Parents' Guide to

Wednesday

TV Netflix Drama 2022
Wednesday Television: Poster image

Common Sense Media Review

Joyce Slaton By Joyce Slaton , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 11+

Dead bodies, spooky imagery in darkly comic drama.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 11+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 12+

Based on 75 parent reviews

age 16+

DEEPLY MACABRE GENRE AND GRAPHICS

This is superb entertainment for 16+ to adults. However, NO CHILD, I mean, ABSOLUTELY NO CHILDREN UNDER AGE 14, especially, should be watching this, and here's why. It's a deeply DISTURBING MACABRE GENRE with themes that any child confused by its plot, and story development will google out of curiosity. The first episode visually depicts and introduces body dismemberment, decapitation, guillotine, sadism, murder, bloodthirsty piranhas, and testicles. There's a lot more to this, obviously. Some of you might say, "Sure! My kids are into horror disturbing flicks, and they'll be introduced to it anyways, so it's fine!" As someone who studied child psychology, I know there are many, many, many neuro imaging and neurobiological research and literature on mental health outcomes of children who are exposed to horror, disturbing and inappropriate themes before they can fully grasp the reality of strong adult content. HARD NO FOR KIDS UNDER 14. RECOMMENDED 16+
age 16+

Too much tortured adolescent vibe with parental issues

What's the Story?

This time, WEDNESDAY (Jenna Ortega) has really done it. Expelled from her latest school, she's being sent to Nevermore, the "school for outcasts" where her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez Addams (Luis Guzman), met and where Wednesday's downbeat approach to life might finally be appreciated. Alas, there's been a spate of murders in Jericho, the small town near Nevermore, and it falls to our heroine to solve the mystery under the watchful eye of her new principal, Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (75 ):
Kids say (341 ):

Beautiful to look at and perfectly cast, this promising dark series breathes new life into a classic character. Ortega is absolutely, positively the ideal Wednesday and a worthy successor to Christina Ricci, who memorably inhabited the character in two popular 1990s movies (and here shows up as Wednesday's dorm house mother, who may have hidden depths). Ortega's darkly ironic humor and barely concealed emotional pain add depth to her portrayal, and it's clear that her relationship with mom Morticia is a relatably complex one, with the two sparring and supporting each other by turns.

The boarding school setting may make some viewers miss the whole family's antics, as they've always been a loving and supportive unit despite their dark and spooky ways. But teens and tweens will enjoy the school-set murder mystery, with its Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe, as it deals with a family secret that stretches back to Morticia and Gomez's time at the school and a mysterious Big Bad that (naturally) Wednesday alone can dispatch.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how the supernatural has traditionally been portrayed on television and in movies. Think about how supernatural powers figure in some of the things you've watched. Are the people with powers depicted as heroic? Monstrous? Why does it vary, and what does this say about what the supernatural represents to us?

  • Why is it important that Wednesday is young? How would this story change if she were an older character? What's interesting or special about youth, and why is it so often the center of drama? What types of stories make sense for young characters and not older ones?

  • Families can also talk about the series of comics on which Wednesday is based. Why would this series transform the light comedy of the cartoons into dark drama?

  • Have you seen other versions of Wednesday/the Addams Family? If so, which is your favorite, and why?

TV Details

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