Sketch o’the Week- Jenna Ortega!

The Lovely Anna and I finally watched the last of the new “Wednesday” show on Netflix staring the perfectly cast Jenna Ortega as the titular character. We enjoyed it quite a bit. Tim Burton did a great job reimagining Charles Addams‘s characters and world for the show.

Those people who complain that the show was too dark and that Burton “didn’t understand the characters” are mistaking this as a reboot of the 60’s TV show. It’s not. “Wednesday” is based on original Charles Addams cartoons. Same source material as the 60’s show, but a different take. In fact, Burton was far more true to the characters and the cartoon vibe than the old TV show was. For example, the casting of Luis Guzman as Gomez is a lot more accurate to the look of the original cartoon Gomez, who was short, stocky, and rather brutish looking. As good as John Astin was, and Raul Julia in the films, they were not the Gomez of the comics. 

I thought it was interesting that the only elements of the old TV show you saw in “Wednesday” were sort of cleverly snuck rather that overt inclusions. No spoilers here, but the “double snap” from the old show’s opening is worked in, among other things. Also, no elements of the 60’s TV theme song were heard, unless I missed them. I am curious if Burton intentionally avoided those elements that identified strongly with the 60’s show on purpose, or if copyrights were at issue. Someone wrote me to say that “Thing” was part of the TV show only. If that’s true then there goes that theory!

Anyway it was a fun show, and we are hoping for a second season!