History Series / Wednesday

Having been freshly expelled from another school, Wednesday (Creator/JennaOrtega) finds herself enrolled at Nevermore Academy, the alma-mater of her parents Morticia (Creator/CatherineZetaJones) and Gomez (Creator/LuisGuzman). There, she finally finds people as strange and offbeat as her … but also a dark, decades-old mystery. Also in the cast are Creator/EmmaMyers, Creator/RikiLindhome, Creator/JamieMcShane, Creator/PercyHynesWhite, Creator/HunterDoohan, Creator/GwendolineChristie, Creator/FredArmisen, and Creator/ChristinaRicci, [[RemakeCameo who famously played Wednesday in]] ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'' and ''Addams Family Values''.

* WomanWereWoes: In something of a TropeNamer, the series involves primarily the title character and her roommate at the Evermore academy, but other characters do possess shapeshifting abilities.
** With Wednesday herself, it is invoked and deconstructed. First by being named that way after a song, "Wednesday's child is full of woe" as discussed by her mother. And while she doesn't shapeshift, she remains resolute and true to herself and pursues the investigation of the mysteries at the Evermore with intensity. She is quite apart from the rest of the school staff and students. Her aversion to friendships, authority and even color gets her into a lot of trouble.

** Nevermore Academy is the ninth school in five years Wednesday is attending. We only see the cause of the expulsion that gets her sent to Nevermore Acadamy, the rest are left unrevealed.

* AdaptedOut: Grandmama Addams gets mentioned a few times but is implied to be dead.

* FighterMageThief / PhysicalMysticalTechnological: Surprisingly, three of Season 1's biggest villains fit this trope well.
** The Hyde [[spoiler:AKA Tyler Galpin]], TheHeavy for Season 1, is the Physical Fighter, being a powerful monster who is a physical threat to the heroes. [[spoiler:Only Enid's werewolf form is shown to be a capable match to him]].
** [[spoiler:Marilyn Thornhill (revealed to be Laurel Gates)]], the BigBad for Season 1, [[spoiler:is the Technological Thief]], being the [[spoiler:brains of the operation pretending to be a staff member of Nevermore Academy who is really utilizing parts of the Hyde's victims in creating a magical machine capable of ultimately resurrecting Joseph Crackstone. Oh, and she's also prone to use firearms as a last resort to kill Wednesday after the latter defeats Carkstone]].
** [[spoiler:Joseph Crackstone]], the GreaterScopeVillain for Season 1, is the Mystical Mage, [[spoiler:wielding dark magic upon his resurrection]].

''[[CharacterTitle Wednesday]]'' (also called ''Wednesday Addams'' on Netflix's social media pages) is a mystery comedy series based on Creator/CharlesAddams’ iconic ''[[Franchise/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family]]'' characters, centered on the daughter of the family, Wednesday Addams. The series was created by Creator/AlfredGough and Creator/MilesMillar and directed and executive produced by Creator/TimBurton. It premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} on November 23, 2022.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Wednesday's amulet[[spoiler: allows Goody's spirit to heal a mortally wounded Wednesday, but Goody tells her that once she does, they'll never see each other again.]]

** Wednesday's line: "I could eat Girl Scouts for breakfast" brings to mind the 1991 film where a Girl Scout offers to buy lemonade from Wednesday and Pugsley if they bought one of her boxes of cookies, only for Wednesday to ask if the cookies are made from real girl scouts.

** Pugsley eats Dr. Kinbott's potpourri.

** After [[spoiler:Crackstone's statue gets sabotaged by Thing]], she mentions that she would lead the inquisition on whoever is responsible but that she left her thumbscrews[[note]]a medieval hand torture device[[/note]] and rack at home.
** Once her relationship with Enid is described by Thornhill to be as "thick as thieves", Wednesday, having seen [[spoiler:Uncle Fester and Thing fighting because of the Kalamazoo heist]], mentions she has seen thieves ultimately turn on eachother.

* MonsterMash: We've got werewolves, vampires, sirens, gorgons, mermaids, psychics, shapeshifters and [[spoiler:[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Hydes]].]]

** Wednesday knowing how to dance (even in her own strange way) seems a little out of character for her, but in a well known scene from the original ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' TV show young Wednesday teaches Lurch how to dance using a similarly unusual style. Indeed, some of Wednesday's dance moves at the Rave'n are directly imitating Creator/LisaLoring's dances from the original series.

** In flashbacks, teenaged Gomez and childhood Wednesday are shown to more greatly resemble older live action versions of themselves.

** Wednesday is moved into Ophelia Hall. Ophelia was Morticia's sister in the original 1960's Series.
** Morticia visits a grave with a rose...and takes the bloom off the stem, as the character is known for doing since the original TV series.
** Fester's electric powers are extrapolated from gags in the TV show and 90s films where he was conductive enough to light a bulb in his mouth.

* NeverMeetYourHeroes: [[spoiler:Said word for word by Laurel Gates when her reanimated ancestor tells her to stop talking in a very misogynistic way]].

** Goody Addams is treated as if "Goody" is her first name. "Goody" in Puritan times would not have been a proper name-- it was an abbreviation for "Goodwife" and roughly the equivalent of "Mrs." or "Miss".

* AscendedMeme: The announcement for the second season has Jenna Ortega narrating how she has been hunted, haunted…and mimicked millions of times across the internet in reference to her viral dance. It’s capped off with the [=TikTok=] remix of Lady Gaga’s song “Bloody Mary” and shots of the iconic dancing.
* AsideGlance: During their talk after Outreach Day's conclusion with [[spoiler:Crackstone's statue being sabotaged]], Wednesday does one of these in typical KubrickStare fasion after her roommate asks:

* BookEnds: The season starts with Wednesday dropping a swarm of piranhas into a pool on behalf of her brother. The season ends with Eugene siccing a swarm of bees on [[spoiler:Laurel Gates]] to save Wednesday.

* CliqueTour: Enid gives Wednesday one, where she introduces her to the 4 main cliques of Nevermore. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent The Fangs]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent The Furs]], [[GorgeousGorgon The Stoners]] and [[OurSirensAreDifferent The Scales]].

* {{Cult}}: [=MorningSong=], a self-help cult [[spoiler:whose membership is maintained by Bianca’s mom’s siren song.]]
* CustomUniform: The Nevermore Academy prominently feature indigo striped blazers and ties. Wednesday herself gets a monochrome version of this outfit due to her color "allergy".
* CutAndPasteNote: In one episode, Wednesday receives a note written in cut-up newsprint reading IF YOU WANT ANSWERS MEET INSIDE CRACKSTONE'S CRYPT. MIDNIGHT. [[spoiler:Turns out it was a ploy by Enid to get her to come to a surprise birthday party]].

** Enid's mother is well ... a bitch who is obsessed with Enid wolfing out, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything to the point of being willing to send Enid to conversion therapy to make her a normal werewolf]]. Not for her own sake, mind you, but because she's concerned about the family's reputation and Enid's place in the pack. On the other hand, Enid has a much healthier relationship with her father, who accepts her for who she is.

--> '''Enid (looking at Wednesday's cat costume):''' O.M.G, You look purr-fect! Only thing, where are your whiskers?\\

* DeathByRacism: Inverted. The first victim is a hiker who, when a local warns him about Nevermore, says that he's not afraid of them and that he once had a werewolf counselor. [[spoiler:Given how the monster is being controlled by Laurel, who hates outcasts, it may or may not have been deliberate.]]
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals: The show uses "outcasts" as a catch-all term for the differently-human, including vampires, werewolves, sirens, gorgons and -- well, whatever the Addamses are. Flashbacks show that it dates back to at least the time of Crackstone; in the present it continues to be used by "outcasts" and "[[{{Muggles}} normies]]" alike, even among those who at least grudgingly tolerate the others' presence.

** Pugsley ate Dr. Kinbott’s potpourri.
** Uncle Fester tried to eat Eugene's bees.

* FirstNameBasis: A moment played for drama--in her urgency to [[spoiler:save a stabbed Thing's life]], Wednesday bursts into the Hummers' shack and calls out to her uncle only by "Fester", without the honorific, as she begs for help.

--> '''Ajax:''' She eats human flesh. Chowed down on that kid she murdered. You better watch your back.
--> '''Wednesday:''' Quite the contrary. I actually fillet the bodies of my victims, then feed them to my menagerie of pets.

* GroinAttack: Wednesday dumps a bag of piranhas into the pool, followed by one of the piranhas biting one of Dalton's testicles off as he lets out a blood-curdling scream.

* CastingGag: Creator/ChristinaRicci, who is best known for her portrayal of Wednesday in [[Film/TheAddamsFamily the films]] [[Film/AddamsFamilyValues from the 90s]], plays Wednesday's teacher and housemother Marilyn Thornhill.

** Uncle Fester's idea to apply a "Romanian sleeper hold" on Tyler might be a shout-out to the series' filming location -- unbeknownst to a casual viewer, most of the locations exist in Romania and are only slightly CG (viewers there debate by how much).

* PowerLimiter: The Sirens attending Nevermore wear necklaces that neutralize their siren song. They are not foolproof, however, meaning they may still subtly influence other students. That is the reason why Xavier broke up with Bianca in the past, since he could never be sure if his feelings were genuine or if he was manipulating him. [[spoiler:In the Season 1 final, when they need to use their siren song at full power to save the school, they remove the necklaces.]]

** The weathervane is the name of the yearbook Charles Addams submitted his cartoons to at Westfield High School.
** Uncle Fester's idea to apply a Romanian sleeper hold on Tyler might be a shout out to the series filming location - unbeknownst to a casual viewer, most of the locations exist in Romania and are only slightly CG, viewers there debate by how much.

* StealthPun: When Enid shows Wednesday around, she describes one group as "the stoners." It turns out they are gorgons and can ''literally'' turn people (including themselves) into stone.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Laurel Gates is the true villain of Season One. Under the false identity of Marilyn Thornhill, she infiltrated Nevermore Academy, awakened Tyler's Hyde form and corrupted him into being as twisted and evil as her, and used him to kill and gather body parts to resurrect her ancestor, Joseph Crackstone, in a bid to destroy Nevermore Academy and its outcasts once and for all.]] The SequelHook at the very end of the first season, however, implies that [[spoiler: both she and Tyler might just be pawns for a GreaterScopeVillain]].

%%* BrokenAesop: In "You Reap What You Woe", Enid's mother tries to pressure her daugther into attending a "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything lycanthropy conversion]]" camp to make her into a full werewolf. Enid's refusal is meant to be seen as her standing up to be accepted as what she truly is, an imperfect werewolf. This is severely undermined by the finale [[spoiler: when Enid successfully transforms herself into werewolf which implies that the conversion therapy would have been likely successful.]]
* CassandraTruth: Wednesday is telling the truth that Rowan is dead and a monster killed him. Nobody believes her, since he shows up afterwards. [[spoiler: Only it isn't Rowan, it's Principal Weems using her shapeshifting abilities to fool everybody]].

* TheDeadGuyDidIt: [[spoiler: Garrett Gates didn't actually die from Gomez stabbing him, but by accidentally poisoning himself with nightshade.]]

* EvilIsBigger: The monster towers over everyone. It's also a bit larger than [[spoiler: Enid's werewolf form.]]

** When he arrives for the Rave'n, Tyler is seen looking at the picture of the previous fencing team while waiting for Wednesday. [[spoiler: While it at first seems like he might have noticed Morticia, a later episode reveals that his mother, a fellow Hyde, is also in the image.]]

** [[spoiler: It's a bit rich for Laurel to hate 'outcasts', when she herself performs necromancy and blood magic using Goody's very own Grimoire to bring back her murderous ancestor, who in turn comes back to life wielding magical powers via a glowing staff. You might even call it all ''witchcraft'', one of the reasons that said ancestor burned people for, and she can easily be considered an actual witch for having ''succeeded'' at performing the ritual.]]

* ImpaledPalm: [[spoiler: A bit more serious than usual when the victim of it is ''Thing'']]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thing putting black bubble gum on the morgue's security camera so Wednesday could sneak around allowed [[spoiler: Laurel to murder the coroner without being seen. Of course, given how ruthless Laurel is, she probably would have just destroyed the camera but Thing still unknowingly helped her.]]

* NoodleIncident: Nevermore Academy is the ninth school in five years Wednesday is attending. We only see the cause of the expulsion that gets her sent to Nevermore Acadamy, the rest are left unrevealed.
** [[spoiler: Uncle Fester]] and Thing were previously involved in something called the Kalamazoo job. Nothing is really elaborated on, except that it went sideways and that Thing holds a grudge against [[spoiler: Fester]] for it.

--> '''Enid:''' We work. We shouldn’t, but we do. It's like some sort of weird, friendship anomaly.

* SchoolOfNoStudying: There are exactly two classroom scenes, only one of which contains anything resembling curriculum, an athletic competition, various extracurricular clubs and a line about homework, and that’s it. Otherwise you’d think Wednesday is at Nevermore solely to catch a killer, and the other students to be part of a Secret Society. Even in her downtime Wednesday primarily works on her novel, rather than anything school-related.

** At the end of the series, Wednesday starts receiving [[spoiler: pictures similar to the ones she found in Laurel Gates' music box sent directly to her phone; who this person is and why they're sending those pictures to her is not resolved.]]
** Bianca agreed to drop out of school once the semester ended to go help her mother with her cult-like organization. But due to the semester being cut short and everyone being sent home early this plot point ends unresolved. Bianca still makes plans with Wednesday for next semester and she seems to have found a real friend in [[spoiler: Lucas]] so it's possible she'll try to go back on her word.
* ShapeShifting: [[spoiler: Principal Weems can alter her]] physical appearance to imitate anybody, with no tells or clues. [[spoiler: She uses it to fool people into thinking that Rowan is still alive by imitating him after he is killed, then uses it to evade Thing by changing in a toilet to another form.]] In the final episode [[spoiler: she uses it to impersonate Tyler and get Ms. Thornhill to admit she was the mastermind.]]

** The TeamNormal teacher in a school of monsters and supernaturally gifted people, Marilyn Thornhill, is an obvious reference to Marilyn Munster of Franchise/TheMunsters.

--> '''Sheriff Galpin:''' From this point forward, you are forbidden from seeing Tyler, and you are forbidden from pursuing anything to do with this case, understood?

* TheUnmasquedWorld: While the series doesn’t bring much attention to it, it shows very clearly that "normies" such as the ones living in Jericho are very much aware that the outcasts are not regular humans. Most saliently, Principal Weems is more concerned about negative publicity for the outcast community than she is about their discovery.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: The Pilgrim bullies pick an awful time to badger Eugene ... right after he ate a ton of fudge. He immediately pukes all over them.

** For example, in "[[Recap/WednesdayS1E4WoeWhatANight Woe What a Night]]", after being asked if she intends to go to the HighSchoolDance, she says she'd rather stick needle in her eyes. And will probably do it anyway.

* [[YoureNotMyFather You're Not My Mother]]: Wednesday rebuffs Ms. Thornhill's attempt to connect by saying she already has a mother.

--> '''Lucas''': You are different!

--> '''Enid''': We work. We shouldn’t, but we do. It’s like some sort of weird, friendship anomaly.

--> '''Wednesday''': I've seen jackals with more control than you two.

--> '''Wednesday:''' You giggle when you text, which is a 24/7 addiction.
--> '''Enid:''' At least it’s not a migraine-inducing typewriter hammering into my head.
--> '''Wednesday:''' When not grinding your canines, you growl in your sleep.
--> '''Enid:''' As opposed to late night cello solos?

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Used in Pilgrim World. It's unclear whether it's intentionally bad or not. The most glaring example is Mistress Arlene saying "thoust heard me" (it should be "thou heardest me").

* AdaptationalUgliness: Obviously, a disembodied hand is never gonna win beauty contests, but this incarnation of Thing is more clearly stitched together like a science experiment gone wrong.

* HasTwoMommies: Eugene has two moms.

* DaywalkingVampire: Part of the school includes vampire students like Yoko who, aside from their eyes being more light sensitive, leading them to wear sunglasses and have a preference for shade, are unharmed by sunlight and can move around in the day without any issue.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires here spend much of their time together and Yoko is shown to come from a family of them, implying it's passed through genes. They are immortal with Enid noting that many have been at the school for decades without aging. They consume blood but are never shown feeding on anyone, getting it from blood packs. They are allergic to garlic with Yoko ending up hospitalized from consuming it accidentally but it doesn't seem to be fatal to them. They can also walk around in direct sunlight safely and with no harm or discomfort although their eyes are more sensitive to light, causing them to always wear dark glasses during the day. They also keep the same hours as humans and sleep at night and are not stated to have any aversion to holy items and can cast reflections.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"LittleDidIKnow I'd be stepping into a nightmare ...\\

** Wednesday's line: "I could eat Girl Scouts for breakfast" brings to mind the 1991 film where a Girl Scout offers to buy lemonade from Wednesday and Pugsley if they bought one of her boxes of cookies, only for Wednesday to ask if the cookies are made from real girl scouts.