Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday , the one family member with a regular role is Thing, the disembodied hand.

“Wednesday” begins with a trademark act of calculated violence by its heroine, as if to establish her bona fides. It gets her expelled from high school — she’s older here than in earlier iterations, turning 16 in the course of the season — and sent to her parents’ alma mater, Nevermore Academy, a Vermont school for “outcasts” where the cliques are made up of werewolves, vampires, sirens and the like.

This situates the show among the post-“Harry Potter” proliferation of supernatural high school dramas, with the requisite town-versus-gown conflict, here characterized as the normies versus the outcasts. And when Wednesday discovers that people are being killed by a monster in the nearby woods, she goes into girl-detective mode, complete with voice-over narration that recalls “Veronica Mars.”

Amid these various familiar TV structures, the morbidity and sarcasm that have always characterized Wednesday become more of a motif, a running gag, than a defining trait. More fundamentally, her alienation from her schoolmates, teachers and parents becomes something she has to overcome. The through line of “Wednesday” is toward learning the value of teamwork, tolerance and human connection. Perhaps for the first time, an Addams Family story pushes Wednesday toward being more like everyone else.

This will not be what real fans of Charles Addams and his characters are looking for, and “Wednesday” is satisfying only on the level of formulaic teenage romance and mystery. On that basis it’s pretty tolerable, though. Burton’s episodes — the first four — have style and some wit, from an opening shot of Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), falling out of his locker to the candy-colored beauty of a nighttime carnival scene, which includes a wonderful long shot of Wednesday chasing a schoolmate through the midway beneath a scrim of exploding fireworks. (Burton closes out his episodes with a baroque bit of mayhem, clearly inspired by “Carrie,” that is more excessive than inspired.)

The teenage-redemption themes of “Wednesday” are also a good fit for the 20-year-old Ortega, who broke in as a child actor on the Disney Channel and in CW’s “Jane the Virgin” and has since branched out into slasher films like this year’s “Scream.” She doesn’t do much with Wednesday’s mean-girl punch lines, which is at least partly the fault of the writing — they drop into the script like stones. (“I don’t bury hatchets, I sharpen them.” “Sartre said hell was other people. He was my first crush.”)

She’s good, though, with the side of the character that’s been invented for the show — she puts across this Wednesday’s submerged desire to connect with her effervescent werewolf roommate, Enid (Emma Myers, giving the show’s liveliest, funniest performance), and she gets at the small core of poignancy that’s there among the soap opera machinations and routine scary-creature battles. (Most of the latter come after Burton’s episodes, unfortunately.)

Also in the cast, in a medium-size role as the only non-supernatural teacher at Nevermore, is Christina Ricci, who portrayed a younger Wednesday in the two live-action Addams Family films of the 1990s. The joke is that the woman famous for playing the strange child is now the most aggressively normal character onscreen, and Ricci cleverly amps up her energy a little, as if it were a strain for her to make the switch. Like “Wednesday” itself, she’s crossed over to the side of the normies.

Mike Hale is a television critic. He also writes about online video, film and media. He came to The Times in 1995 and worked as an editor in Sports, Arts & Leisure and Weekend Arts before becoming a critic in 2009. More about Mike Hale

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Wednesday review: making goth great again

“Series star Jenna Ortega and director Tim Burton bring The Addams Family to life in a quirky gothic mystery for Netflix that's monstrously fun.”

• Jenna Ortega perfectly embodies the character
• Great blend of supernatural horror, teen drama
• Adds depth to the entire Addams Family
• Visual effects are good, not great

Wednesday Addams isn’t the first character that comes to mind when you’re searching for someone with the cachet to carry a solo series, but it doesn’t take long for Tim Burton and Wednesday star Jenna Ortega to make her star power abundantly clear in Netflix’s dark, delightfully entertaining series .

Color us scared

Darkness becomes her, they mostly come out at night.

A spinoff of The Addams Family franchise,  Wednesday follows the titular, elder Addams sibling after she finds herself expelled from high school due to a nasty incident involving the water polo team and two bags of piranhas . The event prompts her parents, Gomez Addams (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones), to enroll her in their former alma mater, prep school Nevermore Academy, which specializes in educating “outcast” children. As she attempts to forge her own path at the school, where her parents’ legacy looms large, Wednesday soon finds herself wrapped up in a mystery tied to killings in a nearby town.

Wednesday hails from Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and although it manages to channel some of the same young adult drama the pair brought to their teenage Superman series, it’s Burton’s aesthetic that informs much of the look and feel of Wednesday ‘s first, eight-episode season.

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The Sleepy Hollow and Beetlejuice director helms the series’ first four episodes, and draws from a similar palette as his 1990 film Edward Scissorhands , which had its characters bouncing between two contrasting environments: One dark and gothic, and the other bright and colorful. Like the title character of that film, Wednesday’s adventures have her and her classmates — werewolves, sirens, and gorgons among them — navigating between the stark stone and dark forest of their gothic home and the bright streets of an exaggerated small-town America.

As one might expect, Burton is right at home in the comic-gothic vibe of Wednesday’s world, but he also manages to fit Nevermore surprisingly well into the brightly colored, traditional Americana surrounding it. The two aesthetics  shouldn’t mesh as well as they do, but Wednesday makes the weaving together of these worlds feel surprisingly seamless.

While the look and feel of  Wednesday is executed amazingly well, it’s Ortega’s performance as the title character that ultimately sells the series.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone nailing Wednesday’s dry, morbid personality as well as Christina Ricci in the live-action Addams Family films of the 1990s, but Ortega runs away with the role in the Netflix series. Ortega is a talented actress whose recent, well-received performances in Ti West’s X  and  Scream suggest she’s no stranger to dark subject matter, but  Wednesday flexes an entirely different sort of approach to the material, and Ortega rises to the occasion. Her deadpan delivery rarely falters, and in those rare moments where the story calls for her to do so, Ortega finds just the right amount of subtlety to keep her character’s coming-of-age experience in character.

She’s not alone in giving a great performance, either.

In supporting roles, Guzmán and Zeta-Jones offer a version of the Addams Family central couple that’s both familiar and unique  and plays to the celebrated actors’ strengths. It’s no easy task to measure up to the portrayals of Gomez and Morticia in the original television series (John Astin and Carolyn Jones) and the two live-action theatrical features of the ’90s (Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston), but Wednesday ‘s version of the deeply romantic, macabre duo finds the happy medium between their past and present incarnations. The same is true of Fred Armisen’s too-brief appearance as Wednesday’s iconic Uncle Fester, with the Portlandia star’s wacky performance playing well off Wednesday’s dry presence.

Despite the series’ focus on Wednesday Addams, it also does a remarkable job of building out the entire Addams Family’s backstory in some fun, fascinating ways.

The fictional history of creator Charles Addams’ family of characters has rarely adhered to any sort of canon, and Wednesday sends the Addams Family timeline in some new, clever directions. The series sheds some light on Morticia and Gomez’s early years and burgeoning romance at Nevermore Academy, for example, and reveals some intriguing plot points about their time there and how it shaped some well-known aspects of the characters. Although the show keeps the spotlight on Wednesday, the story of the entire Addams Family feels significantly richer with the lore Wednesday brings to their saga.

Outside of the established Addams Family characters appearing in the series,  Wednesday also introduces some compelling supporting characters to her world.

Gwendoline Christie ( Game of Thrones ) offers a nice foil for Wednesday as the headmistress of Nevermore, while Emma Myers portrays Wednesday’s eternally perky, optimistic roommate (who also happens to be a werewolf), Enid Sinclair. Both actresses give strong performances that tease out more of Wednesday’s character and give her the sort of surrounding cast of enemies and allies that make her feel like a more fully realized character.

Ricci herself plays a recurring role in the series , too, as the school’s botany instructor, Marilyn Thornhill, and watching her and Ortega interact makes for some extra fun, self-aware humor.

Fans of popular Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will likely feel some familiarity with Wednesday , which manages to hit the sweet spot between dark, supernatural adventure and teen drama surprisingly well.  Wednesday goes quite a bit darker than that series, though, thanks to Burton’s influence and even more quirky characters.

Fans of Burton’s work, anyone looking to fill that Sabrina void, or viewers simply intrigued by the idea of a gothic horror-comedy with a compelling mystery at its center and a great cast of unique, colorful characters will find plenty to like about  Wednesday . Mysterious and spooky and altogether ooky, the series is a scream in all the right ways.

Season 1 of Wednesday premieres November 23 on Netflix.

Wednesday (2022)

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'Wednesday' Review: A More Chilling Spin on the Creepy, Kooky Addams Family

The Netflix series is a darker-than-usual take that never loses sight of its heart, humor, and horror.

The creepy and kooky Addams Family, arguably the First Family of spooky season, have had a perpetual presence in popular culture over the decades. After getting their start in Charles Addams ' New Yorker comics in the '30s, and debuting onscreen in the 1964 television series The Addams Family , they make their return to the small screen this November with Netflix's supernatural teen drama Wednesday .

Rather than focusing on the family as a whole, the series instead centers on teenage daughter Wednesday Addams, played to woeful perfection by Jenna Ortega , as she is expelled from yet another school and sent by her parents Gomez ( Luis Guzmán ) and Morticia ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ) to Nevermore Academy, the same school where the two of them met and fell in love. As much as she thrives in darkness, Wednesday bristles at the idea of being expected to live in the significant shadow cast by her parents, and her mother in particular, who was as much of a social butterfly overachiever as it's possible to be in a school proudly populated by outcasts.

Wednesday's arrival at Nevermore is anything but easy. She is placed in her mother's old dorm alongside Enid ( Emma Myers ), a late-blooming werewolf who loves bright colors as much as Wednesday loves various shades of black and gray. Though their different personalities lead to friction at first, in the manner of all good coming-of-age stories, the two start to realize they might be stronger together than they are apart. Also making settling in somewhat difficult are the two mysteries that may or may not be connected, but both of which somehow trace back to Nevermore and the surrounding town of Jericho. The first is a case that may or may not involve someone close to Wednesday, while the other — arguably more pressing — is the issue of the gruesome murders taking place around town.

RELATED: 'Wednesday': Tim Burton Celebrates the Creation of Nevermore Academy in New Featurette

Unlike the earlier TV incarnations, including the 1992 animated series and the 1998 live-action series The New Addams Family (a campy staple of my own childhood), Wednesday does not follow a problem-of-the-week format, opting instead for a season-long supernatural mystery in the vein of Stranger Things , or The Hardy Boys . Unlike those earlier incarnations as well, the series really leans into the horror-adjacent aspect that has always surrounded the Addams family, but which earlier incarnations never fully explored. While this is definitely a show the whole family can watch together, there is just enough horror and gore to really earn that TV-14 rating.

Where Wednesday really thrives is in its cast. Ortega, Guzmán, and Zeta-Jones, as well as Isaac Ordonez , who plays Pugsley Addams, are picture-perfect choices, looking like the Charles Addams cartoons come to life. The entire family takes these beloved characters and truly makes them their own, maintaining the aspects that have made the kooky Addams so recognizable over the decades, while infusing them with an energy that breathes fresh life into the role. As quirky Uncle Fester, Fred Armisen is a source of some needed comedic relief, with a deadpan cheerful delivery that pays homage to Jackie Coogan 's take on the part back in 1964.

As far as new characters, the series also stars Gwendoline Christie as Nevermore headmistress Principal Weems and Riki Lindhome as Wednesday's court-mandated therapist Dr. Kinbott. They, alongside Wednesday's Nevermore classmates Bianca ( Joy Sunday ), Xavier ( Percy Hynes White ), and Ajax ( Georgie Farmer ), as well as Hunter Doohan as the sheriff's "normie" son Tyler, really round things out and make the show a cross between a supernatural mystery series and a high school drama. Because all the trappings of a high school drama — school dances, trouble with crushes, after-school clubs, and fitting in — are present, albeit with a gloomy, spiderweb-covered gloss.

Of course, the true highlight of the ensemble cast — for diehard Addams fans, anyway — is former Wednesday Addams herself Christina Ricci , who plays Ms. Thornhill, one of Wednesday's Nevermore teachers. Though the two do share quite a few scenes, and though there are references to the wider meta of The Addams Family throughout (except for the tragic absence of the catchy theme song), I applaud the creative team for resisting the urge to make Ricci's Wednesday history too obvious.

Previous incarnations of The Addams Family have always focused on the family as a whole, either dealing with their own interpersonal drama or more frequently casting them in a sort of "us versus them" situation, "them" being conventional society. That conflict is still very present in Wednesday , with the teenagers of Nevermore Academy looked at with skepticism and fear by the town of Jericho. With eight episodes devoted to the mysteries that connect the town and the school, the series has time to dive into this divide with some nuance beyond the idea that one of the two sides is objectively "wrong."

My biggest fear, as someone who has seen and loved every incarnation of The Addams Family , was that the undercurrent of family and love and support present in every version would be lost in Wednesday in favor of a grittier take on the well-known characters. After all, this would not be the first time decades-old characters got an unrecognizable makeover ( Riverdale comes to mind). But while the Addams are not quite the rock-solid unit they are in perhaps the best-known adaptations, 1991's The Addams Family and 1993's The Addams Family Values , it's very clear that they do care about each other.

Ultimately, despite being a darker-than-usual take on The Addams Family , Wednesday retains all the hallmarks that make the stories and the characters special. It succeeds very well at pushing the story outside its usual genre and into something a little more grown-up, and a little more supernatural, but never loses sight of the heart, humor, and kooky horror that have kept us all double-snapping for decades.

Wednesday hits Netflix on November 23, which is — appropriately — a Wednesday.

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Wednesday review – Tim Burton’s witty Addams Family spin-off is perfect

This Netflix series transports Wednesday Addams into a whole new fantasy realm of her own. It’s creepy, charming and has a lead who more than matches Christina Ricci

I don’t know what the world’s coming to. You denude one bullying high-school jock of just one testicle (at a swim meet, with piranhas) and suddenly you’re packed off to a boarding school full of weirdos and outcasts.

My heart goes out to young Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), whose fate this is in the opening scenes of the latest Addams Family reinvention – a Netflix series simply called Wednesday. Ortega has the toughest of acts to follow. Christina Ricci defined the part in The Addams Family then stepped equally definitively up to the plate as the superbly unengaged ur-goth girl in Addams Family Values in 1993. But Ortega holds her own, despite two issues Ricci didn’t have to face. First, Wednesday is now a teen which means none of the deadpan, sarky responses hold quite the same charge as they did coming from a prepubescent. Second, she has to leaven it with some humanity so she can grow over an eight-hour series that is part horror story and part murder mystery but mostly a coming-of-age tale with classic tropes of high-school drama. Ricci played affectless to perfection, but she was in an ensemble cast and only had to hold our attention for a few scenes at a time. Ortega has to keep us with her all the way – and she does.

So, Wednesday enacts her piscatory revenge on the boys who were picking on little brother Pugsley, and, after the resultant expulsion, is sent to Nevermore Academy – the alma mater of her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The school is run by an icily unsettling headteacher Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), who was also a pupil there with Morticia, and who makes her mutinous new charge roommate with peppy student Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). “Are you OK?” says Enid at their introduction. “You look a bit pale.” If looks could kill, Wednesday would have been a very short series indeed. Their dorm mother, Miss Thornhill – played by Ricci herself, as if in benediction – visits them in the evening to see how they’re getting on. “She’s been smothering me with hospitality,” Wednesday assures her. “I hope to return the favour. In her sleep.”

Enid gives her a Clueless/Mean Girls-style tour of Nevermore’s cliques – there are the Fangs (vampires), Furs (werewolves), Stoners (gorgons) and Scales (sirens – led by the meanest girl Bianca, played with terrifying aplomb by Joy Sunday). She also offers tips for navigating her new school and introductions to some of the characters that will become central to the mysteries Wednesday will soon find herself investigating. These include: a number of killings in the local town of Jericho and surrounding woodland by what the police are finding it increasingly hard to deny must be a monster; possible attempts on Wednesday’s own life; the suggestion that her father Gomez (Luis Guzmán) committed murder himself in his youth; and whatever Wednesday’s visions – seemingly fragments of the future – are trying to tell her. Oh, and what of the sketches inside the books in the secret basement that seem to show the future? And student artist Xavier (Percy Hynes White), who can make his pictures come alive? And, don’t tell me there’s nothing more to Dr Kinbott (Riki Lindhome), the therapist in charge of Wednesday’s court-mandated counselling sessions, than meets the eye.

There are also teenage crushes, nascent relationships, a prom, secret societies and other “normie” stuff to negotiate. But, creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar also gave us Smallville , and know how to handle multiple plotlines crisscrossing the real and supernatural worlds. Plus, the show’s main director is Tim Burton, who knows a bit about this kind of thing too – and gives the whole thing the eldritch-tinged aesthetic it needs.

It loses something by not setting Wednesday against normality, as the films did, and by having a more fissured version of the Addams clan. The love and unity of the family against the world was always one of the great pleasures, in whatever incarnation you met them. But it has enough wit, charm and propulsive energy for that not to matter as much as it might have. Certainly, the 11-year-old I keep on hand to test programmes aimed at the younger demographic was rapt for the whole series, and proclaimed himself deeply satisfied by both its resolutions and its cliffhanger.

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One last point. Another great strength of the films was that the Addams parents (Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia) were still hot for each other and each as idiosyncratically attractive as the other. It was such a refreshing change from the standard “comic” arrangement whereby a great beauty is in thrall to an unregenerate schlub. In this pairing, we have regressed entirely. In every scene involving the new Morticia and Gomez, I miss that tiny point of progress more than I would have thought. There are so few that I’m always sorry to see one go.

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Netflix’s Wednesday Is a Huge Hit. I Think I Know Why Critics Hate It.

Sure, it’s a high school drama about teens with powers. your point.

Netflix’s new hit series Wednesday , a Tim Burton–helmed Addams Family spinoff focused on the eponymous deadpan daughter, has captured the record for the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language series on the streamer. The show has been acclaimed by audiences and some critics , longtime lovers of the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky IP (*snap snap*) and vocal fans of lead star Jenna Ortega alike.

But while most critics have praised Ortega and other incredible ancillary performances , some have hit Wednesday with the TV writer’s classic weapon: They’ve called it “ like something on The CW .” The CW, the love child of former networks UPN and the WB, hosts many DC superhero shows and specializes in deliciously melodramatic adolescent dramas that often have fantasy elements—like The Vampire Diaries (a teen girl finds herself in the center of a vampire love triangle) or The Secret Circle ( a teen girl discovers she’s a descendant of a long line of witches). The network has put youthful, soapy twists on familiar IP in the past, at times darkening the tone—think Riverdale (which brought serial killers and cults to the Archie comics) and Nancy Drew (whose CW incarnation semiregularly communes with the dead to solve her cases). Naturally, due to its reputation as a reliable purveyor of teenage histrionics with a touch of the supernatural, the network and its products have been relegated to the status of guilty pleasure.

This is why Wednesday doubters have used “It’s like the CW” as shorthand. It’s a way to belittle the series for reproducing what they see as the CW’s classic failings: unoriginal or predictable plots, unrealistic and juvenile dialogue, and an overly heavy reliance on what Collider calls “boilerplate subplots,” including “rival-school drama, sins-of-the-parents revelations, [and] romantic competition.” According to Collider, this renders Wednesday “algorithmically derivative”; to CBR , it’s “disappointingly conventional.” Though the Hollywood Reporter acknowledges that the series proves that you could write a show about the impassively morbid Wednesday Addams using classic YA dramedy tropes, it backhands its near compliment by asking, “But why would you?”

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Uh … for many reasons! There’s nothing guilt-worthy about finding pleasure in the machinations of a CW teen romp. Teen soaps are for adult viewers too. The romantic tension is palpable enough to give you butterflies, and the school depictions are far-fetched enough that they make high school seem more fun than your actual experience. The actors are usually hot enough to make you forget about any character imperfections, or their characters are endearing enough that you love them anyway; if you hit the jackpot, you can get both . Also, these so-called unoriginal themes are in nearly every story—everyone loves rivalry and angst over parents. What? You think your beloved little dragon show isn’t chock-full of those things?

Wednesday doesn’t “drag what should be regarded as higher-level Netflix-quality content down to The CW’s level,” as Decider argues, but rather takes an impassive young character we all know and puts her in situations that give her a greater tolerance of the human condition. And this is funny—because she so desperately hates humanity. Wednesday elevates the always-a-bit-inscrutable character of Wednesday Addams, juxtaposing her penchant for the grisly and grotesque against the fanciful playstuff of overwrought YA melodrama. This makes Wednesday more amusingly relatable, and the melodrama more understandable.

We see Wednesday stuck in a love triangle, unsure how to navigate new feelings of romantic attraction; she grows to understand that not everyone is useless and moronic: not her colorful roommate (Emma Myers), not the queen bee at school (Joy Sunday), and especially not her parents (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, who aren’t in the show much but nevertheless strike Wednesday as needlessly overbearing). Wednesday saves lives and goes to her first school dance, all while dealing with a complicated familial history of oppression … not to mention a new superpower. (There’s always a new superpower.) And in the end, Wednesday does that satisfying thing where the friendships end up mattering more than the romances. Wednesday starts the show as an outcast and ends it as an Outcast , having truly found friendship and made a home with other like-minded social strays.

The CW has a knack for making shows that play on all these time-worn tropes, and make you fall for them enough that you don’t mind the fact that you saw them coming. You always get at least one of two things: a problem to solve (the shows love a mystery plot, which also plays out in Wednesday ), or a world for you to escape into (I’ve already waxed poetic about my love for Nancy Drew ). These shows tackle important things too, such as mental health , racial profiling and class , grief , and sexual assault .

Among all the critics, Inverse got it right: This modern-day exploration of Wednesday Addams as a teenager works well when it employs the usual devices and tactics of a CW drama. It’s got all of the meaning and shenanigans of a coming-of-age tale, combined with all of the morose whimsicality we would expect from a Tim Burton adaptation of The Addams Family . Wednesday , much like the protagonist it’s named for, is being what it wants to be without giving a damn what you think. And I, for one, couldn’t be happier to binge it all.

Wednesday (2022– )

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REVIEW: Wednesday Strands an Iconic Character in a Mediocre Supernatural Teen Drama

Wednesday herself remains distinctive, but nearly everything else about the Netflix series Wednesday feels conventional rather than strange and fun.

A pair of goth icons find themselves trapped in a generic supernatural teen drama in Netflix's Wednesday . Both director Tim Burton and The Addams Family daughter Wednesday Addams get lost in this plot-heavy series set at a boarding school for "outcasts." It's a bit Gossip Girl and a bit Harry Potter , along with decades' worth of forgettable The CW series, held together mainly by Jenna Ortega's pitch-perfect performance as the title character.

Wednesday herself remains distinctive, but nearly everything else about Wednesday could fit in a series that has nothing to do with The Addams Famil y. There was a lot of buzz about the casting of Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Wednesday's parents Gomez and Morticia, but they only show up in two of Wednesday 's eight episodes, and Fred Armisen makes just one appearance as Uncle Fester. The Addams with the most screen presence aside from Wednesday is Thing, the disembodied hand who becomes Wednesday's trusty sidekick as she investigates strange goings-on at the rural Nevermore Academy.

RELATED: Wednesday Welcomes Christina Ricci and Uncle Fester in Kooky New Trailer

An essential part of the appeal of the Addams family, whether in the 1960s TV series, the 1990s movies from director Barry Sonnenfeld , or the recent animated movies , is the way they stick together, presenting a united front against the world. Wednesday almost immediately breaks them up, as 15-year-old Wednesday is expelled from her latest school after she lets piranhas loose in the pool. Her parents decide to send her to Nevermore, a Vermont enclave where Gomez and Morticia first met when they were students. Wednesday resents being expected to follow in her parents' footsteps, and she's no more comfortable among the oddballs at Nevermore than she was in a mainstream school.

While the Addamses were always known for being "creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky," they've generally existed in a heightened version of the real world. Wednesday changes all that, making Nevermore home to vampires, werewolves, sirens, and other supernatural creatures and giving Wednesday psychic visions that allow her to see the future. Those visions place her right in the middle of an investigation into mysterious monster attacks that have been happening near Nevermore and the adjacent town of Jericho.

RELATED: Netflix's Wednesday Being Latine Is Significant - But Not for the Reasons Fans Think

The overarching supernatural mystery on Wednesday is mildly engaging at best, and creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ( Smallville , The Shannara Chronicles ) limit the comedy to occasional one-liners that Ortega delivers with a perfectly withering deadpan. The rising scream queen ( X , 2022's Scream ) makes for a worthy successor to '90s Wednesday portrayer Christina Ricci . Ricci shows up here in a largely unremarkable role as Marilyn Thornhill, the only "normie" teacher at Nevermore. Gwendoline Christie, as Nevermore principal Larissa Weems, gets the showier adult role, positioned as an adversary for Wednesday.

Burton, whose goth-cute aesthetic perfectly matches Sonnenfeld's movies, directs the first four episodes, but his impact is so minor that the shift to different directors is almost impossible to discern. Wednesday is better than Burton's previous take on a YA-style story about a school for misfits, 2016's dreadful Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children , but it's equally generic -- Ortega's presence aside. Burton's regular collaborators Danny Elfman and Colleen Atwood serve as composer and costume designer, respectively, for the first episode, giving it a bit of Burton's signature ornate style, but they share credits with others in subsequent episodes, and the style becomes less distinctive.

RELATED: Wednesday Addams Has the Best Opening Since Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The genius of cartoonist Charles Addams' original conception of Wednesday is evident in the largely bland supporting cast of fellow Nevermore students and other teens, including a pair of potential love interests for Wednesday. Emma Myers makes the strongest impression as Wednesday's preternaturally perky roommate Enid, an unusually upbeat werewolf who's having trouble with her lycanthropic transformations. Subplots about Wednesday's classmates mostly feel like filler, padding out the episodes in order to prolong the mediocre mystery until the finale.

There are occasional references to past Addams Family productions, including a double snap to open a secret passageway and one of Wednesday's suitors asking "You rang?" like the Addams butler Lurch when she summons him. Jericho is home to colonial-themed attraction Pilgrim World, which offers Wednesday the chance for some dark observations about American history, as in the most memorable scene from Sonnenfeld's Addams Family Values . These superficial touches are no substitute for appearances from the core Addams family members, though, and they come off like perfunctory fan service.

For all the characters' emphasis on the idea that Nevermore students are weird, Wednesday is disappointingly conventional. There's nothing weird about the familiar beats of the serialized mystery or the relationships among the teens at Nevermore. The weirdest moment that Burton offers is a throwaway bit at a school dance when Wednesday finally cuts loose and moves to the music in a kind of retro groovy manner. It has nothing to do with the plot or the worldbuilding, but it's stylish and wry, as Wednesday's stone-faced expression contrasts with her fluid dance moves. That's the kind of morbid goofiness that an Addams Family adaptation should be filled with.

The eight-episode first season of Wednesday premieres Wednesday, Nov. 23 on Netflix.

Review: ‘Wednesday’ Season 1

“Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace. Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go. Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for a living. And the child born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.”

Wednesday Addams — both Charles Addams’s original character and the incarnation seen in Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s new Netflix series Wednesday — was named after the above nursery rhyme. The word “woe” appears in every episode title of the new show, and that’s sadly appropriate for a series determined to be as cold and dour as possible. Though the cast is stellar, with star Jenna Ortega and the delightfully arch Gwendoline Christie serving as standouts, the writing falters. A convoluted mystery, generic hijinks that miss the point of the Addams Family entirely, and shockingly out-of-touch ideas about race, gender, and sexuality make Wednesday a missed opportunity to bring a new classic to the creepy and kooky family’s live-action legacy. It bears repeating that Ortega shines brightly as the titular character, because her efforts, up to and including viral dance scenes, are nearly the only things that save the series from itself. 

When Wednesday gets kicked out of Nancy Reagan High for dropping bags of piranha into a swimming pool where the boys who bullied her brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) are swimming, she is expelled and forced to enroll in Nevermore Academy, where her father Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) attended school and fell in love with each other. The piranha sequence is a highlight of the series, underscoring everything that people love about the ‘90s Barry Sonnenfeld films: morbid humor, wicked sociopolitical commentary, cartoonish violence, and the Addamses getting retribution against those who harm them. Sadly, the majority of the series can’t live up to this strong opening,. Once Wednesday arrives at Nevermore, a school for “outcasts” (try to keep track of how many times the show uses the word “outcast” or “normie” — just don’t turn it into a drinking game), the show becomes a disappointing mishmash of Veronica Mars , Chilling Adventures of Sabrina , and Harry Potter . Wednesday becomes embroiled in a murder mystery, which is tied up in a monster mystery, which is itself tied up in a prophecy involving Wednesday and her witch ancestor. 

If any of these mysteries worked on their own, the series might stand on stronger footing, but they are simultaneously too easily solved and too convoluted. Worse still, each one is wrapped up in a shallow, blinkered exploration of colonialism and straight white privilege. Nevermore Academy is located in Jericho, Vermont (which is clearly a Romanian set tragically awash in omnipresent shades of grey and blue). Jericho is home to Pilgrim World, a celebration of all things related to religious extremism and — as Wednesday rightly points out — genocide. Fans of Addams Family Values might perk up at this point, hoping for another righteous takedown of colonialism and the lies white people tell themselves about their history in North America. Unfortunately, Wednesday’s truth-telling is just a fleeting moment. The “normies” who support Pilgrim World include its Black owner, Mayor Noble Walker (Tommie Earl Jenkins), and his son Lucas (Iman Marson). Lucas’s introduction on the series includes a bizarre moment when he threatens Wednesday with sexual violence. (Wednesday is an accomplished fighter, however, and she dispatches Lucas and his two friends, though Tim Burton’s direction muddles the fight scene to the point where you have to watch it a few times to piece together what would have otherwise been an impressive bit of stunt work.) Presenting a Black man as the owner of a theme park devoted to colonialism, and having his son be a bully who threatens small girls, is just one of the many wrong-headed decisions Wednesday makes. 

In an attempt at a classic Odd Couple moment, Wednesday ends up with a roommate named Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), a Luna Lovegood type who loves rainbows, chit-chat, and hugs…all of the things that Wednesday despises. When Enid takes Wednesday on a tour of the school, she tells her that “Nevermore was founded in 1791 to educate people like us: outcasts, freaks, monsters; fill in your favorite marginalized group here.” For a show that wants to tackle racism, religious extremism, genocide, and other forms of oppression, it’s laughably offensive to gloss over actually marginalized groups in favor of the generic “outcasts” and “freaks.” It’s in keeping with Burton’s whitewashed goth approach to film, but it has no place in an Addams Family adaptation. The Addamses are Latinx themselves, and Wednesday’s ancestor Goody Addams (also played by Ortega) — who never gets a first name — is a Mexican woman living in what would become Vermont. The script occasionally allows Wednesday to point out real injustice, but it also pulls regrettable stunts with a shoehorned-in #MeToo subplot involving Morticia. The script actually has her tell Mayor Walker — a Black man living in the United States — that since he’s a man, he’s never been in a position where people didn’t believe him about something. The Addamses may be historically kooky, but they are not oblivious to political reality, and it’s a disservice to both the character and the audience to have Morticia be so obtuse and espouse such a white feminist idea. 

The students at Nevermore are divided into cliques — fangs, furs, scales, etc. — depending on what kind of “monster” they are. Enid is a werewolf (a fur, obviously), but she’s a “late bloomer” who can’t “wolf out” like the rest of her friends and family. Enid’s character is a clear stand-in for a queer allegory. She has white-blonde hair with blue and pink ends, going as far as possible to wear a trans pride flag on her head without affixing a literal piece of cloth to her body. (She also wears a sweater that could easily double as a lesbian pride flag.) Her mother tells her that they are sending her to a conversion therapy camp — yes, the character uses those exact words — to help her wolf out so she can go through the proper form of puberty and express her identity in an acceptable way. The idea of conversion therapy, a form of abuse that causes immense harm to its victims in real life, is never interrogated on the show. Later on in the season, Enid wolfs out fully when she has to protect Wednesday, and the looming threat of conversion therapy is simply abandoned. So too is Enid’s queer coding: rather than confessing her feelings for Wednesday, which had been hinted at throughout the season, she ends up romantically involved with a male classmate. Enid’s queer coding — her fondness for rainbows and trans color scheme, her infatuation with and loyalty to Wednesday, the mention of conversion therapy and all its implications — was either a bait and switch meant to satisfy queer viewers, or it was a half-baked attempt at sociopolitical commentary that didn’t have the courage or the ability to go where it needed to go. 

It is this pathetic approach to social commentary that gives the show’s narrative the air of being poorly thought out. If your understanding of Wednesday Addams begins and ends with the fact that she’s a goth girl and an outsider, you end up with the underdeveloped Wednesday and its waste of a talented cast and crew. The show has “great gowns, beautiful gowns”: Colleen Atwood’s costume design is outstanding, Danny Elfman and Chris Bacon’s music is suitably macabre and witty, and Jenna Ortega cements herself as a star on the rise. Her Wednesday is deadpan but never boring; Ortega keeps her expressive eyes and mouth controlled but never lacking in personality. When Wednesday can’t suppress a grin, you can feel the emotion come from deep within her. Even when her face appears stoic, Ortega’s eyes show Wednesday’s sharp intelligence and immense depth of feeling. Wednesday Addams has never been an emotionless character. Like her mother, she feels quite keenly; she just doesn’t let anyone else in on her secret inner life. To let other people know you is to be vulnerable, and vulnerability (or weakness, as Wednesday sees it) is the enemy. 

Ortega understands Wednesday intimately. She’s clearly done her research, even choreographing the outstanding routine Wednesday performs at a school dance. The viral dance is emblematic of the series itself, both in its positives and its negatives. Wednesday occasionally seems designed for virality — a montage in the pilot of Wednesday playing “Paint It Black” on her cello is a crowd-pleaser designed for social media shares, as is the now-ubiquitous “Goo Goo Muck” dance. Prioritizing social media palatability over thematic cohesion might have worked in Wednesday ’s favor ratings-wise (though who can say, given how tight-lipped Netflix is about such things), but it harms the actual quality of the series. Also, while the dance itself is choreographed well (Ortega is self-deprecating about the routine, but she impresses both as a dancer and a choreographer), it is not shot well. Burton (who also directed the episode featuring the incoherent fight scene) frames Ortega poorly, chopping up the routine so that we can barely tell what her body is doing when that should be the entire focus of the scene. Ortega throws in a nod to Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday from the 1964 sitcom, that’s barely visible due to Burton’s direction. Like the series itself, the dance scene is a star turn from Ortega that the showrunners fumble at every opportunity. It is only Ortega’s talent and charisma that salvage it. 

Wednesday Addams has always been a fan favorite, so it’s no surprise that she would get a modern YA treatment. That’s part of the problem, though. The show does little to distinguish itself from better and more interesting YA series, choosing instead to rest on its IP laurels while simultaneously misunderstanding the wit and charm of the Addams Family. The cast does its best, especially the tremendous Ortega, but they can’t overcome the overwrought and underbaked writing, particularly its egregious mishandling of issues pertaining to race, sexuality, and gender. Wednesday’s child is full of woe, and so is Wednesday itself.

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Is Wednesday Ranked Higher On Rotten Tomatoes Than Other Addams Family Movies?

How does the Rotten Tomatoes ranking of Netflix's Wednesday compare to other movies about the beloved Addams Family characters?

When Netflix's The Addams Family spin-off Wednesday premiered, fans were eager to check it out, and it definitely got some buzz. Opinions on the series are mixed. Some say that it's fun and others don't think that it feels like the Addams Family, but everyone agrees on how talented Jenna Ortega is. Wednesday is given the same nostalgic look that fans are used to, but she gets involved in some brand new situations at Nevermore Academy, the school that she is anything than pleased to be attending. Even though Gomez and Morticia had a great experience there, Wednesday would rather be anywhere else.

It's fun to see how Wednesday stacks up on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the '90s movies about this dark family and the 2019 and 2021 computer generated films. Does Wednesday have a higher ranking?

RELATED: Jenna Ortega Talks Similarities Between Her and Wednesday Addams

There are many versions of Wednesday from The Addams Family and it's interesting to compare how each film has fared on Rotten Tomatoes. While some critics think that Jenna Ortega is the best part of Wednesday , it turns out that the show has a higher Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score than other Addams Family projects. It has a 72% score on the Tomatometer and an 88% Average Audience Score. These are both really high given some of the reviews.

In contrast, The Addams Family 1991 movie has 67% on the Tomatometer and a 66% Audience Score. The sequel, The Addams Family Values, which was released in 1993, is the only film to have a higher Tomatometer ranking than Wednesday at 73%. It has a lower Audience Score, though, of only 63%. The Addams Family Reunion , which was released in 1998, might be the least popular of the franchise. It doesn't even have a Tomatometer score and has a 33% Audience Score which is super low. It's interesting that the 1991 movie ranks pretty low given how great Christina Ricci is as Wednesday. It's fun seeing Ricci in the Wednesday cast as Marilyn Thornhill.

Both of the computer-generated Addams Family films have fairly low Rotten Tomatoes rankings. The Addams Family , which was released in 2019 and has Charlize Theron as the voice of Morticia Addams and Chloe Grace Mortez as the voice of Wednesday Adams, only has 45% and 69%. The Addams Family 2 , which was released in 2021 , did even worse on Rotten Tomatoes. It has 28% on the Tomatometer and a 69% Audience Score.

What explains Wednesday 's high Average Audience Score? It's possible to argue that while fans and critics do wish that there were more Addams Family vibes in the Netflix series, it's still an enjoyable viewing experience. Wednesday has well-drawn characters and Wednesday 's funniest quotes are spot-on. It's also fun to see Jenna Ortega, the Scream Queen of 2022 , continue to thrive in her acting career. After playing Ellie Alvarez in You and Tara Carpenter in Scream (2022) , Ortega shows that she can take on basically any role and excel.

What might explain the low Rotten Tomatoes ratings for the other Addams Family films? For one thing, the movies were made in the early 1990s and it's possible to say that they feel a bit dated by now. The 2019 and 2021 movies also didn't strike a chord with fans the way that the '90s movies did, with many preferring the earlier ones.

It's also interesting to note that the reviews of the 1991 The Addams Family weren't amazing. While the film explores the great relationship between Morticia and Gomez Addams , it didn't impress critics all that much. For fans, it's just fun and campy enough, and it's endlessly entertaining to see how this family differs from other ones.

While some Addams Family fans aren't completely happy with Wednesday, its high Audience Score could be because it works at a standalone show. Those who aren't super familiar with the franchise might genuinely enjoy it. Nevermore Academy has the same vibe of Hogwarts and the students are different since they each have magical abilities or something that makes them stick out. At Nevermore, their uniqueness is celebrated, which is a nice, positive message to see.

There are also some fun storylines focused on the monster, an annual boat race at the school, and a visit to a pioneer village where every student has to volunteer. While these things might make Wednesday feel like any other teenage horror show , they are still great plotlines.

While The Addams Family Values has a slightly higher Tomatometer ranking than Wednesday , the Netflix spin-off definitely has a higher Audience Score, which suggests that even if there are some problems, the show is generally considered to be solid. If the show is given a second season renewal, it will be interesting to see the reaction to those new episodes.

NEXT: The Addams Family: 7 Things You Might Not Know About Wednesday

Screen Rant

Wednesday season 2 adds westworld star.

Wednesday season 2 has added a cast member from Westworld to its sophomore season, as it gears up for new episodes coming out next year.

Wednesday Season 2 Won't Premiere Until 2025

• Thandiwe Newton joins Wednesday season 2.
• The details of her character have not yet been revealed.
• Wednesday season 2 also recently announced the addition of Steve Buscemi to the cast.

Wednesday season 2 will add a new cast member. Wednesday took the world by storm upon its 2022 release, causing viral TikTok trends and huge success for Netflix. Renewed in January of 2023, the production of Wednesday season 2 is underway, with the new season arriving sometime in 2025.

As per Variety , Wednesday season 2 will add Thandiwe Newton to its cast. The exact details of Newton’s character have yet to be revealed. Netflix also did not offer an official comment as to the nature of this casting.

Who Else Is In the Wednesday Season 2 Cast?

With her long background in film television, Newton is a great addition to the Wednesday cast . The actor is best known for playing Maeve Millay in the dystopian sci-fi series Westworld . Newton was nominated for an Emmy for this role three times, winning in 2018. In addition to her acclaimed part as Maeve, Newton has played roles in Crash , Mission: Impossible 2 , The Pursuit of Happyness , and as a voice actor in Big Mouth .

Newton becomes the second new cast member to join Wednesday season 2. The first was Steve Buscemi, whose casting in Wednesday season 2 was announced last week. As in the case of Newton, the nature of Buscemi’s Wednesday role is still under wraps. There is some rumor that he might step in as the new principal of Nevermore, as the role was vacated by the death of Principal Weems. Newton may also play some form of teacher or other Nevermore staff member, but the options are still open.

Buscemi and Newton join a list of recurring characters that have made it out alive after the end of Wednesday season 1 . Those characters include Emma Myers as Enid, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester, Luis Guzmán as Gomez, and Jenna Ortega in the titular role. Ortega is coming off of an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Wednesday season 1, and will likely continue to shine in Wednesday season 2.

Wednesday season 1 is available to watch on Netflix.

Along with the nature of the new roles being kept secret, the exact plot of Wednesday season 2 is also undisclosed. With the show not slated to hit Netflix until 2025, it will likely be a while before more details on the show are revealed. The extent to which recurring characters like Uncle Fester will appear in the sophomore season is also unknown. In the meantime, audiences can be assured that the new Wednesday characters are in good hands with stars like Newton and Buscemi taking on the new parts.

Source: Variety

Netflix’s Addams Family series takes place at Nevermore Academy, a school that nurtures outcasts, freaks, and monsters. The Tim Burton-directed series follows Wednesday Addams as she tries to master her emerging psychic powers and solve the supernatural mystery surrounding her family history. Jenna Ortega stars in the popular series, which originally aired on Netflix on November 23, 2022.

‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Casts Thandiwe Newton (EXCLUSIVE)

By Joe Otterson

Joe Otterson

TV Reporter

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Thandiwe Newton is the latest new cast member to join “ Wednesday ” Season 2 at Netflix .

Variety has learned exclusively from sources that Newton will star in the second season of the megahit series. Exact character details are being kept under wraps. She is the latest new cast member to be revealed, as Variety previously reported that Steve Buscemi will also appear in Season 2.

Reps for Netflix declined to comment.

Popular on Variety

She is repped by WME and Independent Talent Group.

Few details are available about the new season of “Wednesday,” aside from the fact Jenna Ortega will return as the titular Addams Family daughter going through her teenage years. The first season ended with Wednesday successfully solving a series of grisly murders while also thwarting an attempt to destroy Nevermore Academy and its students.

“Wednesday” originally debuted in November 2022 and instantly became a massive hit for Netflix. It ranks as one of the most-watched shows the streamer has ever released and was nominated for 12 Emmys, winning four. Work on Season 2 was delayed due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes that shutdown much of Hollywood in 2023, though production is expected to begin in late April in Ireland.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar created “Wednesday” and also serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Tim Burton directed the first four episodes of Season 1 and is also an executive producer on the series. Steve Stark of Toluca Pictures and Andrew Mittman of 1.21 Entertainment executive produce as well along with Kevin Miserocchi of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman of Glickmania, Gail Berman, Tommy Harper, and Kevin Lafferty. MGM Television is the studio.

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SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU A24’s Civil War is winning the box office skirmish against three wide entries with a second weekend of $11.1M after a $3.25M Friday and $4.6M Saturday. This catapults the Alex Garland political thriller into A24’s top 5.

Civil War earned $1.9M on Imax screens around the globe taking its running total for the large format exhibitor to $8.5M; $2M of that from offshore venues. The film will open on 25 Imax screens across the Middle East this Thursday. Civil War will keep some Imax screens in U.S./Canada for weekend 3.

Meanwhile, everything else is largely coming in under its projections resulting in a blah $68M weekend. Not the lowest year to date, but generally an awful number you don’t want to see the overall marketplace at — and we have diversified product, which is what studios and exhibition whine we should have. And not just any kind of product, but movies with great reviews and great audience responses. What gives? Why? It’s the same old, same old post pandemic excuse: Many cheap out on their marketing, avoiding solid box office figures so they can slide a title into home entertainment windows and profit ASAP. We’re clearly in a world now where profitability and the optics of success mean two different things.

Says Universal Domestic Distribution Chief Jim Orr this AM, “Abigail  took a very nice bite out of the domestic box office this weekend with audience and critical reaction scores that point to a longer run at the domestic box office than the genre normally provides.  Alisha Weir is simultaneously charming and terrifying as our ballerina, enthralling audiences around the world.”

Lionsgate’s A- CinemaScore, 88% PostTrak Guy Ritchie directed, mouthful of a title, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is coming in at singles digits with $9M after a $3.7M Friday — in fourth. The Henry Cavill movie is getting inched out by weekend 4 of Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire which is looking to come in at $9.455M . The movie was financed by Black Bear. Lionsgate per sources paid a minimum guarantee in the teens with a low $20M marketing commitment. Lionsgate also took a distribution fee, which I understand isn’t uncommon on some indie pick-ups even if the distributor put out an MG. Lionsgate also gets some backend. While a single digit opening isn’t the sexiest thing in the world, the m.o. here is for theatrical to recoup the studio’s P&A, then PVOD and home entertainment will cover the MG and hopefully get the movie to breakeven or black at least in Lionsgate’s ledgers.

Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare drew 59% men with 44% between 18-34 and 54% of the audience over 35. Biggest demo was 25-34 which showed up at close to a third. Diversity demos were 56% Caucasian, 20% Latino and Hispanic, 9% Asian and 8% Black. Pic played even across the country but best in the South, South Central & West with the AMC Burbank the No. 1 venue with $24K-plus. PLFs contributed 18% of the gross.   

The Sony Crunchyroll Toho movie, Spy x Family Code: White made $2.2M Friday for what’s looking like a $4.875M weekend at 2,009. Clearly not everything Crunchyroll does is Dragon Ball Z in fifth. The pic gets an A CinemaScore and 92% PostTrak. Guy leaning at 57% with 76% of the audience between 18-34 and 25-34 showing up the most at a near 50%. Diversity demos were 41% Caucasian, 26% Asian, 22% Latino and Hispanic and 8% Black. Spy x Family Code: White played on the coasts with NYC AMC Empire drawing $20K-plus, the best venue for the pic in the nation. The anime title shared Imax screens which delivered 14% of the gross.

Bleecker Street’s second weekend of Nathan and David Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset which world premiered at Sundance and counts 71% fresh in reviews expended in weekend 2 from nine theaters last weekend to 856 locations saw $453K and a running total of $566K . Rotten Tomatoes audiences are only at 37% for this Jesse Eisenberg-Riley Keough Big Foot movie with decent grosses in Toronto, Denver, LA, NYC, Raleigh and San Antonio, Chicago and not a ton else going on.

Next weekend we have Luca Guadagnino’s Zendaya sexy tennis romcom, Challengers, which will have 276 Imax screens, as well as Lionsgate’s Unsung Hero and Roadside Attraction’s Boy Kills World . Hopefully that makes for more action than this weekend.

Chart is updated with Sunday figures:

1.) Civil War (A24) 3,929 (+91) theaters, Fri $3.25M (-70%) Sat $4.6M Sun $3.1M 3-day $11.1M (-56%), Total $44.8M /Wk 2

2.) Abigail (Uni) 3,384 theatres, Fri $4M Sat $3.7M Sun $2.4M, 3-day $10.2M /Wk 1

4.) Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (LG) 2,845 theaters, Fri $3.7M, 3-day $9M /Wk 1

5.) Spy x Family Code: White (Crunch) 2,040 theaters, Fri $2.2M, Sat $1.5M, Sun $1.1M, 3-day $4.875M /Wk 1

6.) Kung Fu Panda 4 (Uni) 2,955 (-149) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-19%) Sat $2.1M Sun $1.3M 3-day $4.6M (-17%), Total $180M /Wk 7

7.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) 3,109 (-241) theaters, Fri $1M (-26%) Sat $2M Sun $1.2M 3-day $4.4M (-23%), Total $102.9M /Wk 5

8.) Dune: Part Two (Leg/WB) 2,014 (-387) theaters, Fri $800K (-33%) $1.2M Sun $830K 3-day $2.9M (-33%), Total $276.5M /Wk 8

9.) Monkey Man (Uni) 2,641 (-396) theaters, Fri $680K (-46%) Sat $920K Sun $600K 3-day $2.2M (-46%), Total $21.6M /Wk 3

10.) The First Omen (20th) 2,430 (-945) theaters, Fri $530K (-54%) Sat $730K Sun $440K 3-day $1.7M (-55%) Total $17.7M /Wk 3

UPDATED, Friday midday: Mish mosh at the box office with A24’s second weekend of Civil War at $3.5 million Friday and $11M+ for the weekend, and Universal and Radio Silence’s R-rated vampire pic Abigail with $4M today (that includes $1M previews)/ $11M vying for No. 1.

Lionsgate’s Guy Ritchie WWII period action pic The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is eyeing $3.9M-$4.3M Friday (including $1.45M previews) and $9M-$11M at 2,845 theaters, but many see the movie, which is 92% with Rotten Tomatoes’ audiences, in third place.

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Fourth belongs to Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire at 3,658 locations with a Friday of $2.3M and fourth weekend of $8.5M , off 45%, for a running total of $170.66M . By Sunday, if those figures hold, the latest Legendary Monsterverse title will be pacing 8% behind 2014’s Godzilla , the only installment to click past the $200M mark stateside with $200.6M. It will also officially make New Empire the second highest-grossing installment in the Monsterverse at the domestic B.O., overtaking Kong: Skull Island ‘s $168M.

Fifth this weekend is Sony’s Crunchyroll anime title Spy x Family Code: White with $2M today and a $5M opening. RT critics are 96% fresh on the title while audiences give it a perfect score.

FRIDAY AM: Lionsgate is calling their all-in previews for Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare at $1.45M , however that includes around $600K in advance shows from last weekend in addition to Thursday’s cash. Which means Universal’s Radio Silence vampire movie, Abigail , won Thursday previews with $1M . Meanwhile, Sony Crunchyroll’s anime movie Spy x Family Code: White did $670K from shows that began at 4PM.

The weekend crown is expected to be a game of rock, paper, scissors between Abigail and A24’s second weekend of Civil War at about $12M+ apiece. Civil War led Thursday among pics in regular release with $1.6M, -14% from Wednesday, for a first week of $33.1M at 3,838 theaters.

Civil War is sharing Imax screens with Spy x Family Code: White, the latter which will do in the single digits.

Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire booked at 3,847 saw a third Thursday of $893K, -3% from Wednesday for a week of $19.7M and a running total of $162.1M.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire at 3,350 finished week 4 with $7.3M after a $372K Thursday, -1%.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 at 3,104 sites finished week 6 with an estimated $7.2M, running total of $175.3M after a $423K Thursday, +6% from Wednesday.

Legendary/Warner’s Dune: Part Two at 2,401 finished week 7 with $5.9M, after a $365K Thursday, -7% from Wednesday and a running total of $273.6M.

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5 top new movies to stream this week on Netflix, Shudder and more April (23-29)

“Anyone But You”, “Monkey Man” and more are streaming this week

It’s set to be a slightly quieter week for new movies but there’s still a handful of exciting flicks arriving on the best streaming services and it’s Netflix that’s taking the spotlight with two noteworthy offerings landing on the popular streaming platform. 

This week will see “Anyone But You” arrive on Netflix. This glossy rom-com stars two of Hollywood’s biggest rising talents, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, and is a bit of a throwback to the type of movie that dominated the cinematic landscape in the early 2000s. The big-red streamer is also offering a divisive erotic thriller that features another in-vogue actor, Jenna Ortega. Plus, the next few days will also see some big movies arrive on premium streaming including Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man”. 

If you’re looking for the freshest streaming movies this week then check out the full list below. And be sure to also browse the new TV shows to watch this week as well. 

'Anyone But You' (Netflix) 

“Anyone But You” is the type of high-profile romantic comedy that used to dominate Hollywood, but has increasingly become confined to streaming services in recent years. That’s what made this movie’s box office success at the tail end of 2023 so refreshing, but if you missed “Anyone But You” in theaters now is your chance to enjoy it at home. 

Starring two impossibly attractive leads, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, this rom-com starts as many do, with a case of miscommunication. Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell) enjoy an enchanted first date before a misunderstanding spoils their budding romance. Brought back together at a destination wedding, their constant bickering threatens to ruin the occasion and the emergence of their respective exes only complicates matters further. Naturally, Bea and Ben make the only logical decision, they decide to pretend to be a couple for the weekend. What they didn’t expect was real sparks to fly …. 

Stream on Netflix from April 23

'Monkey Man' (PVOD) 

“Monkey Man” marks the directorial debut of Dev Patel, and the multi-talented performer not only takes charge behind the camera but also stars in this violent revenge thriller. Patel plays an unnamed protagonist, who moonlights as a combatant in an underground fighting ring. However, the kid’s nighttime activities are just a means to an end, as he’s hellbent on revenge against the city's elite leaders who are responsible for a traumatic childhood event and continue to victimize the poor and powerless. 

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Much more than “John Wick in Mumbai” (as it’s been crudely described by some), “Monkey Man” is an explosive and extremely violent action thriller with a powerful performance from Patel adding emotional stakes. However, while the character drama is engaging, it’s the tightly choreographed fight scenes that steal the show. Patel proves very capable of putting together action sequences that are dynamic, memorable and, best of all, extremely creative. “Monkey Man” is a real gem.  

Buy or rent on Amazon from April 23

'Miller’s Girl' (Netflix) 

“Miller’s Girl” brings together Jenna Ortega (star of Netflix’s popular “Wednesday” series) and Martin Freeman for an erotic thriller that asks some very uncomfortable questions. Ortega plays Cairo Sweet, an 18-year-old, completing her senior year of high school. Taking a creative writing class taught by Jonathan Miller (Freeman), an author struggling to write anything new, a class project becomes increasingly inappropriate as the lines between teacher and student start to blur. 

“Miller’s Girl” has courted controversy pretty much since its first trailer dropped. The large age difference between its two leads, and the subject matter of a forbidden affair, has understandably caused some fallout. The critics weren’t especially kind to this thriller either, it holds a poor 29% on Rotten Tomatoes . However, viewers were little kinder at 42%, and Ortega’s strong screen presence helps carry the weaker elements, so if you're curious to see what all the fuss is about then you just might want to give “Miller’s Girl” a chance. Just be sure to keep your expectations in check. 

Stream on Netflix from April 25

'Infested' (Shudders) 

Horror-focused streaming service Shudder is on a bit of a hot streak right now. Last week it offered “Late Night with the Devil”, a refreshing found footage horror that earned critical acclaim when it debuted in theaters last month. And the scary movie streamer is following up that excellent addition with “Infested”, which looks set to be another can't-miss chiller. Critics have been similarly enthusiastic about this creeping movie, it currently holds a very strong 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes . 

The movie centers on Kaleb (Théo Christine), a lonely guy about to turn 30 years old. He’s currently locked in a family argument with his sister over an inheritance that has also led to his best friend cutting ties. Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb brings home a venomous spider (as you do), and you won’t shocked to hear it soon escapes. Quickly reproducing, these creepy arachnids turn Kaleb’s apartment building into a massive spider web and a battle for survival begins.  

Stream on Shudder starting April 26

'Love Lies Bleeding' (PVOD) 

Director Rose Glass made one heck of an impression with her directorial debut, “Saint Maud," in 2019. Now, the British filmmaker returns with her eagerly-anticipated follow-up, “Love Lies Bleeding” which hit theaters in March and is now limbering up for its streaming debut. Swapping the psychological horror of her first feature, for a more pulpy thriller with a romantic heart, this over-the-top flick is no less impressive. Glass has assembled a strong cast with Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris all involved.  

The movie focuses on the relationship between a reclusive gym manager named Lou (Stewart) and an up-and-coming bodybuilder, Jackie (O’Brian). On her way to Las Vegas to achieve her dreams, Jackie was supposed to be just passing through. But also feeling an attraction, she gets a little sidetracked. While Lou and Jackie grow closer, their romance brings unexpected violence, as the web of Lou’s criminal family threatens to consume them both.  

Buy or rent on Amazon from April 26

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Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team. 

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Weekend Box Office

Weekend box office results: civil war earns highest opening weekend for a24, alex garland's unsettling thriller dethrones godzilla x kong , but can it surpass everything everywhere all at once as a24's highest-grossing film overall.

TAGGED AS: Box Office , movies , news

Going to movie theaters bring people together. They can also polarize them after leaving, depending on what they saw. So what better movie to offer the best of both worlds than the new film from Alex Garland? Because no one has ever been polarized in their thinking after watching Annihilation or Men . By next weekend, his latest film will have outgrossed all of his previous films, but moviegoers may be more divided than ever.

King of the Crop: Civil War Earns Highest Opening Weekend for A24

We kid, of course, to play into the rhetoric around Garland’s Civil War . The film’s initial high Tomatometer score from SXSW has come back to Earth a little, but the majority of critics are still very much in favor of it, as evidenced by its Certified Fresh status. Audiences are a little less enthralled but still overall satisfied with 77% Audience Score, but a “B-“ from the Cinemascore crowd, the first grade of its kind for 2024 and the first since Ridley Scott’s film about a tyrannical leader named Napoleon . Still, folks spent $25.7 million to give A24 its highest opening weekend ever, a record previously held by Ari Aster’s Hereditary ($13.5 million). Already, Civil War is the ninth highest-grossing film in the company’s history, and by the end of next weekend, it should be at least sixth and on its way to becoming its second. Or could it be A24’s No. 1?

Gross is one thing, but with a $50 million budget (and possibly higher), it’s going to take some other countries delighting in America destroying itself for this film to prove profitable. It would also take some incredible word of mouth for Civil War to stretch towards overcoming the $77+ million of Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once . But it is not unheard of for an April film with an opening like this to achieve that goal.

Mel Gibson’s We Were Soldiers did it back in 2002 with just a $20 million opening. The Christian music film I Can Only Imagine did it with a $23 million start. If these two groups can just get together, there’s no telling what can be achieved. Then again, that “B-“ grade looms over it. But looking at last year’s grades of its ilk, horror films including The Boogeyman , Thanksgiving , Cocaine Bear , and Meg 2: The Trench all had multiples over 2.75 (while The Pope’s Exorcist , Renfield , and Last Voyage of the Demeter were all under 2.23), so maybe horror of all types sell, as someone once told me — even if that hasn’t been the case in 2024 so much with Night Swim , Imaginary , and The First Omen . Civil War has a little old-fashioned war to deal with next weekend, along with some fresh horror, but the calendar is also pretty light until we get into May and should allow the discourse to maybe drive a little curiosity until then.

The Top 10 and Beyond:  Godzilla x Kong Slips,  Monkey Man and The First Omen Drop

After two weeks at the top, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire falls back to second place with $15.4 million. That brings its 17-day total to $157.9 million, which is not far away from displacing Kong: Skull Island to become the second highest-grossing film in the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse. Does it have a shot at 2014’s Godzilla ? That would mean getting over $200 million, and that could be close. Its third weekend is in the vicinity of John Wick: Chapter 4 ($14.4 million) but is also $10 million ahead of its overall pace. That suggests a final gross possibly right below $200 million. It is going to want to stay above $8 million in its fourth weekend to keep that pace going. Warner Bros. would certainly love to achieve that, but with over $400 million worldwide, the film is already a success and should ensure another entry. Speaking of which, the studio’s Dune: Part Two added another $4.3 million and is now up to $272 million domestic and $673 million worldwide.

In third place with just $5.9 million is the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in its fourth weekend. The film is at $96.9 million and inching its way towards $100 million. That’s a better fourth frame than either 10,000 B.C. or A Wrinkle in Time ($4.8 million each), suggesting it could still have a chance at getting over $110 million. It would at least like to stretch over $112.4 million to pass Ghostbusters II to avoid having the lowest-grossing domestic haul of the franchise. (Of course, with inflation, that sequel would have made about $283 million.) But it is going to have the lowest worldwide haul by a lot. With still less than $150 million, it is almost certain to become the first to not gross over $200 million worldwide.

Universal’s Kung Fu Panda 4 fell just 29% to $5.5 million. That brings its total to $173.6 million. The animated film is also over $425 million worldwide and could be the first in the franchise not to reach half-a-billion. But by carrying a lower price tag ($85 million) than the other three films, it is currently the most profitable film of 2024 so far. The studio’s pickup of Dev Patel’s Monkey Man isn’t doing as well, though, falling nearly 60% down to $4.1 million in its second weekend. That’s $17.7 million in the bank for that film. Universal also re-released Dreamworks’ Shrek 2 in 1,512 theaters this weekend and it grossed $1.35 million.

In horror news, 20th Century Studios’ prequel The First Omen made $3.7 million over the weekend, bringing its total to $14.6 million. The $30 million budgeted film continues a losing streak for the Disney-acquired company since the massive profits of Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022-23. Alien: Romulus is up next for them in August. The first of two giant spider films debuting this month, Sting , grossed $487,000 in 750 theaters. Arcadian , the Quiet Place -like apocalyptic monster film briefly featuring Nicolas Cage, was in 1,100 theaters and grossed $481,100.

The period high school golf film starring Dennis Quaid and Jay Hernandez, The Long Game , premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival but opened in limited release this past weekend, earning $1.39 million. Trafalgar Releasing put out the concert film by Suga (aka Agust D) of BTS and it grossed $961,015 last Wednesday in 784 theaters. SUGA: Agust D TOUR D-DAY THE MOVIE played again on Sunday and made another estimated $990,881, which was enough in one day to sneak into the top 10 this week.

Last year’s top 10 romance, Someone Like You , fell off the list this week with $849,000. It has grossed $4.8 million. Also falling out just behind it is Mark Wahlberg and the dog, Arthur the King , grossing $840,000 for a total of $23.5 million. Focus’ Housekeeping for Beginners from director Goran Stolevski ( You Won’t Be Alone , Of An Age ) expanded into 75 theaters but grossed just $70,000. His previous films grossed $264,055 and $556,585, respectively. Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast with Lea Seydoux and George MacKay grossed $50,000 after expanding into 23 theaters. It will expand further next week. The best per-theater average of the week looks to go to the Zellner Bros.’ Sasquatch Sunset . The Bleecker Street released grossed an estimated $93,005 in 9 theaters for a $10,333 average. It will expand next weekend.

On the Vine: Abigail Fights  The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Mentioned earlier its more horror and more war. The child vampire home invasion film Abigail from the duo known as Radio Silence ( Ready or Not , Scream 5 and 6 ) is the one to likely bet on for next weekend. Horror fans have been stingy this year, but maybe this is the one they will sink their teeth into. Then, another year, another Guy Ritchie film. This time The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson tells a real-life Inglourious Basterds -like tale of British soldiers recruited to kill Nazis during WWII. Hugo Stiglitz is even in it and is hoping it could supplant Civil War for a second place finish.

Full List of Box Office Results: April 12-14, 2024

• $25.7 million ($25.7 million total)

• $15.4 million ($157.9 million total)
• $5.8 million ($96.9 million total)

• $5.5 million ($173.6 million total)
• $4.3 million ($272.1 million total)
• $4.1 million ($17.7 million total)
• $3.7 million ($14.6 million total)
• $1.39 million ($1.39 million total)
• $1.35 million ($1.35 million total)

• $990,881 ($2.2 million total)

Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on  Business First AM  with Angela Miles and his  Movie Madness Podcast .

[box office figures via  Box Office Mojo ]

Thumbnail image by ©A24

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