 Wednesday, Adams, an iconic character very close to my heart, and when I found out she's getting her own show starring the amazing General Tager, being directed by the visionary director Tim Burton, it was the recipe for a masterpiece, but it wasn't to be. Before I get into it, I just want to say that if you enjoyed Wednesday, great, I'm actually jealous of you because I personally really wanted to enjoy this, I really did. But in my opinion, it's so flawed and untrue to Wednesday as a character that I just couldn't have a good time. Maybe I'm not the target audience anymore and I'm just the old man shaking his fist at clouds. You could argue that the Adams family is really made for kids, but with the heyday of the Adams family being in the childhood memory of 90s kids, that's the audience I feel they should be playing to. This franchise means way more to them than young teens whose first impressions of the family will be this show. Let's start with Tim Burton. Burton is one of my all-time favorite directors. Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Batman, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all of these I've seen countless times and in the mid-2000s I was under the impression he could do no wrong because, well, he never missed. But as soon as we entered the 2010s, he kind of lost his edge when he was working with Disney. They obviously kept him on a tight leash and his Disney projects were missing that fantastical comedy with a horror edge that he was known for. Alice in Wonderland was okay in my opinion, but then we get disappointments like Dark Shadows and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Big Eyes was kind of a nice change of pace for him, but nowhere near what we've seen from him in the decade prior. Things got really bad when they put him in the director's chair for the live-action adaptation of Dumbo, a completely forgettable remake that was a complete waste of the man's talent. After enough time had passed where we finally got the bad taste of the Burton-Disney partnership out of our mouth, Burton finally broke free. He's actually confirmed he has no intention to work with the studio again after his experience directing Dumbo. Burton has said, quote, I realized that I was Dumbo and that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level, end quote. So the stars were starting to align. Burton was free of Disney and able to do what he wanted and Netflix wanted a director for Wednesday. A match made in heaven for a classic gothic Burton series, but instead, well... But let's start with the positives. Firstly, I love the cast. I am such a big General Ortega fan. She was an incredible Scream Queen in the movie X, and she really is cementing her horror icon status by embodying Wednesday perfectly. The look, the not blinking and even her cadence couldn't be more perfect. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman as Morticia and Gomez, perfect casting and don't even get me started on Gwendolyn Christie. I'm so glad she's getting more and more roles and getting the recognition she so rightfully deserves. It was actually kind of funny how astronomical the height difference was between her and Jenna. Christina Ricci, of course, known for playing Wednesday in the 90s movies does a great job playing a much different role here. Something else I loved was the music. Burton teamed up once again with Danny Elfman, who always perfectly underscores the worlds that Burton creates. Another thing they got right were all the costumes. Wednesday's custom black and white uniform and Morticia's goth gown were standouts for sure. But despite all these positives, they weren't enough to tip the scales in the opposite direction for me. Now we find Wednesday joining Nevermore Academy to get a supernatural education surrounded by other similarly talented students. The series follows Wednesday and Friends trying to solve a series of mysteries filled with murders and monsters. But let's talk about Wednesday as a character, not just in this show, but in general. Wednesday loves everything horrific and really couldn't care less about anyone or anything. But for some reason, here she selflessly begins passionately investigating mysteries that at first aren't even centred around her. So she's trying to bring justice to those that have done bad things, but also drops piranhas in a pool and later proceeds to torture someone. The double standard just doesn't make any sense to me. Why doesn't she support the corruption of the town and the killer therein? Then she could stay true to her character and become a sort of anti-hero. The sheriff got it right when he called her Velma and the Scooby-Doo gang, as that's basically what this is. It kind of feels like they could have swapped out the characters and made this a show about high school Scooby-Doo. And the tone then would have been way more appropriate. But let's talk about one of my biggest gripes, The Dialogue. This show has examples of some of the worst Hello Fellow Kids dialogue I've ever seen. Whoa. You're in black and white. Like a living Instagram filter. Ignore him. The constant quote-unquote relevant references and humour, her roommate Enid being one of the most guilty of this. Mess with me. This kid has got claws and I'm not afraid to use them. Wednesday even sometimes talks like Stewie Griffin in early seasons of Family Guy. Our first order of business is to escape this teenage purgatory. The fruition of my deeply-laid plans to escape from that cursed ovarian Bastille. The worst offender, though, is the beekeeper Eugene, who delivers lines worse than a Nickelodeon sitcom actor. Mom, I've got to go. Wednesday's my only friend and if she's in trouble, I've got to help her. It's hive code. But Wednesday is genuinely nice to him. I don't know why and it's very uncomfortable and out of character for her in scenes where she even says she misses him. Tells him not to go into the woods by himself. I get it. It's hard to make an evil character or protagonist without making them redeemable, but here it doesn't fit. You don't have to give Wednesday redeemable qualities as she's already likeable specifically for not having likeable qualities. Once you've taken away her wicked sense of humour and general lack of care, she's no longer as interesting of a character. By the end of the series, it almost seemed as if she was pretending to be dark and moody just to be cool, which completely rubs me the wrong way. To be fair, there were some campy moments they got right, like the snapping twice as a callback to the original theme song. I appreciate that. And Wednesday's dance scene was perfect. But another one of the biggest crimes this show commits is the fact that the mystery is, well, boring. I love all things The Addams family and I was struggling to pay attention to what was going on, forcing myself to stay focused, which really left me unbothered by what the answer to these mysteries was. And the ending is so ridiculous. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say the villain shoots a swarm of bees with a gun. Tim Burton directed the first half of the season, but it doesn't feel that way. Maybe the big eyes of the monster in the woods was reminiscent of his style, I guess. But there was none of his signature humour and what dark humour there was was watered down to bad modern day references. The second half of the season was exact same in quality of direction. Some episodes were even better in the second half. I couldn't even really tell when Burton wasn't directing, which shows how little his usual unique directing style had on this show. And it's such a shame. I want to try and defend the man, but the fact he hasn't released anything good in over eight years, it's really making it difficult. I don't know if this is a controversial opinion, but this show almost falls into the same category as Netflix's bad high school dramas like Sabrina and Riverdale. Maybe comparing this to Riverdale is unfair, but you know the type of show I'm talking about. The supernatural high school mystery pool is really starting to run dry for me. And it annoys me because all the pieces were there, the cast, the director, but the writing and direction was all completely wrong and managed to undo the entire thing. This could have been a dark, dread filled comedic thriller, but instead we got a tween drama with dialogue to match. There have been adaptations of an adult Wednesday spinoff before, unofficial ones mind you, but if they were to do this right, it doesn't even really have to be an R rated show as great as that would have been, but just darker and not this. All of this adds up to what will surely be an even worse season two, should it get renewed and by the look of the finale, it definitely will. But am I wrong? Most of the comments I've seen online are overly positive and I'm just not understanding how people are still enjoying it despite its flaws. Please let me know what you think. I'll be down there in the comments, but if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe for weekly videos covering your favourite movies and TV shows. If you subscribe during this video, then walk on the board and if you had a good time hanging out, then spank that like button. This is Matt Rogers and that is all.