Wednesday Season 2 Review

 WEDNESDAY
Season 2 Review
Netflix

*Warning! Moderate Spoilers!*

 

SEASON 2 of the hit Netflix series Wednesday has dropped to get us in the Halloween spirit. While eager to see where the story goes next, the verdict is it all feels a bit—much?

So many villains. So many plots. The biggest and strongest arc is the evolving Addams family dynamics, in which Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) has lost her premonition gift, and she is at odds with mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) about how to get it back. Wednesday’s stubbornness and refusal to listen gets a bit frustrating, but hey, teenagers. Steve Buscemi’s smarmy and superbly odious Headmaster Dort plays a driving force in keeping Wednesday’s parents at Nevermore Academy for the deadly duel between daughter and mother to play out.

And honestly, that would have been enough right there. Focus on the classes and what the Nightshades are actually learning to advance their skills, bring in the highly talented Gwendoline Christie as Wednesday’s ghostly new spirit guide much sooner, and it would have allowed much more character development and atmospheric tension to mount. Instead we get Tyler (Hunter Doohan), the monstrous Hyde from last season galivanting about, murderous crows pecking people’s eyes out and left and right, Wednesday’s dense younger brother raising a zombie, the Sirens worrying about an offscreen cult leader, a brief stunt with a cartoonish depiction of the militarized boy scouts, and Enid's love life, to name a few.  

By the way, does Hunter Doohan not look like uncannily Millie Bobby Brown?? The entire time, I’m thinking Eleven’s having a really bad day.

credit: positivenegativity8 - Reddit

All the scattered plot lines do come together in the end, but the emotional payoff is lacking. Thing starts bonding with other “parts” of a “whole,” and trying to reconcile with its identity moving forward, but then one of the key leaders driving this group gets casually killed off in the next episode. By the time Enid calls the Nightshades together to face the Big Bad, it’s utterly underwhelming because they’ve spent the entire season apart, and their teamwork hardly amounts to much. I did like the zombie/Frankenstein monster villain but it felt like that could have been an entire season unto itself.

As much, I hope for Season 3 that things slow down. We’ve got a great set up with hopefully just ONE family insider nemesis who potentially uses ravens to do her bidding? Is the spying bird with the bloody eyes a crow or a raven? (My theory is Judi Spannegel is a red herring.) Because as Hitchcock demonstrated, you can do enough with killer birds for a whole season. Less is more.

***Oh, and the part where the Addams family blows up a stop sign and then laughs it off, even as this action promptly leads to a car accident? Yeah, couldn’t respect these characters after that.

*The above is depicted as fiction, not fact

 

Doing San Francisco, CA with Toddlers

 

A VICIOUS CATCH-22 FOR PARENTS, to go on “vacation” with little ones. Our youngest is still cruising and not impressed with trolleys, Victorian and Edwardian architecture, and island prisons. She did, however, find the sand at multiple beaches quite eatable. Our oldest is close to four and did thoroughly enjoy San Francisco. We stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf, an ultra-touristy district with ultra touristy prices. We were fortunate to have comp nights to spend at a hotel within a ten-minute easy walk to sea lions, but if you don’t have a pool of those lying around, I’d recommend searching further out and then take advantage of the excellent public transit. The BART’s public electric train system had such a good reputation that we mulled taking it all the way from the airport, but ended up reserving a pay-up-front taxi ride through http://airporttaxicabservices.com/ on account of our mountain of luggage (easy to book, driver communicated with us via text within minutes of landing). 

Yes, there were the notorious driverless Taxis every few blocks as well, predominantly Waymo, an empty one of which eerily turned its wipers on in the rain. However, not something we'd take a chance on with kids.

Ghiradelli Square Fountain

Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf

You could wander the waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf for hours. Savor views of Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and Bay Bridge among harbors bobbing with eccentric vessels. Ripley’s Believe It or Not, a Ferris Wheel with wonderful views, Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, and fresh hot sourdough in the shape of animals at Boudin Bakery make it a family-friendly delight, although be prepared to spend an arm and a leg for those Dungeness crab melts ($92 for 3 Lobster Rolls).

Aquatic Park by Ghirardelli Square

Chocolate Sundaes at Ghirardelli's

Boudin Factory for fresh sourdough in the shape of animals at Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

Hopping aboard the easy-to-use bus system with a Clipper card gets you even more access to excitement like the Exploratorium and the Palace of the Fine Arts (the buses come frequently and prepare to be immersed in a melting pot of languages). Our one disappointment was we ran out of time to take a bus down to Chinatown for some noodles and dumplings, but Palette Tea House next to Ghirardelli’s was a mouth-watering delight.

You can see what people fall in love with San Francisco. It has a youthful, artsy energy swirling through the bones of these charming vintage houses, their detailed furnishings down to the doorknobs a treat, like you’re walking through a living museum on architecture.

Palace of the Fine Arts was a delight to walk through

A homage to Europe - even the ceilings were ornate

I highly recommend NO RENTAL CAR until you’re about to head out of the city metropolis to avoid being taken to the cleaners for parking (public transit quite easy with kids and no dealing with car seats!). We did a big circle over Bay Bridge to visit the Hayward/Pleasanton area, went up to Mendocino, and came back by way of Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge in the background of Crissy Field East Beach, within walking distance from the Palace of the Fine Arts

View of Coit Tower in downtown San Francisco

Every bit worth the hype, there is tons to do surrounding Golden Gate Bridge, from the Bay Area Discovery Museum for children, to old forts and lighthouses. The Baker Beach  and Ocean Beach area on the west coast of San Francisco had astounding views and jaw-dropping mansions (and the unique historical Sutro Baths remnant). We even were able to catch a glimpse of the urban bison in Golden Gate Park near Spreckels Lake. That gorgeously verdant park alone you could explore for days. Sight we ran out of time for but looked extremely intriguing: California Academy of the Sciences (had me at living roof).  

Ferris Wheel on Fisherman's Wharf

Pit stop where you can pose with a trolley car

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt our last night adjacent to San Francisco International Airport. Heavily recommended – soundproof building, the freshly squeezed orange juice is heavenly, and there is an air train that connects directly from the hotel to the airport, making it a stress-free morning to catch our return flight with plenty of memories to savor (when the kids give us time). It felt like catching a glimpse of just one mini-nation out of a multitude of diverse neighborhoods, embraced by the crowning glory of sunset dancing across the mighty Pacific.

 

Fisherman's Wharf at Sunset

The above is depicted as fiction, not fact