[Film Recommendation] Wednesday Addams

DIRE WARNING: THIS SHORT ARTICLE DOESN'T ACTUALLY SPOIL THE THRILL OF WATCHING THE FILM FOR THE FIRST TIME. IT'S SUPPOSED TO PIQUE YOUR INTEREST JUST ENOUGH SO THAT YOU WATCH THE FILM. NEVERTHELESS, BEWARE - PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

But now that you are here, be welcome.

I watched Wednesday one week after its release on November 23rd, 2022 (which was also a Wednesday), with the intention of nibbling at the movie during the following days, the same way people might nibble at an extravagantly expensive piece of chocolate. I was disappointed - with myself: I gobbled up the entirety of season 1 in approximately two days.

So yes, you may have a hunch that this movie stands in the #1 ranking spot of Netflix's most-watched show for a reason - in fact, for many reasons. We shall now dive into them. Take a deep breath.

Wednesday Addams was born on Friday the 13th. Her name was Wednesday because, as in the nursery rhyme, she was a child of woe.

Being the main character of the movie, she was not afraid to show us her true colours (Two, seemingly: Black and white). Even from the first scene, I was immensely impressed by her radiance: Within ten minutes counting from the intro of the film, she had managed to procure two bags of bloodthirsty piranhas and drop them into the swimming pool of her brother's bullies. Fun fact: One of them ended up losing a testicle, resulting in his family firing charges against Wednesday for attempted murder. Thusly, she was suspended from her 8th school within five years of standard education. The conversation with her parents as they were leaving for a more... suitable educational institution went as such:

And so her journey to a new school began.

Nevermore Academy it was called, an enchanting and magical castle surrounded by thick forest and a nearby town where normal, law-abiding citizens dwelt. There she would be among peers of her own kind - in other words, outcasts, adolescents with magical abilities, which distinguished themselves from "normies"; she would acquire new skills and witness personal development, as well as take daily therapy sessions with a new therapist at the nearby town as requested by the juries at her latest trial. Furthermore, her mother and father went to that very same academy, which meant that Wednesday would be granted a golden opportunity to follow in their footsteps.

Most naturally, she detested both the opportunity and the school. Uninterested in humanity in general and following her parents' lead in particular, Wednesday Addams arrived at Nevermore Academy with a sour face - though it was somewhat difficult to tell if it was any different to her normal facial expression.

Upon her arrival, her intense loathing, if it was even possible, increased further, manifesting in the form of her roommate, whose decoration and fashion choice centred around all the fifty shades of the rainbow, whose bed was filled with stuffed animals of all kinds and fairy lights, and whose personality is overly sweet to the point of tooth-aching. It came as no surprise that within five minutes of introduction they had managed to almost lunge at each other's throat. As the days wore on, with her participation in school activities being mandatory, Wednesday achieved considerable success in making a plethora of enemies and thawing the icy layers of secrets, penetrating into the school's secret societies and the minds of its dwellers, as well as exploring the intricate webs that weaved everyone in town together - typical actions for a 16-year-old girl whose hobby was demonstrating her sword fighting skills by challenging the best in the school to a military challenge (mask off, the first to shed blood wins), and having cello serenades around midnight from her dormitory, at the top of the castle that is the Academy.

But the Wednesday movie, soon to be a classic, wouldn't have come from the brilliant mind of Tim Burton if that was all that could be said about Wednesday Addams. Indeed, throughout the series, viewers would get to witness her personality rose from the dead, growing and manifesting into a beautiful - forbidding, yet beautiful nonetheless - black dahlia flower. Perhaps that's why the series is frighteningly addictive: Starting with a personality and facial expression of a dead body about to be buried, Wednesday Addams would learn, at the Nevermore Academy that she thought could offer her nothing, not only what it was like, for her and for others, to acquaint friendship and companionship, but also to know of love and romance, to value her relationships with her family, to bond with each other over happiness and tragedy. Her fashion choices stayed the same during the series - morbid black-and-white outfits, matching perfectly with her pale face to create a serial-killer aurora - yet her personality proliferated. That same Wednesday, the same quiet tone that gave people chill in their bones, the same face that rarely smiled, but people around Wednesday no longer saw her for the potential stabber-in-the-back that she seemed to convey, but for who she really was: severe, with a wit so sharpened she could pierce you with her tongue, but in her own ways affectionate to the people who cared for her. One should be warned, however: she would stop at nothing to decipher right from wrong and get to the bottom of a mystery - even if that involves digging up a grave or arresting her friend. (About that part...expect the unexpected).

A rather more intricate joy in watching the Wednesday series lies in spotting and deciphering the details that, minute though they probably (and most of the time) were, conveyed powerful messages. Werewolves' conversion camp, where 6 weeks of conversion therapy gets you howling and gobbling up bloody meat like a normal werewolf would do - eerily familiar, is it not? Not stopping there. One would think, that in the 21st century, in a town where a literal castle of an academy was erected to train adolescents with supernatural abilities, the difference between people with special skills and those without would be blurred, and everyone would live in harmony. That differentiating words like "normies" and "outcasts" would be so old-fashioned and nonexistent in daily conversations. That horrific historical witch-hunting scenes where "enlightened" colonists set a house with people accused of witchcraft ablaze, effectively killing their own people - where violence raged and humiliation endorsed - would stay in textbook illustrations. Basically, that humans would finally learn to actually be decent to each other.

Wrong.

The lessons are embedded into the movie ever so elegantly and flawlessly; they are there to be observed and not repeated.

With the wit sharp enough to slice through people, it is most natural that Wednesday always has something at the tip of her tongue - usually strikingly brilliant sarcasm in a quiet yet piercing tone. Below are just a few of them, so as to not spoil the fun:

So yes, do go and watch it.