Netflix is doing a marketing thing this week called “Geek Week”, which seems like an online, lesser version of Comic-Con in which the Netflix social media teams pretend everything is fine and like most of their co-workers weren’t recently laid off. It’s super dark! Not as dark: the first look at Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in the upcoming series, Wednesday. She looks very young—Ortega is 19—and it is somewhat disorienting as Wednesday Addams has always been my age in my head, because Christina Ricci and I are of the same generation, and I felt her version of Wednesday Addams was articulating the angst in my soul. I am now coming to realize, once again, that I am An Old and this Wednesday Addams is probably not meant for me. (Casting Christina Ricci as another character in Wednesday is the bone Tim Burton & Co. are throwing at us, The Olds.) Please respect my privacy during this time.
Looking at this new Wednesday through the lens of “this is for a new generation of budding Goths and/or witches”, Jenna Ortega looks like a good Wednesday. Christina Ricci IS iconic in the role, so they’re avoiding some tell-tale similarities by adding polka dots to Wednesday’s dress, and I like the bangs in her eyes a lot. Bangs get a bad rap. I mean, bangs on an adult woman IS a cry for help, but on a kid? Bangs are cute! Or portentous! It depends entirely on the face of the child in question! On Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, those bangs make me a little worried that child has poisoned the soup, which is AS IT SHOULD BE. In all, a solid first look. I hope all the dark and roiling children of the moon find their Wednesday in Jenna Ortega. Every generation deserves a great Wednesday of their own.
