Wednesday (2022) — A deadpan exploration through a stellar performance
Even in a macabre world setting, the Internet slang, the clichéd adolescent modern takes of rebellion and teenage angst from homosexual conversion therapy to toxic personality/masculinity, indigenous land acknowledgment, and self-ID. I am not going to be a boomer purist and say these things have no place in the real world. That would be a quixotic naivete. Internet crawling and material world trudging are slowly closing the distance between them. Especially a series that revolves around kids who are sucked into this chasm of contrived totalitarian thesaurus bound to use this.
But the problem is, the world it is set in is where people have powers and gives off a deadly and grim effervescence. It is also leaking into the normal human world and the central conflict is between normal humans and supernatural humans (which is also differentiated by Internet slang as normal humans in this show are called Normies). Considering this, I wanted words, terms, and a limited but certain vocabulary and concepts unique to that and not something that is a poorly reframed regurgitation of the infinite scrolling hole monster. Essentially my problem is the inadequate world building or world building outsourced to lazy or forced Internet blabbers.
But why did I continue to watch it? Because of Jenna Ortega’s performance and her killer one-liners. This was complemented by a neat screenplay propelled by latent suspense and borderline placeholder characters barring a 2 or 3. Stating this salvages the poor world-building would be disingenuous. Yes, it was a problem. But it was not a grave error given the intentions were never on building a memorable setting to immerse yourself in (it should have been given the primary conflict is between two worlds or the representatives of those worlds as race). Rather, it was about a particular character and how she navigates in a territory she begrudgingly lives in. She is differentiated from the rest of the human world and her own magical race by esoteric ways of life, a Luddite and snobbish puritan. Maybe, for these differentiations to be amplified, the spilling of the elements from the present time of the real world of the viewer, especially from the sectors of teenage angst and drama was a necessity. This justification is not a release from responsibility but a deadly sacrifice for a riveting screenplay.
Jenna Ortega is the reason I continued the show, while later impressed by other characters like Thing and Principal Weems (played by Gwendoline Christie). But the pivot and carrier of the show is the character Wednesday Addams, played by Jenna. Be it the irreverent quips, flippant comments, or unwarranted comebacks mostly to show off her affliction for the dead, gory, or anything along similar lines of horror. While she is a teenager masking her emotionally vulnerable self with these external frivolities, those fleeting mask-off moments were impactful. The acting and delivery of dialogues with deadpan intonation justified a brilliant character sketch.
The Thing is a character whom you start liking for its antics which later evolves into a personification of its own, becoming a staple lovable reprieve in an otherwise black tone.
Principal Weems is someone who grows into making sense rather than being charming on sight.
The music was moody and the choice of songs were adhering to the tonality from classical music to the modern one, the cello version being the most disturbingly captivating one.
If you are someone who is a fan of Harry Potter and this show has been recommended to you in the same vein, don’t watch. This has no extraordinary commonalities with those books or movies. The school, students, and magic are not enough for a comparative suggestion. That said, this is a genuinely funny and appropriately emotional character study shouldered by a terrific performance. So watch for that, or don’t.
Originally published at http://thevicariousview.wordpress.com on December 14, 2022.
