Verdict:
If I hadn’t recently watched so many film critic videos, I probably wouldn’t even have been able to pinpoint the issue in this show, or perhaps even see it at all, as the main characters and the visual presentation of the show are charming enough to keep your attention away from the flaws. However, once I had become aware of certain flaws, I couldn’t unsee them, and that soured the entire experience for me.
The main character, Wednesday, is perfect at everything she does. She is a teenager, but she possesses a set of skills to cover several lifetimes. This is that same old issue as with poorly written main characters in action movies. Main characters need to be vulnerable. They can’t be flying kung-fu masters. They need to show emotional weakness from time to time. That is what makes them realistic and believable. If they are blank-faced indestructible intelligent powerhouses, then you can’t associate with them or worry for them. And from a logical standpoint, they definitely can’t be masters of the universe if they are still teenagers, because they haven’t had the time to build a broad skill spectrum.
Wednesday is especially indestructible and undefeatable when compared to the men in the show, many of whom are given the role of either idiots, traitors or just evil doers, and I can’t help but fear that modern politics have slithered themselves into this show, which doesn’t help with its appeal.
Finally, the writing for the story was disappointing. Wednesday is a detective story. A good detective mystery is one where you can look back at all its twists and turns in the end and see all the pieces fit together, but with this show, the various episodes are fairly independent of one another. The story is bent whichever way needed to facilitate the scenes rather than the other way around. The writers could’ve made anyone turn out to be the main villain in the end and it wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. Furthermore, there are a few times where characters just spout exposition, which is a particular pet peeve of mine.
Having complained about all that, the performance of Jenna Ortega is on the money. She is good at portraying Wednesday’s dark charm and intelligence. The other characters are also all sufficiently peculiar and well-acted.
With Tim Burton at the helm, the show looks good. It stays true to the original goth style, while having the modern crispness and, surprisingly for Burton, a lot of colour. Many locations feel light and airy, which contrasts nicely with Wednesday. The academy where Wednesday resides looks both eerie and cozy. The wardrobe has a lot of variety. There is not too much CGI.
In short, this show is primarily an exercise in style. Cute characters do cute things, and everything looks cool and stylish. But that style hides the flaws in the content.