Has anyone seen the Netflix series "Wednesday"?
If yes: what did you think of it?

I can say I enjoyed it for what it was (a series about a teenager in a boarding school, who gets confronted with a serial killer seeking his victims in the nearby town and the school).

But I also have to say, I wished they would not have used Wednesday Addams as the pivotal point.

Simply because it wasn't necessary.

The whole series would have worked if it was set in a normal boarding school, with normal teenagers and without anything supernatural involved.

And even if the creators of the series would have been adamant in their decision to make it a supernatural series...any other (newly created) main protagonist would have worked as good... nah, even better...than Wednesday.

Because, with Wednesday and her family, certain preconceived expectations are connected...of whom many, if not all, have been ignored/negated in the series.

Well, apart from Wednesday's deadpan delivery of morbid one-liners, of course.

But then again: ANY other 16 year old "my world sucks!" goth girl would have been able to do that.

So, for me, this series would have even better worked, if it hadn't revolved around the Addams family's most beloved offspring.

Just another example of the: "you have to be willing and able to ignore what has been before, then you can enjoy it!" - category.

What about you?
Agree with me? Disagree?

If you disagree: what - would you say - has the inclusion of Wednesday (and her family) brought into the series, that was crucial for its success, or: in other words - in what way would the series have suffered, if the Addams would not have been part of it?

yelling from the sideline:

only viewed the trailer a couple of times before heading on with Cyberpunk. It seemed like a nice show.

YaY - for the Addams Family

Yeah. Your comment "from the sideline" kinda supports, what I was suspecting: the only real reason to bring in Wednesday and the Addams family, was because that's a brand name that's almost guaranteed to pull an audience.

A) Hey boss, I've got here this idea for a series about a teenage goth girl who solves a murder at her boarding school.

B) Nah, boarding schools are too elite, nobody would want to watch this. We need something that draws in the masses.

A) Well, what if we exchange the everage goth girl with...oh, I don't know...[starts thinking]...Ha! I've got it! What if we make the series about teenage Wednesday Addams who solves a murder at her boarding school?

B) Genius! Let's do it!

Kay.

I liked Gomez's visuals, but the actor might've been too old to physically act out his passion as well.

Morticia was sexiness on point, but she lacked the murdery vibe.

Pugsley did well personality wise, but they should've padded him with some more chubbiness.

Uncle Fester was sadly leashed in his exuberance, but i believe it may have been a producer choice.

And personally, i think Wednesday lacked the gore at her core, but it may have been just a biased impression based on my long lost memories getting themselves mixed up on her character.

It was It though.

But, i did like the were-girl. Very bubbly when playful, very bloody when serious. Perfect supernatural guard dog.

I was considering to watch it, but I haven't done so yet. I hardly knew anything about it, except for its connection to the Addams Family, which I was never really into, but I thought it looked kind of cool. Learning that it's just another show with a serial killer plot though makes me less interested in it now.

I found the acting (especially from of Guzman and Zeta-Jones) kinda "wooden".
But maybe that was intentionally?
And yes - this Morticia was not "vampiristic" enough.

And hell yeah, Enid is great. And "bubbly" the best way to describe her. :)
My instant reaction to the moment when she said "howdy roomie!", with a broad smile on her face: "I want an Enid in my life!"
I absolutely love that role! Honestly? The fact that you "were never really into the Addams family" might actually make it more enjoyable to watch for you.
Just in case my thread may have given any wrong impression: my intent was not to keep people from watching the show - as I said in my initial post: I liked it for what it is.
Only the "Wednesday/Addams family" connection kinda felt wrong/unnecessary (to me).

But if anyone would ask me whether I think they should watch the show, my answer would be "yes! Absolutely!...just don't expect "more of the same of what you already know" about the Addams family".

lol again from the sideline: not sure if you watched the series Picard, but geez, there, at some point an interaction between a Spanish captain and a Mexican doctress. Believe me when i say that i was not harbouring any murderess thoughts, but i could have killed.

I don't use Netflix, so my only experience with the show is not much hearsay and girls on the internet dressing up and getting naked because of course. Oh, and YouTube trailers, but I always skip those, so my only point of reference is it's about the Addams Family but focused on Wednesday, and then you mentioned it's a murder show, and my only commentary here is why does everything have to be turned into a murder show? Archie, Scooby Doo, superhero shows that kill off a lot of people, and now the Addams Family? I'm glad I stopped watching TV if everything is going to devolve into nostalgia shows but reimagined with murder.

EDIT: This is hyperbole. I know there are perfectly good shows that are reimaginings that aren't about murder.

Hah. In france they do that with people.

Popular comedian ? Singer ? Sportsman ? Show host ? Let's make a tv series where they SOLVE MURDERS. It's like, two hours of THEM, and they SOLVE MURDERS. It's what the fans were dreaming of ! A twitter account, and a MURDER MYSTERY ON TV.

But hey, a few years ago it was the mandatory comics and hanna-barbera-like cartoon (and now for the wacky adventures of dean martin and jerry lewis, chuck norris, the beatles, mister t and the jackson five). The recipe changes but there's always one in the machine...

I enjoyed it for what it was, but there are a couple of things that bothered me:

A) The whole point of the Addams family is that they don't know that they're not normal. They firmly believe they are as normal as everyone else, and all the humorous situations start there. In the series they're pretty aware that they are "outcasts".

B) Like Isabella Swan from Twilight, everybody instantly likes/loves Wednesday for no reason, even though she's an insuferable prick 100% of the time. She improves towards the end of the season, but early on, it's annoying.

I just heard that Lisa Loring (= the original Wednesday from the 60s TV series) has died aged 64.
Way too early.
R.I.P.

I liked it.
It was clear from the start that they could not just repeat the same joke (Wednesday being Wednesday, one liners, death comments, torturing and so on) up forever, in fact that part of the show got old very quickly.
But they knew how to save the whole thing. Introducing the Nancy Drew style mystery was the right thing to do, giving the series an ongoing plot instead of just situation comedy. The combination was quite refreshing.

So in conclusion I totally disagree with the OP. A normal boarding school and one liners would have been the worst thing they could have done. You can do that for an hour, maybe two, but not for 10 episodes. For that amount of time you need more interesting characters, can't put the whole weight of the show on one. So it's either that ... or you give the character something to do during that time. They chose a mix of both, mostly the latter.

I agree that the premise worked well with what seemed to be the structure they wanted. An ensemble can rotate stories of the week every episode but to focus on one person, they need to have more going on. Murder mystery is kinda stock standard, but it's that way for a reason and I think almost everybody enjoys a good mystery.