Accompanied by Fester, Wednesday will set out in search of Enid, who is permanently stuck in her Alpha werewolf form and headed straight for the Canadian border. While Canada is already a long way away from home for the intrepid detective, her search will take her even further afield, as Netflix confirmed that Wednesday will also make an overseas stopover in Paris, France. Clearly, the show is steering away from its dark academia, high-school drama genre, turning Wednesday into a globe-trotting mystery adventure instead. While the appeal of expanding the show’s horizons is understandable, there’s a danger of it losing something vital, too.
Why Wednesday Season 3’s Genre Change Could Ruin The Show’s Fun
While Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday and the show’s stellar Addams family cast remain a huge draw, much of the show’s charm and sense of fun comes from its creepy, Gothic boarding school setting. Throwing a bunch of misfits together in a school specifically made for misfits, watching them grow, make friends, and occasionally stab each other in the back has been a real treat. Wednesday shines when she’s on her own — and she’ll tell anyone who will listen that that’s how she prefers it — but there’s something undeniably compelling about watching her learn to work with others wildly different from her.
Her friendship with Enid is a great example. Would those two have become as close if they’d never been roommates in Nevermore’s attic? That forced proximity is a fundamental part of the show’s structure, and it’s what has allowed Wednesday to grow as a character. If she’s left largely to her own devices, there’s a danger that her character development will stall. Sure, she’ll have Uncle Fester, and she’ll undoubtedly meet people on the way to Canada and Paris, but when the option to leave is always there, what will she be able to learn? Who will challenge her?
Why Wednesday Season 3’s Genre Change Could Revitalize The Show
At the same time, expanding Wednesday’s and the show’s horizons could genuinely revitalize the series, too. A high school story only has so many seasons to give. At a certain point, the students will move on, and only a handful of shows survive the shift to college — Wednesday‘s genre peer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was one of the lucky few. By establishing a world outside Nevermore now, before the students try on their caps and gowns for the first time, Wednesday will give itself room to become something new, experimenting with different types of mysteries and tapping into more of the show’s established supernatural world in an episodic format.
A bigger scope also gives other Wednesday characters a chance to be in the spotlight. While this will always be Wednesday’s show, her family members are just as intriguing; one of the best parts of season 2 was the introduction of Joanna Lumley’s Grandma Hester Frump. Tim Burton’s longtime collaborator, Eva Green, will be joining Wednesday season 3 as Wednesday’s missing aunt, Ophelia, cracking open a whole new side of the Addams family’s mysterious history and giving Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Morticia someone to spar with other than Wednesday.
Nevermore has proven to be a great way to establish Wednesday‘s supernatural aspects and tone, and provided Wednesday Addams with a contained, relatively safe environment to hone her investigative skills and psychic gifts. Now, however, in season 3 (and potentially beyond), she can truly spread her raven-like wings and become the supernatural detective powerhouse she was always meant to be.