Rating: 4/5
Tim Burton’s “Wednesday,” greets viewers with a bloody start, with Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) takes gory revenge upon her brother’s bullies by unleashing piranhas into the pool. As she enters Nevermore Academy, following her expulsion from her old school, viewers experience a world of eccentricities while Wednseday explores murder, mystery and her own history.
As a viewer, it is important to notice how the black characters in the show are antagonists whose redemptions come quite late in the show. Bianca (Joy Sunday) is portrayed as a treacherous siren, and while she wasn’t the final villain, she still proved to be a thorn on Wednesday’s side. Burton was ignorant in choosing the black Mayor (Tommie Earl Jenkins) to own Pilgrim World, especially since the theme park is dedicated towards racist colonizers.
This isn’t the first time Burton has been called out for his treatment of POC characters. In Burton’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” Samuel L. Jackson, a starring actor, remarked the movie might’ve been the first time Burton casted a black character in his movies. The main cast in Wednesday are lighter skinned, and Burton’s hesitance to cast darker skinned characters, let alone in a positive light, is a disservice to viewers of the 21st century.
Nevermore Academy is also hypocritical to witness because despite being marketed as a school for outcasts, there is a great sense of conformism. Wednesday sticks out in the school of outcasts and is one of the few cynical people there. The students fear her murder allegations, despite being home to blood-sucking vampires and werewolves. Wednesday’s status as an outcast doesn’t reflect the values Nevermore pledges for, and is a poor attempt at creating conflict.
I enjoyed the interactions between Wednesday and Enid (Emma Meyers), her roommate at Nevermore. In a stark contrast to Wednesday’s gothic skepticism, Enid is a bubbly character with a penchant for gossiping. Their room is a clear reflection of their differences, with Wednesday’s side obviously being more gothic in nature.
The show also explores Wednesday’s psychic powers, and her ability to see events that had occurred in the past. Wednesday’s resilience towards figuring out the murders was quite admirable, and I loved how she utilized her powers rather than depending on them. The scene where Wednesday figured out a riddle regarding the Nightshades, a secret society within the school, was a stark example of her intelligence, and deduction skills.
Overall, Wednesday is worth the watch, and I would recommend watching it.