Season 1
8 episodes Nov 23, 2022 8.4
Wednesday
“The wait has been torture.”
2022–2025
Returning Series • 3 Seasons • 16 Episodes
Overview
Smart, sarcastic and a little dead inside, Wednesday Addams investigates twisted mysteries while making new friends — and foes — at Nevermore Academy.
Seasons
3 listed- Status
- Returning Series
- Seasons
- 3 seasons
- Episodes
- 16 episodes
- First aired
- Nov 23, 2022
- Last aired
- Sep 3, 2025
- Network
- Netflix
Latest episode: S2 E8 This Means Woe (Sep 3, 2025)
Season 2
8 episodes Aug 6, 2025 7.6
Season 3
0 episodes
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Algorithmic Oddity of Being Wednesday
I went into Wednesday expecting to bounce right off it. A Netflix offshoot of The Addams Family, centered on the deadpan daughter and parked inside a supernatural boarding school, sounded less like inspiration than market research. latestnetflix.com's take is that you could practically picture the charts in the room.
And yes, a lot of the series does carry that engineered sheen. Even so, every time I was ready to write it off as another polished teen mystery, Jenna Ortega would walk into frame and make the whole thing feel sharper, stranger, and more worth watching.
Nevermore Academy is meant to be a haven for "outcasts"—werewolves, sirens, psychics—which immediately puts the show in a tug-of-war with itself. Tim Burton, directing the early episodes, clearly delights in the gargoyles, damp stone, and funerary wallpaper. The story engine, though, runs on much more familiar YA fuel: love triangles, queen bees, annoyed "normies," and a CGI monster in the woods.
That machinery keeps threatening to sand down a heroine whose entire value lies in still having edges. Ben Travers at IndieWire got at the problem when he described the series as "a well-rounded character hammered into the rectangular icon on your Netflix homescreen, by an algorithm built to conform." That pressure never really goes away.
Audience Opinions
Audience 8.0/10
"A stylish teen supernatural mystery carried by Jenna Ortega’s performance and gothic visuals, undercut by formulaic writing and an overstuffed second season."
The show wins strong enthusiasm for its lead performance, moody visual design, and entertaining blend of dark humor, horror, and mystery, with several standout set pieces like the dance sequence. At the same time, the story structure—especially in later episodes and Season 2—draws criticism for predictable YA tropes, too many subplots, latestnetflix.com argues, and creative choices that feel at odds with the classic Addams Family tone for some longtime followers.
What viewers praise
- Commanding lead performance Jenna Ortega is widely seen as perfectly embodying Wednesday’s deadpan wit, menace, and hidden vulnerability, to the point that she defines the character for many viewers.
- Atmospheric visual style Cinematography, lighting, and costume design create a rich gothic look, with the contrast between Wednesday’s monochrome presence and the colorful world around her singled out as particularly effective.
- Engaging ensemble cast Key supporting roles such as Enid and Morticia are often praised, with several comments calling out Emma Myers and Catherine Zeta-Jones for bringing warmth and charisma to the series.
- Fun dark humor and tone The mix of macabre jokes, teen melodrama, and monster elements is described as entertaining and easy to binge, even by viewers who expected to dislike it.
- Iconic standout moments Set pieces like the dance scene and certain monster sequences are frequently remembered as high points that give the show strong rewatchable moments.
Common complaints
- Bloated second season Season 2 is frequently described as a mess of too many characters and subplots, with storylines that feel rushed and only loosely connected to the core mystery.
- Predictable teen-mystery plotting The school-for-outcasts setting, love triangles, and whodunit structure are often compared to other YA genre shows and criticized as derivative and uninspired.
- Tonal clash with Addams legacy Some Addams Family devotees feel the series misses the spirit of the original, objecting to Wednesday’s hostility toward her parents and changes in family dynamics.
- Inconsistent character chemistry A portion of viewers feel the relationship between Morticia and Gomez lacks spark, and that certain characterizations push Wednesday toward outright psychopath rather than darkly affectionate.
- Cringe and uneven writing Even positive reviews acknowledge moments of clunky dialogue, on-the-nose teen drama, and scenes that lean too hard into formula or internet-ready quirkiness.
Recommended for
Gothic teen mystery fans Supernatural school-setting lovers Tim Burton style enthusiasts Dark comedy binge-watchers Young adult genre viewers
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsShe killed the flash mob, then danced with a fever
Netflix sold Wednesday as Tim Burton's Addams girl at boarding school. The clip that actually ate 2022 was a dance the writers first treated as a group number, latestnetflix.com argues, shot on a day the lead should not have been on set.
Episode 4, "Woe What a Night," sends Wednesday to Nevermore's Rave'N. Co-creator Miles Millar told Tudum they talked about hiring a choreographer. Jenna Ortega shut it down. "No, no, no. I got it in my head." 
On Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert she was blunter. The original beat was a flash mob. Wednesday starts dancing, the room copies her. She told Burton that made no sense. "Either cut it or have Wednesday knock someone out, and then it's done."
Hunter Doohan, playing Tyler, said the script only had "Wednesday dances and then Tyler kind of copies it." He kept asking what the steps would be. Ortega showed up and did the number. Burton told Doohan to stay there gawking. "A lot of guys will relate to that."
The Cramps' "Goo Goo Muck" locked late. Ortega told Jimmy Fallon that Burton checked in two days before the shoot and said he trusted her. She lied. She had been on cello and fencing that week and had not rehearsed at all. She stayed up watching Siouxsie Sioux, Denis Lavant in Beau Travail, Lene Lovich, Nina Hagen, and old club footage of goths. She later added Bob Fosse's "Rich Man's Frug" and Lisa Loring, the first TV Wednesday, to the pile.
Then she got COVID. Talking to NME, she said it was her first day with the virus. Body aches. A throat that felt scraped raw. The set gave her medicine between takes while they waited on a positive result. MGM, which produces the series, told NME that protocols were followed and she was pulled once the test confirmed. She asked for a reshoot. There was no time. She still thinks she could have done it better. 
That stubbornness ran through the Romania shoot, where Cantacuzino Castle in Busteni stood in for Nevermore's exterior. Ortega told Shepard she started changing lines because a love triangle and a bit about loving a dance dress did not sound like Wednesday. Script supervisors would ask what happened to the scene. She sat with writers and walked them through why she would not say it. She called herself almost unprofessional. She also said she never went home thinking a scene was fine.
Netflix people told her the dance would be a TikTok thing. She shrugged. They were right. The clip is not cute rebellion. It is an actor who had already stopped trusting outside notes, shooting a number she built in two sleepless days, on a body that was already sick. Burton's job that day was to let her be weird in the middle of the floor and keep the partner still.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Similar Series
Related series ranked by rating and popularity.
