One of the biggest global hits on Netflix is the fabulously devilish show Wednesday Addams, who has been around since our early childhoods. The gothic kid is now a teenager that everybody secretly wants to be. The million-dollar question is whether she is better as a young girl, or is she more adored by fans as an adolescent?
Wednesday back in the day
Wednesday Addams has been a legend ever since she was young. In the films, Wednesday was a child played by the actress Christina Ricci (who plays a pivotal character in the TV series). Last year, Netflix released a TV series where Wednesday is an adolescent at a boarding school for the unusually gifted. Jenna Ortega stars as the amazingly spooky character. Ricci’s portrayal of the younger Wednesday Addams in the movies was beyond frightening, given her penchant for the macabre, as she decapitated her dolls, went around the house playing with swords, knives, and axes with her little brother, Pugsley, often torturing him for fun. In one of my favorite movies, she gets a baby brother that she and Pugsley try to murder on a regular basis — they drop him from the top of the stairs or try to slash his throat with their small guillotine. In another one of my favorite movies, she falls in love with a boy she meets in a summer camp after attempting an escape out of it because it is full of brightly dressed and hyper optimistic people.
Goth teenage Wednesday
Whether you prefer the Wednesday of the films or the Wednesday of the TV series, Wednesday Addams as a character is appealing to fans because she is unique and often misunderstood. Like almost every teenage girl, Wednesday is dark, to the extreme of being a personal revolutionary. She is the black sheep. And, while she acts like she doesn’t care, she actually wants friends and is capable of love. At the end of the first season, we even see her and Enid, the impossibly peppy roommate, share a hug. The whole world is buzzing with rumors of a season two on Netflix. I can’t wait to see what the new season will unravel, and I am sure neither can you. It is now up to you, reader, to decide for yourself whether you like Ricci or Ortega better. Or, perhaps, you love them both? I personally feel that Ortega is my favorite Wednesday Addams because she seems more glamorous, she’s in the spotlight more on the TV show, and she gets many exciting stunts to do.
By Ananya Srinivasan (year 9)
The Update 