‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Review: Jenna Ortega's Performance Endures in a Conceptually Diluted Gothic Sequel

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Aug 7

Despite its evocative production design and Ortega’s continued gravitas in the lead role, 'Wednesday' Season 2 buckles under the weight of its inflated narrative sprawl, exchanging gothic precision for ensemble-driven convolution that saps the series of its once-singular charm.

Nearly three years after its initial cultural breakthrough, Netflix’s Wednesday returns with a sophomore season that is as ambitious as it is disjointed. While the production design remains a masterclass in neo-gothic visual construction, and Jenna Ortega's embodiment of the titular character is still as evocative as ever, the second season expands both its cast and its supernatural mythos to such a degree that it loses the finely honed identity that once distinguished it from its genre peers.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar once again serve as architects of this world, engineering a bifurcated season presented in two arcs. The first four episodes revisit Nevermore Academy and position Wednesday Addams not merely as a rebellious student but as an institutional legend. She’s now endowed with refined psychic prowess and a reputation that precedes her—but her evolution into a mystic sleuth begins to mirror tropes already exhausted by antecedents like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Harry Potter, thereby neutralizing the novelty that characterized Season 1.

The gravest misstep is the overexpansion of the Addams family into what is effectively an ensemble narrative. Morticia, Gomez, and Pugsley are no longer intriguing interjections of macabre humor—they are fully embedded fixtures, to the detriment of thematic contrast. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán's portrayals veer toward the histrionic, reducing their characters’ idiosyncrasies to affectations. In integrating these gothic caricatures into a world already drenched in supernaturalism, the creators have inadvertently rendered them ordinary.

This erosion of contrast—once the show’s key comedic and dramatic engine—reverberates throughout. Ortega’s stoicism and sardonic delivery remain impeccable, yet without a mundane world to disrupt, her characterization feels more ornamental than catalytic. The once-electric one-liners now often seem inert, as though the scripts are laboring under the weight of their own verbosity.

Nonetheless, there are glimmers of narrative competency. Emma Myers returns as Enid, Wednesday’s polychromatic roommate and emotional foil. Their dynamic, though marginally altered, still furnishes the series with moments of human resonance. Steve Buscemi's introduction as Principal Barry Dort—a bureaucratic archetype dressed in quasi-Dumbledorian trappings—offers occasional levity, though the writing does little to elevate his function beyond administrative filler.

The central mystery this time is narratively sufficient but conceptually uninspired. Ocular mutilations, cryptic avian motifs, and cryptid family histories abound, yet these narrative devices serve more as connective tissue than thematic scaffolding. While guest appearances from the likes of Billie Piper, Thandiwe Newton, Heather Matarazzo, and Christopher Lloyd contribute flair, their roles often feel like performative embellishments rather than integral components.

Tim Burton’s directorial fingerprints remain visually unmistakable. From an animated folklore sequence to elaborate set pieces in Episode 3, the aesthetic richness is undeniable. Production design, wardrobe, and cinematography operate at a premium level. Yet this sensory opulence cannot mask a growing narrative disarray.

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Perhaps to its credit, Season 2 resists the urge to replicate the first season’s viral dance sequence. However, its failure to replace that moment with any equally iconic narrative or aesthetic gesture is telling. What results is a midseason finale structure that feels dictated by streaming metrics rather than organic storytelling.

The show’s epistemic mistake lies in confusing mythological breadth with narrative depth. In chasing world-building, it neglects its core emotional and comedic through-lines. The Addams family’s strangeness, formerly a source of delightful dissonance, is now normalized within the show’s own logic, stripping it of its ironic power.

All this notwithstanding, the series retains vestiges of what once made it compelling. Ortega’s commitment, Burton’s visual imagination, and isolated moments of stylistic daring elevate it above most genre competitors. But the cumulative effect is one of waning vitality. What began as a subversive riff on a well-worn IP has risked becoming its own pastiche.

The promise of the latter half of Season 2 may still be realized if the narrative recenters on Wednesday’s individual arc rather than her family’s collective novelty. Until then, this season stands as an aesthetically beguiling but structurally overindulgent shadow of its former self.

Rating: ★★★½☆

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“A visually seductive return that trades clarity for chaos—Ortega remains magnetic, but Emma Myers quietly steals the season as the magic slips away.”

-JPM

The Cinema Group

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