Over the decades, Tim Burton has created classic gothic and horror themed films such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Corpse Bride.” 

This fall, Burton introduced the world to his newest project “Wednesday” that follows the Addams Family’s sardonic daughter and her latest skin crawling adventures. It is a great coming-of-age horror comedy, rated at TV-14. 

Mortica and Gomez are as infatuated with each other as usual. Pugsley joins the series played by Isaac Ordonez. Thing, our handy friend, is featured as an important sidekick to Jenna Ortega as Wednesday. 

After her expulsion from a typical American high school, Wednesday is forced to attend her parents’ alma mater, Nevermore academy. 

Inside the school are classic horror elements such as vampires, ghosts, werewolves and more. The sets of scenes have either a gothic and spooky feel or Jericho’s old time vibes (that certainly have spooky secrets of their own).

The show follows Wednesday on her mission to solve the murders occurring in town using her newly developing psychic abilities. 

First, the introduction to each episode was the perfect tone setter. We certainly see Burton’s creepy graveyard scenes with gnarly trees. We hear Wednesday’s cello, and get a glimpse of our favorite, Thing. 

The first season contains eight episodes that are roughly an hour long each. I watched them in two days because I was immediately wrapped up in the story. 

When seeing a new spin-off of the Addams Family, I was quick to assume it would be a disappointment. However, I have yet to be unsatisfied with a project from Burton or a performance by Jenna Ortega. 

Within the first week of the horror comedy on Netflix, “Wednesday” buried its competition for ratings when it broke the “Stranger Things” record of most-watched show. 

The music throughout the series was amazing. Like how many speak of the great musical works in the Star Wars original films, I was impressed. 

Digging deeper, the family is known to be Spanish, specifically Castilian. Wednesday is Latina; however, she has never been represented correctly in the past. Jenna Ortega is the first actor of Latinx descent to represent our favorite gothic styled teen. 

Wednesday’s roots are honored with songs such as “Tierra Rica” and “La Llorona” featured throughout the episodes. 

We also get snippets of Fleetwood Mac, Dua Lipa, Metallica and Antonio Vivaldi. Wednesday herself contributes to the jams by playing “Paint it, Black” by the Rolling Stones. 

On another interesting note, there are tons of other references to dig up in the Netflix show. 

For instance, each episode title includes the word “woe,” which means sorrow, great misery and troubles. This is not only a reference to the “Monday’s Child” nursery rhyme, but also a comparison from decades ago made by Charles Addams’ friend H. Kevin Miserocchi. He admired that Wednesday reminds him of the child of woe in “Monday’s Child.” 

My favorite reference was to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.” It’s a classic book-turned-film similar to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” which was also alluded to. The reference grows more and more relevant with each passing episode. 

For scary movie binge watchers and fans of thrillers, this show is amazing. I appreciate the fashion choice made throughout the film of Wednesday continuously wearing black despite the uniforms at Nevermore. 

Ortega mastered the teenager’s death oriented interests such as grave digging, and her monotone sass was delivered effortlessly. 

Although the horror comedy would have been perfect to release closer to Halloween, this allowed for all of our fans of the goth queens Mortica and Wednesday to continue their spooky celebrations throughout the winter season.