Honourable Mention: Wednesday (season 1)

Wednesday was a 2022 reboot of the Addams Family that concentrated on the Wednesday character, portrayed older than the classic vehicles, and played by Jenna Ortega. Of its eight episodes, four were directed by Tim Burton and the series carried his signature Gothic feel.

Starting in a school, Wednesday stands out in her Gothic attire and, having found Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) in her locker, she has a vision of who bullied him, finds them in the swimming baths and releases piranha into the water – subsequently getting expelled.

school tour - the fangs

This forces the family to transfer her to Nevermore Academy a boarding school for Outcasts. This conceit of the series is probably the one that caused the most consternation in fans as a world is drawn divided into Normies and Outcasts – Outcasts being of a supernatural nature. At the school there are four primary groups of Outcasts; Scales (or sirens), Furs (or werewolves), Stoners (or gorgons) and Fangs (or vampires) – plus other Outcasts of a more unique nature. Before I get to the Fangs, let me add my two penn'orth into the debate.

Wednesday and Thing

Whilst one can read the Addams Family as just a strange, dark-facing family and certainly not as outwardly supernatural as the Munsters, it does seem to me that the supernatural element was not only a fit but it has always been there on the periphery. Take Thing (Victor Dorobantu), although originally conceived as a lurking, monstrous presence never seen as it was in the shadows, it became essentially a disembodied forearm (the 60s series) and then a disembodied hand. In this the secret of Thing's animation is referred to as one of the great Addams’ mysteries, it is nevertheless sentient, has a personality and supernatural.

Enid and Wednesday

On to the vampires, however, and to be fair they are probably the least portrayed of the four main groups in the series. Wednesday’s roommate Enid (Emma Myers) is a werewolf, self-appointed queen of the school Bianca (Joy Sunday, Bad Hair) is a siren and we get a lot of siren action, and Enid’s love interest Ajax (Georgie Farmer) is a gorgon and we do see him with his snakes uncovered and a turning to stone. The vampires tend to be more background characters, with the primary one we hear of being Yoko (Naomi J. Ogawa) – and we hear of, but do not see, her taking ill having been slipped garlic. Essentially, they are a fleeting visitation through the series.

Fred Armisen as Fester

As for the series itself, I really did enjoy it. Remembering it is essentially a teen crime solving drama with the supernatural aspect being a flavouring to the proceedings. The family itself were rarely seen but I enjoyed Luis Guzmán as Gomez, with his look being very faithful to the original cartoons, equally Fred Armisen was electric (pun intended) as Uncle Fester in a brief appearance. If I did have a complaint, it was Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance of Morticia, I went in expecting her to really suit the role but she just didn’t gel for me. Standout, of course, was Jenna Ortega as Wednesday, she carried the show with a superb coldness, allowing it to crack every so often. Fleeting vampires but worth your time.

The imdb page is here.