Macabre Tim Burton reconnects with his strange obsessions in the series “Wednesday”, available on Netflix this Wednesday
Jenna Ortega plays the daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams in “Wednesday”. — Netflix
- Netflix unveils this Wednesday the series produced and partly directed by Tim Burton, Wednesday.
- This series follows the adventures of Wednesday, the daughter of the Addams family, within the Nevermore Academy.
- How does this funny and dark adaptation of Charles Addams’ comics allow the filmmaker to develop his universe there?
The perfect match! If the funeral nuptials between enchanting Hollywood neogothic Tim Burton and the ghoulishly sardonic Addams Family brat Wednesday seem like a no-brainer, so far they never came to fruition. Approached to make the 1991 film, the filmmaker has to give up due to his previous commitment to Batman, Barry Sonnenfeld sticks to it. In the early 2010s, there were rumors of a stop motionAddams Family resurrection that never saw the light of day.
This is now done with Wednesday, a series by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, produced and partly directed by Tim Burton, launched this Wednesday on Netflix. How does this funny and dark adaptation of Charles Addams comics allow the filmmaker to develop his universe?
Access to this content has been blocked in order to respect your choice of consent
I ACCEPT
Wednesday, the Gothic heroine par excellence
Mercredi joins the cohort of Burtonian gothic heroes with pale complexions, who do not feel at home. their place nowhere except in cemeteries. Like Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice, Mercredi is a brilliant teenager, tormented by her anxieties, who feels isolated from a world she loathes. Like Katrina Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow, Mercredi possesses a gift of sorcery that she inherited. from his mother. Like Edward in Edward Scissorhands, Wednesday seems reluctant to touch people, because it causes him visions… Like Angelique Bouchard in Dark Shadows, the plot in fact, through the story of her distant origins, is a witch, a young woman doomed to the stake as she is fiercely free and independent.
Wednesday, a dissonant and biting voice
The story begins when Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is expelled from Nancy Reagan High School after a particularly biting prank (an incident that includes many piranhas, a few jocks, and a lost testicle). Mercredi’s sardonic humor serves to Tim Burton and his companions in a joyfully macabre antidote to right-thinking America, to the American dream of the white picket fence and to the idealized vision of his past; and its foundation. Episode 3 where high school students visit the Pilgrim World amusement park turns out to be particularly acidic: “You have to be really stupid to dedicate a park to the perpetrators of genocide,” judge Wednesday from episode 1. A fierce irony already to work in Mars Attack! or Edward Scissorhands.
The asocial teenager is sent by his parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez Addams (Luiz Guzmán) to the Nevermore, the boarding school where they met. This Gothic school at Hogwarts, ruled with an iron fist by Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), welcomes all the bizarre cliques: werewolves, vampires, gorgons or even mermaids. As at As usual, Tim Burton is interested in different people, in those whom society decides to ignore or exclude.
Wednesday, an ultra-referenced series
Burton’s signature shines through in a few recurring designs: the twisting tree that sits in Nevermore’s courtyard and the spiraling lair straight out of Sleepy Hollow. The Thing’s scars are reminiscent of his Frankenstein obsession since his 1984 short, Frankenweenie.
Like Victor Frankenstein, to resuscitate the Addams family, Tim Burton assembles elements of heterogeneous pop culture: the opposition between the normies and the residents of Nevermore recalls that between muggles and wizards in Harry Potter, the Nevermore Ball evokes both Pulp Fiction and Carrie at the Devil’s Ball, Wednesday leads the investigation; you on mysterious murders like Veronica Mars…
Nevermore’s annual canoeing and kayaking competition involves decorating the boats based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, one of Tim Burton’s favorite gothic poets. Wednesdayborrows its main theme – the question of being rejected by others for the sole reason of being different – from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A book recommended to Wednesday, his mentor, teacher, Marilyn Thornhill, played by Christina Ricci (Wednesday in the Barry Sonnenfeld films and Katrina in Sleepy Hollow).
Like the book , this teen-show highlights in particular through the relationship between Wednesday and his roommate, the colorful influencer Enid (Emma Myers), the primal desire for love and friendship. without which it seems impossible to live without losing one’s humanity. Like many of Tim Burton’s works, Wednesday is ultimately a macabre tale, sprinkled with of poetry and humour, which opposes normality; and strangeness.