This August, the newest TV adaptation of The Addams Family, Wednesday, returned to screens for a second season. Although the show first gained popularity with its first season in 2022, it has consistently received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences. 

Some viewers praise the show’s ability to hold the attention of its audience, while others frown on its generic plot and seemingly basic character dynamics.

Debatably, both opinions are fair because the show is inconsistent in every regard. One episode will be fast-paced and have you on the edge of your seat, but the next will be unbearably slow and have you dozing off. It’s as if the writers have off days, where they’ll simply copy and paste a similar subplot of Harry Potter and insert the different characters into it. 

This season, Netflix made the executive decision to split the release into two parts, in hopes of gaining attention and extending their time at the top. Cutting the season in half faltered the momentum built in the first part, causing a 43% decrease in viewership. During the break in between the two parts, it was easy to forget that there was even a wait for the second half. Although the end of the fourth episode was action-packed, it didn’t invoke a dire need for more information. It was a generic plotline that audiences already knew the outcome; it didn’t leave much to guess. The episode built up this major cliffhanger of wondering if Wednesday will survive her plummet out of the window, however,  the show is quite literally named after her, and evidently, she won’t be killed off mid-season. 

Not to mention how they reused almost exactly the same antagonist plotline as the season before, the seemingly innocent would n’t-hurt-a-fly authority figure who turns out to be the deranged villain. The writers made the antagonists’ true natures seemingly clear-cut; it’s concerning how oblivious they take their viewers to be. The writers spent far too much time introducing dozens of new side characters and subplots when they should have spent more time developing their most prominent plots and making them more complex and unpredictable. 

Fast forward to episode 6, Wednesday and Enid swap bodies. Yes, swap bodies. You may be asking yourself, Why is this show trying to replicate the smash hit 2000s movie Freaky Friday? To that, I truly don’t know. 

Don’t get me wrong, the actresses did an unbelievably good job at replicating the others’ mannerisms, making their swapping of bodies incredibly convincing. They can be applauded for that, but almost every episode is unoriginal and utterly basic when it’s supposed to be unconventional and offbeat. The campy gothic visuals paired with Jenna Ortega’s outstanding performance as Wednesday made the show somewhat bearable. Other actors’ performances, however, fell much too short. 

This season once again reminded me of my confusion about Gomez’s character. First off, what went through the casting directors’ minds to cast Luis Guzmán as Gomez? He has never once embodied the character in any way, shape, or form. He has absolutely no chemistry with Morticia, which is supposed to be the most major part of their marital dynamic. This casting baffles me. Secondly, why is Gomez even there? He provides nothing substantial for the plot except for poor acting and a few side comments. It was uncomfortable to watch.

The character dynamics and relationships were developed lazily, while Morticia and Gomez’s interactions were disappointing, similar to Enid and Ajax’s. The whole cheating plotline was hard to watch and seemed very out of character for Enid, which is what made the audience fall in love with her last season. The writers justified it by saying it was representing her “change” after becoming a werewolf, but really, it was just doing Ajax dirty.  It seemed ike the writers were desperate for another love triangle, so they budged this in, and it did not work.