Wednesday is an American coming of age, supernatural comedy horror television series based on the character Wednesday Addams by Charles Addams. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega as the titular character. Four out of the eight episodes are directed by Tim Burton, who also serves as executive producer. Wednesday premiered in November 2022, and was released on Netflix to predominantly positive reviews from critics, who praised Ortega’s performance. Within three weeks of release, it became the second-most watched English-language Netflix series.
The plot is that Wednesday Addams is expelled from her school after dumping live piranhas into the school’s pool in retaliation for the boys’ water polo teambullying her brother Pugsley. Consequently, her parents Gomez and Morticia Addams enroll her at their high school alma mater Nevermore Academy, a private school for monstrous outcasts, in the town of Jericho, Vermont. Wednesday’s cold, emotionless personality and her defiant nature make it difficult for her to connect with her schoolmates and cause her to run afoul of the school’s principal Larissa Weems. However, she discovers she has inherited her mother’s psychic abilities which allow her to solve a local murder mystery.
Jenna Marie Ortega is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress, receiving recognition for her role as young Jane in The CW comedy-drama series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019). She starred as Wednesday Addams in the Netflix horror comedy series Wednesday (2022) which she called a “new chapter” in her career. To prepare, she underwent “the most physical transformation I’ve ever done; I cut my hair, and it’s black, and mannerism-wise, speaking cadence-wise, expression-wise”.
She later called production of season one “the most overwhelming job” she had ever had and spoke about being in a constant state of confusion and stress over the direction of the series and character. She later revealed her discomfort with becoming wellknown for her work on the show, having had a creatively unpleasant experience filming it. However, Ortega’s performance in the series was widely praised, for which she received nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
