Wednesday Season 2 Review

A Hyde-ous Mess of a spooky and kooky situation

Lets start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

🎥 Trailers

Part 1:

Part 2:

⚠️ Content & Tone Warning ⚠️

Season 2 of Wednesday leans far heavier into gore than the first. Dead bodies are found with their eyes missing, brains are eaten on screen, and violence is pushed front and center. But here’s the catch: the tone is completely off. Somehow, this show manages to be gruesome and feel like a watered-down CW YA novel at the same time. It doesn’t stop there either — the writing often skews like it’s aimed at a much younger audience, almost like it can’t decide if it wants to be Riverdale or Goosebumps.

The result is tonal whiplash. One minute you’re watching something grim and graphic, the next you’re stuck in melodrama that feels like it was written for pre-teens. It’s an identity crisis, and it makes the season both jarring and frustrating to sit through.


—

Why the Two-Part Release Hurt the Season

Splitting Wednesday Season 2 into two parts absolutely killed the pacing. This isn’t Stranger Things with cliffhanger momentum — Wednesday thrives (when it does) on steady mystery-building, not on being chopped in half. By pausing the story mid-arc, Netflix drained what little tension the show had. The first half feels like aimless table-setting, then the back half rushes through payoffs at breakneck speed. It highlights the show’s weakest instincts: stretching simple plots too long, then cramming the big reveals into a sprint. Wednesday just doesn’t work in the “event TV” split-season format.

The Weirdest Marketing Tie-In: Wednesday’s Burger

Before Season 2 even dropped, the strangest cross-promotion came out of nowhere: a fast-food chain made a Wednesday Addams burger. Yes, really. Because nothing screams gothic, death-obsessed teenager like scarfing down a cheeseburger with fries.

It’s the kind of brand synergy that makes you wonder if the execs have ever actually watched the show. Wednesday, who barely tolerates human interaction, is suddenly being used to sell combo meals? It’s about as fitting as making Pennywise the Dancing Clown the new spokesperson for kids’ meals — “Hey kiddo, want a balloon? Or a Baconator? We all eat fries down here”

👉 The whole promotion is so absurd it stops being clever and lands squarely in meme territory. Wednesday Addams selling burgers isn’t edgy or cute — it’s the fast-food equivalent of Dracula endorsing sunscreen.



📖 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Season 2 picks up with Wednesday back at Nevermore Academy, still struggling to get a grip on her unsettling psychic powers while a new threat begins to circle her and her friends. A series of grisly incidents — victims discovered with their eyes torn out by flocks of sinister crows — points to something darker brewing on campus. At the same time, Pugsley joins Nevermore as a student in his own right, which brings chaos of a different kind. Overseeing it all is Barry Dort, the school’s slippery new principal, who ropes Morticia into his fundraising schemes while pursuing his own questionable agenda. Between family secrets, creepy omens, and a looming danger that could claim her closest ally, Wednesday once again finds herself caught between unraveling the mystery and keeping the people she (reluctantly) cares about alive.

It sounds juicy, right? Except… this season keeps tripping over itself with bizarre subplots, clunky writing, and jokes that feel like they were lifted from a rejected YA spinoff.

Off topic I never cared about the first sesson or this sesson, the idea of the Addam Family being plopped into this discount Hogwarts or X Men school for mutants.

Which then goes back to my main issue with this series, ehat made the Addams Family work is they’ve always been the oddballs (think the munsters).

But as soon as u plop them into a world that has Hydes, werewolves, witches, sirens, warlocks? So when everyone is odd then no one’s odd, they’ve been balanced out to normalcy. And thats not the Addams Family, it always worked when they live in a kor.al neighborhood interacting with normies.

Its like oh hey welcome to Hogwarts school of, no wait thats not it. Oh welcome to charles school of gifted no thats not it either, ok uhhh welcome to the gifted school of wayward students now thats not it either, uhhhh welcome to Nevermore Academy of outcasts and normies.

Bta im never calling them that, outcasts and normies? That sounds like something a small kids would say.

Sighh rant aside let’s get back on track.

Quick thing I wanna mention because I found this out, It’s no coincidence this season feels like a YA soap with zombies and eyeball gore. Some of the writers behind Wednesday Season 2 came straight out of CW shows — and it shows. Family secrets hidden for decades, estranged mother/daughter drama, shock reveals every episode, and romances shoehorned in whether they fit or not. It’s the same formula that powered Riverdale and The Vampire Diaries, just dressed up in Addams cosplay.


—

🧛 Character Rundown

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) – Our morbid Raven psychic, now battling visions of black ooze, family secrets, and the LOIS program conspiracy.

Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) – Loyal werewolf bestie whose Alpha transformation arc ends with her possibly stuck as a wolf forever. Still the heart of the show.

Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday) – Siren queen-turned-ally, blackmailed by the new principal until she flips the script in episode 7.

Pugsley Addams (Isaac Ordonez) – Enrolls at Nevermore, accidentally resurrects Isaac “Slurp” Night, and discovers his own electrical powers. Not a fan of this Puglsey, to put it bluntly he just looks like an emo kid, thats it.

Thing (Victor Dorobantu) – Wednesday’s right hand (literally). Plays comic relief and gets a shocking backstory reveal in the finale.

Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) & Gomez (Luis Guzmán) – More involved this season, covering up old secrets and fumbling through awkward family drama. Gomez even gets written as gross comic relief at points (dead mice for dinner, really?). How do I feel about this Morticia compared to the other versions? Im indifferent.

Gomez Addams (Luis Guzmán)
Traditionally, Gomez is the heartbeat of the Addams family — passionate, theatrical, endlessly charming, and equally devoted to both of his children. John Astin in the black-and-white series and Raul Julia in the ’90s films brought him to life with charisma and eccentric magnetism.

This version, though? Easily my least favorite Gomez to date. Luis Guzmán’s take strips the character of his charm and leaves him feeling more awkward, grimy, and unpolished than eccentric. Instead of coming off as debonair in his own odd way, he literally looks like he crawled out of the sewers. Worse, the show writes him as if he plays favorites — doting almost entirely on Pugsley while seeming disconnected from Wednesday. That undercuts the whole point of Gomez as a father, because the classic Gomez always celebrated both kids equally in their weirdness.

👉 Without charm or balance, this Gomez just doesn’t work. He feels less like the passionate patriarch of the Addamses and more like a caricature that weakens the family dynamic instead of anchoring it.

Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) – Best supporting presence again, infiltrating Willow Hill in peak chaotic style. Second-best part of the season.

Grandmama Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley) – Glamorous, spooky, and hiding a nasty secret: she’s been keeping Ophelia locked in her mansion basement.

Isaac Knight (Owen Painter) –
A mysterious new figure tied to Nevermore’s past. Once known for his inventive brilliance, Isaac’s legacy lingers in campus lore, and his return raises more questions than answers.

Françoise Galpin (Frances O’Connor) – Tyler’s mom, revealed alive and a Hyde. Her coldness toward Tyler fuels his conflicted arc.

Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) – Wednesday’s ex-crush turned stalker. Still a Hyde, still a mess, now caught between his uncle Isaac and his mother.

Principal Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi) – Starts off slimy but goofy, later revealed to be much worse. His downfall in episode 7 is… memorable. Also right off the bat he kinda comes off as a try hard, his hair ans mustache and glasses? Yeah it makes him look like Edgar Allan Poe lite, which he did try to base his look off of, but like why?

Professor Isadora Capri (Billie Piper) – The new music teacher and a werewolf. Ends up offering Tyler a path to join a Hyde “pack.”

Agnes DeMille (Evie Templeton) – Invisibility powers + obsessive fangirl energy. First stalks Wednesday, then becomes her awkward ally. Also thr best way i can describe her look is like she looks like Wendy with bulging eyes.

Professor Orloff (Christopher Lloyd) – Stern Nevermore teacher. Meta casting nod since Lloyd was once Uncle Fester. Here he plays a teacher whose a severed head in a jar.

How do I feel about this meta casting? Ehhhh idk ask me again in a decade.

Marilyn Thornhill / Laurel Gates (Christina Ricci) – Back in orange scrubs at Willow Hill, dropping cryptic hints.

Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie) – Returns as a ghostly spirit guide, snarky as ever.

The Addams Family Dynamic, Broken

One of the biggest issues with Wednesday Season 2 isn’t just the messy lore or clunky subplots — it’s how the show warps the core Addams family dynamic. What made the Addamses timeless in the 1960s black-and-white sitcom and the 1990s films was that no matter how spooky, kooky, or macabre they were, they always functioned as a tight-knit, loving unit. Everyone was equally celebrated for their strangeness, and favoritism wasn’t part of the picture. That’s what made them so special: in a world that thought they were weird, the Addamses loved each other all the more for it.

But Season 2 turns that unity into fractured, uneven favoritism — and it feels completely wrong. Gomez is now portrayed as doting more on Pugsley than anyone else. In theory, Gomez is supposed to be an exuberant father who cheers on all of his kids’ quirks. In the ’64 sitcom, he loved Wednesday’s intelligence just as much as Pugsley’s mischief. In the ’91 movie, he proudly encouraged both their destructive play equally. Here? He’s reduced to protecting and bonding with Pugsley almost exclusively — to the point where they’re shown doing things like eating dead mice straight out of traps. That’s not the playful macabre of classic Addams humor — that’s gross-out shock for the sake of it, and it strips Gomez of his charm.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s relationship with Morticia is written more like a grudge match than a gothic mother-daughter bond. In the original series, Morticia was a role model in her own strange way — elegant, composed, endlessly supportive of her children’s oddities. In Wednesday, the friction dominates, painting Morticia as someone to rebel against rather than admire. It reduces their relationship to shallow teen angst when it should be layered with dark affection.

Thing doesn’t fare much better. Instead of being Wednesday’s quirky, reliable sidekick, he’s treated like a tolerated nuisance at best. The dynamic feels lukewarm when it should be mischievous fun. And then there’s Fester, who ends up as Wednesday’s sole genuine bond. She shows favoritism toward him, and he outright names her as his favorite family member. It’s sweet in isolation, but when the rest of the family is written as fractured and uneven, it ends up highlighting just how wrong the others feel.

And not to mention, this time around the grandma is a evil rich person, which has never been a thing with her character ever. Also I feel the Addams get too much screen time in this season, yet the shows titled Wednesday.

👉 The result is a version of the Addams family that doesn’t feel like the Addams family at all. Instead of celebrating each other’s weirdness equally, they’re divided into cliques, grudges, and favoritism. Where the originals were united in their oddity, this show makes them look like just another dysfunctional family dressed in black.

Also why is Gomez and Morticia ans Puglsey front ans center this season? Its called Wednesday, it’s supposed to be about Wednesday. So now since they are here this show mow feels like Addams Family Lite.



—

⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

Episodes clock in mostly at an hour (too long for how little story they actually push forward). The first half meanders through dumb gags (airport sunscreen, wolf-pack howling, statue worship) before stumbling into the bigger Isaac/LOIS conspiracy. Episode 7 finally kicks into gear with Dort’s mask-off moment, and episode 8 rushes through a messy finale.


—

✅ Pros

Cinematography still looks sharp and gothic.

Cast is solid across the board; even with clunky dialogue, the acting’s strong.

Enid remains the MVP — bright, loyal, and genuinely emotional. Honestly I prefer uer over Wednesday, because unlike Wednesday who’s a piece of shite, Enid actually feels like a character.

The big dance/prom sequence is stylish and well-choreographed.

Uncle Fester steals every scene he’s in. Granted I do prefer him in season 1.

Thing continues to be a delight.



—

❌ Cons

Basically everything else. The plot is a tangled mess of conspiracies, resurrections, and half-baked twists. Character arcs (Enid, Bianca, Tyler) are undermined by bad writing. Adults are cartoonishly evil or disposable. Humor feels forced and juvenile. And the show leans way too hard into shock reveals without earning them.

The visions that Wednesday get go nowhere, first it’s Enid might die, to nope wait Pugsley is in danger. Which one is it!?

The Enid & Wednesday Friendship Problem

Another issue that drags the show down is the way it tries to frame Wednesday and Enid as best friends. On paper, opposites attracting can be interesting — but here, it feels forced and unearned.

Wednesday is gloomy, sarcastic, and thrives on the macabre. Enid is bubbly, colorful, and desperate for connection. In Season 1, their dynamic mostly revolved around Wednesday snapping at her and treating her kindness as a nuisance. By Season 2, the writers suddenly want us to believe they’re inseparable, but it doesn’t feel like a natural evolution — it feels like the showrunners noticed audiences liked their banter and decided to hardwire them into “roommate soulmates.”

The problem is that it doesn’t line up with Wednesday’s character. She isn’t supposed to mellow into a cookie-cutter “goth girl learns the value of friendship” arc, yet that’s exactly what happens. Instead of letting their relationship grow slowly, with Wednesday begrudgingly respecting Enid over time, the show just fast-tracks it.

Compare this to the classic Addams material: the family wasn’t built on forced foils. They were united in their weirdness, and outsiders were either unsettled or pulled into their orbit naturally. Enid feels less like a genuine friend and more like a CW character parachuted in to tick the “bright foil” box.

👉 The result is a friendship that looks good in gifs and fan edits but collapses under scrutiny. It doesn’t feel like Wednesday choosing someone who understands her — it feels like the show insisting we accept a dynamic that never quite rings true.



—

🤦 Dumb Lines & Gags

This season piles on dialogue that makes you wonder if ChatGPT was secretly in the writers’ room:

Enid: “Scram, psycho, before my claws slip.”
Agnes: “Don’t get your furball in a snarl.”

Guy crushing on Enid: “My fangs aren’t the sharpest in the pit, but I can definitely tell when something is not fine.”

Their breakup convo:
Enid: “Over the summer I realized I’m not that insecure girl anymore.”
Guy: “But I liked that girl.”
Enid: “And she wolfed out.”
Guy: “I guess squirrels and rats can’t work out after all.”

Principal Dort: “Most people have FOMO — fear of missing out.”
Wednesday: “Well, I have FOBI — fear of being included.”

Scout sergeant gag: “How does that make you feel!? The correct answer is worthless!” (kids reply in unison: “Thank you for your valuable feedback, sir!”)

Airport scene: weapons? Fine. A stitched-together hand? Fine. Sunscreen bottle? Big no-no. Ha ha… sigh.

If ur wondering why I forgot names for specific characters? Actually why’s that even a surprise i just dont care about anyone in this show outside of Enid, Fester and Thing.


Episode titles don’t help:

“Hyde and Woe Seek”

“Woes Thyself”

“Woe Me the Money”

“This Means Woe”
😑🤦



—

📝 Final Thoughts

Season 2 tries to go bigger — more family, more villains, more mysteries — but ends up bloated and incoherent. Enid, Fester, and Thing keep it watchable, but everything else feels like YA parody. Even Steve Buscemi’s Principal Dort is wasted on a cheap gag death.

⭐ Rating: 3/10


—

🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨

The rest of this review digs into the big twists and finale details.


—

💀 Spoilers

Uncle Fester in Episode 4: “If These Woes Could Talk”

After just a cameo in Season 1, Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) makes his big return in Episode 4. Wednesday, stuck on the “LOIS” mystery and haunted by a vision of Enid’s death, decides she knows just the lunatic who can help — Uncle Fester.

Fester checks into a local inn under a fake name, pays with stolen cash, wrecks his room, and gets himself committed to Willow Hill Asylum on purpose. Once inside, he revels in the chaos — gleefully taking shock therapy, romancing the lunch lady Louise, and even singing Foreigner in a bathtub — but he also uses the opportunity to dig up clues. With his electrical powers, he gets a parrot to squawk out “51971,” which he deciphers as a security code to a hidden maintenance room.

There, he and Wednesday uncover the truth: LOIS isn’t a person, but the Long-term Outcast Integration Study, a cruel program experimenting on outcasts. They also stumble onto a shocking discovery — Aunt Ophelia Frump, still alive, hidden deep in the asylum.

So yeah the whole crow murder things gets solved halfway through this season! Turns out its a woman character (i forget the name) who’s in charge of the asylum, her dad experimented on her with her permission now she has the ability to summon crows, what a odd power.

Fester’s antics get him captured and strapped into a straitjacket, but Wednesday and Thing manage to rescue him. He sparks an inmate riot to cover their escape, zapping locks and systems to create total mayhem. In a final absurdly sweet moment, he bids farewell to Louise the lunch lady with a dramatic kiss before vanishing back into the night.

👉 Episode 4 is where Armisen’s Fester shines: chaotic, bizarre, but crucial to cracking the season’s central mystery.

Shock Over Substance

One of the biggest problems with Wednesday Season 2 is that it leans too hard into shock reveals, and nowhere is that clearer than the ending of Episode 6. Instead of letting the tension build naturally, the show throws us a scene where the now fully re-healed zombie Isaac Knight lurks into Professor Orloff’s office. He finds him there — only for Agnus, who’s been invisible the whole time, to suddenly appear while Issac  knight is mid-munch, eating the poor professor’s brain. We’re left staring at Christopher Lloyd’s cameo character, decapitated in a cracked glass jar, with a massive hole in his skull.

The issue isn’t just the gore — it’s that this is exactly the kind of empty shock that replaces the clever gothic wit the Addams Family is supposed to have. The original series and films knew how to balance macabre imagery with humor and warmth. Here, it’s just brain-eating carnage played straight, wasting Lloyd’s cameo on a moment that feels more like a grimdark CW twist than an Addams Family story.

And that scene isn’t just a shock for shock’s sake — it’s also the launchpad into the show’s clumsiest subplot: Isaac Knight’s arc. Which we will get into soon, but first let’s finish off Principal Dort.

Principal Dort’s Priorities (Episode 7)

By the time we hit Episode 7, Principal Dort isn’t even trying to hide that he’s awful. Honestly, the show gave that away in Episode 1 when he blackmailed Bianca the siren, but here it goes into overdrive. The police are on campus investigating a zombie that just murdered Professor Orloff, and on top of that, Tyler the Hyde has escaped the asylum. Nevermore is basically under siege.

And what’s Dort worried about? Not the safety of the students. Not the fact that a literal zombie is loose on the grounds. No, all he cares about is that the party he planned still happens on schedule. He’s fussing at the cops like, “How long will this take? My caterers are arriving soon.”

The tone-deafness is laughable — it’s cartoonishly obvious that this guy is both incompetent and corrupt. Any shred of suspense about whether he’s trustworthy evaporates here. He’s less a school leader and more a sleazy conman in a ruffled purple suit, and Steve Buscemi leans so hard into that energy that the “twist” of his villainy isn’t a reveal at all — it’s just confirmation of what we knew since his first scene.

The Dance/Prom Scene

Agnes and Enid distract the crowd with a dance routine, while Agnes invisibly swipes a pocket watch from Dort’s jacket.

This by far might be rhe only scene i loved this whole season, btw that song is sung by Lady Gaga. No idk if having her make a new song for this show because she has a role in this show qualifies as lazy or as creative.

Principal Dort’s Downfall

Dort plays slimy fundraiser kingpin until episode 7, when Bianca uses her siren powers to force him to spill everything:

He held Bianca’s mom hostage to steal her money.

He killed his business partner and keeps the ashes in his fireplace.

He’s pocketing all the fundraising cash.


Cornered, Dort grabs Bianca, ignites his powers, and threatens to burn her alive as cops aim their guns. Ajax petrifies him mid-standoff. The chandelier falls, shattering him into rubble. For Buscemi, that’s all she wrote.

Final Thoughts on Principal Dort (Steve Buscemi)

I have to be honest — casting Steve Buscemi as Principal Dort was one of the season’s strangest choices, and not in a good Addams-y way. Buscemi is an incredible actor, but the problem is he’s been typecast for decades as sleazy, untrustworthy characters. The moment he walked on screen, anyone familiar with his past roles (Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, Boardwalk Empire) could immediately clock him as the bad guy. It spoiled the reveal before the show even tried to build suspense.

Instead of carefully writing Dort’s duplicity, the season leans on Buscemi’s reputation to do the heavy lifting. That’s not clever — it’s predictable. In a series that’s supposed to embrace the weird and the unexpected, this felt like the laziest route possible. Buscemi deserved a role where he could play against type or at least bring something fresh to the table — maybe a Nevermore teacher, a quirky Addams cousin, or a side villain with a unique edge. As Principal Dort, though, he felt misused from the start.

I think my reaction sums this up, when he first appeared in was like ok I like this finally a sane principal who’s nice

Then the show had to prove me wrong in that 1 same episode with him blackmailing Bianca, then I was like oh nevermind, also why the fuck would u reveal this now this early on?

Btw his plot is just so i dont give any shites about this, I mean his plan is to use Bianca by blackmailing her mom and her. So he can use Bianca to use her powers on Morticia to convince her mom to fund the school.

Wow I donr give a shite, do yall?

👉 So while his exit closes that chapter, I can’t help but see it as a wasted opportunity. They didn’t give us a character — they gave us a Buscemi stereotype in a principal’s suit.
The Isaac / Night Family Saga

Pugsley resurrects Isaac (“Slurp”) in episode 1. Aka rhe Issac Knight subplot.

Isaac regains his genius and telekinesis, reattaching Thing as his missing hand.

He buries Wednesday alive under the Skull Tree until Enid Alpha-wolves out and digs her free.

Finale showdown: Isaac straps Tyler into his machine to “cure” the Hyde. Françoise his sister demands it happen, revealing her coldness.

Heck he tried to use Gomez Addams all those years back to suck his life to save her, but the machine failed back then. Also why does Isaac’s sister need saving? Well a Hyde only has a minimum amount of years to live due to the accountability of them morphing.

Also yes Issac Knight is Tyler’s mother’s brother, so by defacto hes the uncle, talk about a family reunion.

Morticia’s Secrets 🕯️

One of the most frustrating parts of this show is how it handles Morticia. Instead of the elegant, supportive matriarch we’ve seen in past versions, here she’s written like a walking closet full of skeletons — literally. In Season 1, the big secret was that she killed Garrett Gates as a teenager in self-defense, but let Gomez carry the blame. That revelation alone drove a wedge between her and Wednesday, fueling the “estranged mother/daughter” angle the show insists on.

But Season 2 doubles down and makes it worse. Morticia knew all along who Isaac Knight was. She and Gomez both recognized him when his zombie form started to take shape. And the truth? Years earlier, Isaac had tried to kill Gomez, only for his own machine to backfire and kill him instead. Rather than tell anyone, they buried him and kept the whole thing secret.

So by the time Wednesday discovers all of this, it’s not hard to understand why she despises her mother in this version. Instead of a family that celebrates honesty in their weirdness, the show rewrites Morticia as shady and evasive, hiding truths that should have brought her closer to her daughter. It’s CW-level melodrama, and it cheapens a character who’s supposed to be one of the most commanding presences in the Addams household.

Anwyas, Wednesday cuts Tyler loose instead of killing him. Tyler Hyde-smashes Isaac, then accidentally kills his own mother when she falls from the tower.

Thing resists Isaac’s control and rips out his clockwork heart, ending him once and for all.


Enid’s Fate

She stays stuck in Alpha wolf form, last seen bolting toward the Canadian border. Wednesday swears to find her, riding north with Fester and Thing in the closing shot.

Aunt Ophelia & Grandmama

Morticia gives Wednesday Ophelia’s journal. In a vision, Wednesday sees Ophelia alive but imprisoned in Grandmama’s basement, scrawling “Wednesday must die” on the wall. That cliffhanger sets up Season 3.


—

🏁 Wrap-Up

Wednesday Season 2 had every chance to lean into gothic horror with family intrigue and outcast lore. Instead, it piles nonsense gags on top of soap opera twists. Enid deserves better, Fester deserves his own spin-off, and the rest deserves a rewrite.