DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. In 2022, Netflix presented a new spin-off of the Addams family canon, focusing on the brooding, dark-haired daughter, Wednesday. Jenna Ortega starred. The creators of the "Smallville" TV series originated it, and Tim Burton directed four of the eight episodes. Now, they've all reunited for Season 2, finally.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEATHISHUMAN SONG, "ADDAMS FAMILY THEME")
BIANCULLI: To many longtime fans of the Addams family, the ABC TV series from the mid-'60s remains the most memorable incarnation of the Charles Addams cartoon characters. Gomez and Morticia were a bizarre but passionate couple. Their kids, Pugsley and Wednesday, were charmingly twisted, and their friends and relatives, including Lurch the butler, Uncle Fester and the disembodied hand known as Thing, all added to the hilariously haunted household.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ADDAMS FAMILY THEME")
HEATHISHUMAN: (Singing) They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky, the Addams family. Their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em, they really are a scream, the Addams family
BIANCULLI: Charles Addams, who had been drawing these oddball characters since the late 1930s for cartoons published in The New Yorker, worked with the producers of the TV series to define the Addams family. He finally gave them names and also suggested some personality traits, essentially fleshing them out from two dimensions to three. The actors helped too. John Astin was an impish and roguish Gomez, and Carolyn Jones, with her long, dark hair and form-fitting black dress, was the unlikeliest but one of the most prominent TV sex symbols of the '60s.
But since then, there have been the successful Addams family movies, which starred Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia. Those films were all but stolen by Christina Ricci as pigtailed morbid young Wednesday. And in 2022, the Netflix spin-off called "Wednesday" arrived. Gomez and Morticia were still around, now played by Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but their appearances were little more than cameos. Instead, the weight of the narrative and the series fell to Jenna Ortega, the former child star from the Disney Channel's "Stuck In The Middle," and she killed it.
When she came out of her shell at a school party and performed a macabre dance solo, the internet went crazy, and "Wednesday" became a big hit. So big, it's one of the most-watched English-language Netflix series ever made, and already has been renewed for Season 3, even though Season 2 has just begun. And it's begun with a vengeance. The show's popularity means that "Wednesday" has returned with even bigger ambitions. Series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are back as showrunners, and Tim Burton is directing another four episodes this season. The three of them collaborated on Burton's recent cinematic "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" sequel, and they've loaded up their return to "Wednesday" with lots of new guest stars and characters. Steve Buscemi shows up early, playing the enthusiastic new principal of Nevermore Academy, the boarding school to which Wednesday is returning after having saved it from destruction in Season 1.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WEDNESDAY")
STEVE BUSCEMI: (As Barry Dort) Wednesday Addams. (Vocalizing). It is an honor to meet the savior of Nevermore. Allow me to introduce myself, Barry Dort, your new principal. Would you like a sticker?
JENNA ORTEGA: (As Wednesday Addams) Only if you have one that says do not resuscitate.
BUSCEMI: (As Barry Dort, laughing) There's that wicked tongue I've heard so much about. I love it.
BIANCULLI: I love it, too. Tim Burton channels both his own past quirkiness and the spirit of such Alfred Hitchcock classics as "The Birds" and "Psycho." The other directors match his game. The writing veers from very funny to a little scary, and other new cast members, besides Buscemi, include Joanna Lumley from "Absolutely Fabulous" as Morticia's grandmother, Billie Piper, from "Doctor Who" and "Secret Diary Of A Call Girl" as Wednesday's new music teacher, and Christopher Lloyd as the school's head professor. That's all he is, a living head floating in a glass jar. In the new season's second half, launching in September, additional guest stars include Lady Gaga.
These eccentric new characters add to the roster of returning old ones, including Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester, and Christina Ricci, embodying a different role than when she played Wednesday on the big screen. But watching the four new episodes available for preview, the greatest joy has been the expanded screen time and emphasis given to Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia. The mother-daughter dynamic now is central to the story, with Morticia invited to live on campus as a school fundraiser, and with a subplot that has to do with Wednesday experiencing the same crippling psychic visions that once haunted Morticia's sister, Ophelia. Morticia wants to protect her daughter, but Wednesday is a rebel. In this scene, they confront one another. Wednesday exits, and then Gomez enters.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WEDNESDAY")
ORTEGA: (As Wednesday Addams) You're a dove. I'm a raven. We're on different paths. You said so yourself.
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: (As Morticia Addams) I've had experience with ravens.
ORTEGA: (As Wednesday Addams) Are you talking about your sister? You've never been very forthcoming about Aunt Ophelia.
ZETA-JONES: (As Morticia Addams) You remind me a lot of her, especially as you've gotten older.
ORTEGA: (As Wednesday Addams) You don't need to worry about me, Mother. You should be focused on Pugsley. We both know being tall and male will only get him so far. Besides, he's got the brains of a dung beetle and the ambition of a French bureaucrat.
LUIS GUZMAN: (As Gomez Addams) What is it, querida?
ZETA-JONES: (As Morticia Addams) Wednesday is hiding things from me. I will not let history repeat itself.
BIANCULLI: If Ophelia appears as part of the storyline in the future, I hope the producers of "Wednesday" will do what the original "Addams Family" TV series did. On ABC, they gave the role to Carolyn Jones, who played both the blonde Ophelia and the raven-haired Morticia. It'd be a delight to see Catherine Zeta-Jones as both sisters. On "Wednesday," this season, she's already become the best Morticia of them all. And Jenna Ortega, likewise, is now the best Wednesday.
(SOUNDBITE OF DANNY ELFMAN'S "WEDNESDAY MAIN TITLES")
BIANCULLI: Season 2 of "Wednesday" premiered this week on Netflix. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews two films revisiting old comedies, new versions of "The Naked Gun" and "Freaky Friday." This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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