Finished the new Wednesday series and I figured out what the Tim Burton version of the Addams Family is missing for me and it’s the mania. There’s no manic edge to any of the jokes. There’s hardly any snap (pun intended) in the dialogue. Gomez is sedated, the guy who played the younger version of him was serving more Gomez energy in five minutes onscreen. There’s a moment where CJZ calls him “mon cheri” and there is ZERO reaction, not even an aborted attempt at a “Tish! That’s FRENCH!” gag, which I was definitely waiting for. Pugsley isn’t hyperactive at all. He says he misses being waterboarded but he doesn’t beg Wednesday to torture him or really do much at all the few minutes the kid is onscreen. His one gag is basically just a fat-kids-will-eat-anything joke where he chows on some potpourri. Nothing in the therapy scene to suggest how VERY in over her head Kinbott is. Nobody else is ever really set on edge or feeling jumpy because they have no idea what any Addams will do next.
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Modern adaptations of the Addams Family don’t seem to get the family dynamic that we associate with the Addams right anymore.
Made a TikTok recently about some of the issues I had with Wednesday (overall an okay show, doesn’t really do anything new for the genre, but entertaining enough). My #1 criticism is that it, much like the recent animated films, it puts Wendesday in conflict with Morticia. When I pointed this out, I was met with a chorus of “of course, she’s a teenage girl it’s natural” and “every family has conflict”.
That is, in fact, the point.
The Addams Family is the antithesis of the “normal” sitcom family. Parents that love and support their children no matter what. Children that, in turn, respect their parents because their parents respect them. Their weirdness doesn’t come from the fact that they’re goth so much as the fact that they’re functional when dysfunction is seen as the norm.
Other pushback I’ve seen is that it’s based on the comics, not previous adaptations, so we can’t judge it by those. Cool, but Jenna’s Wednesday is based on Christina Ricci’s. Catherine Zeta Jones’ Morticia pulls from Anjelica Huston’s and Charlize Theron’s voice work. Fred Armisen’s Fester carries over elements of Jackie Coogan’s. (Which is also why everyone is comparing Luis Guzman’s Gomez, which feels like the most original take on the character, to previous performances). Whether we like it or not, it builds upon every previous adaptation, and by significantly including the other family members, the show opens itself up to comparison.
In a show where they could’ve gotten away with anything, subverted any trope in any way they’d like, they chose to play by the book. That’s what’s disappointing about it.
Anyway, Jenna Ortega killed it, though.
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Debbie Harry and Fred Armisen by Chris Stein, 2017
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When you’re watching Star Trek: Voyager and find out Neelix has been dating a prepubescent girl
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