Wednesday, where adolescence is the scariest part: Tim Burton’s brilliantly macabre show cuts through teen drama clutter

Wednesday (played by the wonderful Jenna Ortega) is packed off to the Nevermore Academy after setting piranhas on a bunch of bullies. Wednesday has issues with her mother too; we get fleeting glimpses of The Addams Family, as a fabulous Catherine Zeta Jones plays Morticia. Yet, she grudgingly accepts that her parents’ upbringing was effective, as they taught her to fend for herself and be independent. This is encapsulated in the dialogue that Wednesday tells her father Gomez, where she relates how he taught her to hold all gruesome implements from childhood onwards, ensuring that she always knew how to fight back.

The Nevermore Academy is this spooky castle filled with all the fantastical creatures you can imagine, but with deliciously fresh twists. There are werewolves, sirens, gorgons and generally spooky pack of students, and everyone’s struggling with their own issues, with parents, themselves and their powers. It’s worth mentioning that the show has a new reimagining of sirens, creatures who possess the ability to modify someone’s mind and create distrust. Joy’s Sunday Bianca takes the lead here and gets a Mean Girl-esque introduction akin to Rachel McAdams’s Regina George as Enid says she is ‘the closest thing to royalty’. However, she isn’t the typical mean kid in school, she’s actually hypnotic to watch in scenes, as her story is slowly revealed through the series. Yet, ironically, she also has a strong moral ground and refuses to partake in Wednesday’s methods of torture after she straps a boy in chains and tries to pry the truth out of him. It’s these tiny details that make each character so distinct and fleshed out in this story—-there is no flat or dull tertiary character. The dialogues are sharp, witty, cutting and wonderfully outlandish at points, bringing a new flavour to all the unusual creatures in this school.

The school is run by the perpetually cheery Professor Weems (Gwendoline Christie), who is also Wednesday’s mother Morticia’s old roommate. You are so completely sure that there is something totally off with her, but as it turns out, she just fits in with the spooks of the school. That’s the brilliance of the show, like Wednesday, you almost begin to suspect every second person, and like her, you’ll make many wrong conclusions too. Everyone’s a little batty here.

The friendships among outcasts

Nevermore is a school of outcasts, and the show deftly portrays the tension between the ‘freaks’ and the rest of the town, or ‘normies’ as they’re called. Wednesday isn’t bothered about being an outcast or being alone; our gloomy voice of doom would prefer it this way. But unfortunately much to her annoyance, she meets people who trudge their way to her seemingly black heart. Wednesday’s antithesis is the overtly cute and bubbly Enid, who insists on bringing joy to our anti-heroine, much to her chagrin. She’s a werewolf, but gets scared easily. Wednesday’s morbidity can’t trump Enid’s pink cheer; the latter takes it in her stride. In a moment of dark sweetness, Wednesday’s protectiveness gets the better of her, when Enid asks, “What if he breaks my heart?” Wednesday answers, “I’ll nail-gun his.” Ouch, but sweet.

Another heart-warming friendship is between Wednesday and a sweet bee-keeping nerd, Eugene Ottinger. In a normal show, he would be the normal and stereotypical nerd—but this is a Tim Burton show, there’s always something unusual about even the clichés. He’s the earnest companion, who wants to get to the bottom of the mystery too at any cost—even if it involves charging into a dark forest to investigate a monster’s whereabouts. Without betraying excessive emotion, Wednesday is duly concerned and upset after he is attacked and hospitalised, making frequent visits, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.

Wednesday’s close friend is also Thing, a disembodied hand from The Addams Family series. It’s intriguing to see a wholesome friendship between a human and a hand, but the show carries it off perfectly. Thing is especially close to Wednesday’s heart, as proved when it’s attacked unceremoniously and almost dies. A tear-filled Wednesday stands over Thing as her Uncle Fester struggles to revive him, promising hell if it doesn’t survive.

And so, away from the world of ‘normies’, close friendships begin to form in this school of lonely souls, as Wednesday and her newfound friends try to uncover the identity of the monster who walks among them. Wednesday wearily realises the importance of friendships after she drags them into her escapades as she hunts down mysteries, almost endangering their lives.

The love triangles

Romances are the staple of all teen dramas—and unfortunately most shows get so absorbed in the steamy scenes that they forget to give us a coherent storyline.

However, what do you do when a teenager like Wednesday is involved? Tim Burton introduces several possible love interests for Wednesday, and yet, doesn’t craft a storyline that makes her act out of character. Rising infinitely beyond Riverdale and The Vampire Diaries, Wednesday is too busy with tracking down a macabre mystery to notice boys. She’s rather perplexed too, when she realises that one is particularly besotted with her, “I don’t see why you would like me,” she tells him blankly. Wednesday stays true to her character, rejecting advances left, right and center—she’s got no time for the sickness called romance. She frames the wrong man, and she realises that he’s innocent after she gets her first kiss from someone else, owing to her power of grisly visions. There’s a hint that the ever-sweet Eugene might be interested in this dark heroine too, as he looked particularly forlorn to see her at the dance with someone else. If he had just waited, he would have seen her pulling the best dance moves in history.

Tim Burton’s Wednesday sets the bar high for teenage dramas, with several taut storylines, fleshed-out characters, packed with biting and scathing dialogues. There’s not a single dull moment in the show, it packs all the punches, and yet has its subtle messaging that can be gleaned from the show.