Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 Review: Ghostly Returns and Successful Cameos

After an encouraging first volume, Wednesday’s second season unfortunately loses sight of the plot and its entire coherence, while remaining enjoyable. Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 arrives on Netflix with the task of closing the plots started in the first four episodes and relaunching the narrative in view of the third season. After an energetic and promising first block, the last episodes move between family revelations, supernatural apparitions, and new alliances. The result is a satisfactory ending in some respects, but it also leaves some doubts, especially in terms of narrative coherence and rhythm management. The series continues to play with gothic, macabre, and dark humor, again managing to be visually appealing and often fun, but also showing the limitations of a formula that risks wearing itself out. The second season of Wednesday is a bizarre creature, and we still can’t perfectly understand what went wrong (naturally, in a relative sense, given the positive evaluation, but well below the first season).

Or, more precisely, it’s clear to us what didn’t work, but we don’t fully understand the reasons, especially after the first volume, which presented itself as one of the most natural continuations of the 2022 debut. He took the desire to Netflix too literally to break the episodes into two sections too literally. Has the general vision, intriguing on paper, not kept its promises in reality? There wasn’t enough material for 8 episodes, so the secondary storylines had to demand too much space. We can’t know for sure. At the end of the day, we don’t feel like saying that this second season fails to entertain with extreme ease, with its cynical and biting humor and its delightful Gothic aesthetic. And there is no shortage of moments of a fair emotional charge, which are even more striking precisely because they concern the character of Jenna Ortega. It is the narrative and its structure that cannot convince us at all.

Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 Review: The Story Plot

After the cliffhanger at the end of episode 4, of course, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), she’s not dead – that would have been too easy. What he gets instead is a new spiritual guide in the form of Principal Weems, interpreted to perfection by Gwendoline Christie. It’s one of those twists that make you say “of course!” and at the same time you wonder why you didn’t think about it before. Willow Hall’s case could be solved, but Wednesday has yet to find a way to stop Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and save her best friend Enid (Emma Myers). And as revealed in the trailers, the threat may not only affect Enid: the entire Addams family is at risk.

Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 Review and Analysis

The true heart of the season confirms the bond between Wednesday and her roommate Enid, a relationship that in this second part acquires surprising depth. Episode 6, with its freaky Friday narrative device, allows Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers to explore the most extreme sides of their respective characters, giving comical and sincere moments. For the first time, on Wednesday, let’s go, learns to trust and –somehow – share. Enid, on the other hand, faces her dark side, accepts her nature, and discovers a new inner strength. The relationship between the two girls finally becomes the emotional pillar of the series, overcoming the forced love dynamics that had weighed down the first season. Agnes, a marginal character in the first half, also joins the group, finding her own identity and giving lightness and irony.

The most obvious flaw of the season is the decision –now increasingly frequent on Netflix – to divide the releases into two blocks. This breaks the pace, creates artificial anticipation, and leaves little scope for natural plot evolution. The second part of the season starts immediately with its foot on the accelerator, but it does so by sacrificing the construction of the new antagonists and secondary narrative lines. Some subplots close too quickly; others get lost along the way. The character of Bianca, for example, experiences a narrative arc that could have been interesting but is resolved in a hasty and unconvincing way. The overall impression is one of a race against time, more than a considered evolution of history. The Addams Family’s past continues to dominate the narrative. The mysteries linked to Gomez, Morticia, and their youthful secrets thicken, but this narrative choice ends up weakening the figure of Wednesday, transforming her into a pawn in a familiar game rather than an independent protagonist.

The series seems incapable of freeing itself from the need to link every event to the Addams lineage, risking suffocating the teen and scholastic component that had made the first season interesting. Grandmama Frump, played by Joanna Lumley, shines with charisma and sarcasm, but she, too, is used more as a tool to broaden the familiar “lore” than to build new narrative directions. If the main plot limps, the tastiest part of the season comes from its supporting characters. Gwendoline Christie returns to the scene as the spirit of Larissa Weems, offering an elegant and ironic performance that enriches the dynamics with Wednesday. Her presence, even in death, confirms how central her character was to the balance of the series. Lady Gaga, as Rosaline Rotwood, manages to surprise in a short but incisive part, far from the clichés linked to her public image. However, despite these brilliant inserts, the season struggles to handle the large cast: actors like Thandiwe Newton or Heather Matarazzo remain underutilized, while others seem to be brought in only to increase complexity without real need.

The conflict between Wednesday and Tyler, which began in the first season, continues to occupy a central space, but loses bite. The two chase each other, threaten each other, and touch each other without ever getting into a real clash. Repetition of this pattern makes interactions predictable and tension-free. Slurp, the zombie played by Owen Painter, also has his own story arc, but his presence seems more like a distraction than a real narrative element. Attempts to build new “monsters” and new threats often end up looking like accessories and fail to compete with the charisma of the main characters. However, the conclusion of the season manages to give a sense of closure, while leaving room for future development. The final cliffhangers, though a little’ phoned in, keep attention high and set the stage for a third season that will –hopefully– return to a more cohesive and less dispersive format. The direction, the visual sector, and the soundtrack remain at a high level, as does Jenna Ortega’s performance, always perfectly in part. But writing needs to find a clearer direction, less tied to the great family secrets and more focused on the peculiar world of Nevermore and its students.

But, as usual, let’s take the classic step back and try to resume the threads of the tale: after saving Nevermore academy, Wednesday’s summer (Jenna Ortega), she spends all in all quiet and placid, between attempts to hone her psychic powers and a hunt for a serial killer. Back at school, however, she discovers with terror that she has become its heroine as well as consequently its most popular student and, as if this wasn’t enough, a new murder and the vision of a terrifying death they force Addams, with her elitist pallor, to take on the role of the investigator for a second time. We had already anticipated it at the beginning, it is the most natural continuation of the first season (and we claim it in the best possible meaning), with essentially the same premise that sets in motion a frantic search for the long-dormant secrets of Nevermore and the same Addams family. With the only difference that now for Wednesday it is a personal matter, no longer a sort of entertainment that began almost so as not to succumb to boredom. Is a touch like this enough to differentiate yourself?

For a second season we believe so, a proven scaffolding that can serve to delve into many details on the lore of the outcast cosmos and close once and for all the plots left open 3 years ago (and with the hope that the third season already announced does not propose a murder to be solved, so it would be a problem that would be impossible to ignore). The Netflix series, however, is not satisfied with following an already known path and he puts many small improvements in his mix: the dialogue in general is much smoother and more spontaneous, with Wednesday‘s piqued and sarcastic responses standing out on it, much more centered and hilarious; about the eponymous protagonist, she is no longer inserted into a banal and out of place love triangle for the character (now Enid is at the center of sentimental storylines, equally boring and devoid of any chemistry or romance); the Addams family plays a more central role in the events, giving the whole an unexpected dynamism and variety. And it would be impossible not to mention aesthetics, an element we wanted to push more on and the results are excellent, especially in episodes directed by Tim Burton that exude style and creativity from every pore.

Whether they like them or not, Addams, it is undeniable that their humour and peculiar stylistic code are immortal, and the audience’s response to Wednesday is the most clear demonstration of this. So why did we start with such gloomy observations? Because all these improvements and additions (except the aesthetics, which remains constantly superb) apply to the first 4 episodes, namely Volume 1. The remainder, which we were able to preview, literally (and totally, we add) loses sight of the plot, and they present a disconcerting step backwards in terms of quality. Furthermore, a decline is evident from the very first minutes, which, without making any spoilers, practically resolves the disastrous and chaotic situation with which Volume 1 ends off-screen, eliminating tension and emotional charge. In short, we start almost from scratch, as if it were a new season, with just a couple of elements returning to act as a Trait d’Union. And here comes the immense problem of Wednesday: the elements that the screenwriters decided to take up and put at the center of the narrative are the secondary storylines.

The nefarious threat of the vision of imminent death is still present (and plagued by very lazy and redundant tricks), but it is no longer the focus. The plan seemed clear to us, to make the large number of characters on screen look suspicious in an attempt to make Wednesday feel surrounded, confused about what the ultimate danger will ultimately be. But it’s a vision that doesn’t come true even a little bit and Volume 2 it drags on awkwardly due to coincidences, forcing, nonsense decisions or sudden changes of mind of the various protagonists and Netflix’s annoying obsessive tendency to try to recreate the viral moments of its most successful series ad hoc (one episode specifically could have been the emotional climax of the season and instead it’s almost reduced to an infinite sequence of memes or unsuspectingly flawless scenes like social media reels). Luckily, the ending at least introduces a radically different and freer situation, yet there was a need to do better here already, although the whole is more than sufficient.

Wednesday Season 2 Part 2 Review: The Last Words

Wednesday‘s second season is truly a bizarre creature, perhaps paradoxically taking Netflix’s desire to break it into two parts too literally. The first, in fact, is one of the most pleasant and natural continuations of the 2022 debut, with many small, particularly subtle and appreciated improvements (the more fluent dialogues, the more centered humour, no love triangle for the protagonist, the Addams family more present to give variety). And in any case, a mystery that remained intriguing, from start to finish. The second part, however, completely erases these improvements, starts almost from scratch, and does so by putting the secondary storylines at the center, in an extremely ambitious attempt to mislead the viewer. An attempt which, however, fails, and what we have left are 4 episodes which proceed awkwardly with forcing and plot holes, characters who change their minds from one scene to another, and many (too many) attempts to recreate the situations that made the first season viral. Does he let himself be looked at as a whole? Yes, but we feel the annoying aftertaste of a wasted opportunity.

Cast: Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Gwendoline Christie, Joanna Lumley, Steve Buscemi, Lady Gaga, Isaac Ordonez, Joy Sunday, Owen Painter

Directed: Tim Burton, Gandja Monteiro, Paco Cabezas

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars)