In exactly one week from today the show that made The Addams Family more well known to the Tiktok crowd comes back. With there not only being a second series of the show but also a recently CONFIRMED third series as well it's safe to say that this show isn't going anywhere for a good long while and as such I thought that i'd go back and review the episode that started it all and so then join me as I review the episode that sees Wednesday basically join Hogwarts with the episode in question being called simply just "Chapter I: Wednesday's Child Is Full Of Woe" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when she is expelled from high school Wednesday is sent to the same school where her parents fell in love. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that he actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As even tho it was hard to summarize just what the plot of this episode is that's more due to the streaming nature of this show and not due to the quality of the plot itself as here in this first episode all we get is what is the set up for this first series and that's it and well to bee fair in a streaming show that's really all you need as people can always just watch the next episode right away if the set up is good enough like it was here as while we do get alot of the series overall plot in this episode which was sprinkled all throughout the episode it didn't over power the main plot of this episode which was Wednesday just getting adjusted to this new school and meeting all of these new characters as instead the series overall plot and the episodes plot worked hand in hand together and while yes granted the episodes plot could have been alot more stronger as if anything the plot that was summarized could have been the basic premise of the episode as it's not that strong of plot and not really focused on that much but again it doesn't need to be as we have all of the other episodes right there to watch and while first impressions are everything this episode does leave a good enough first impressions that you can somewhat forgive it for not having the most strongest of plots with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and Gwendoline Christie as Principal Larissa Weems. Also starring in this episode is Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair , Riki Lindhome as Dr. Valerie Kinbott , Victor Dorobantu as Thing , Jamie McShane as Sheriff Donovan Galpin , Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin , Percy Hynes White as Xavier Thorpe , Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay , Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus , Naomi J. Ogawa as Yoko Tanaka , Christina Ricci as Marilyn Thornhill , Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams , Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams , Iman Marson as Lucas Walker , Max Pemberton as Dalton , George Valentin Burcea as Lurch , James Clay as Ethan Hanson , Caroline Lawrie as Martha , Johnna Dias-Watson as Divina , Oliver Watson as Kent , Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Deputy Ritchie Santiago , Calum Ross as Rowan Laslow , Cezar Grumăzescu as Coach Vlad , Simon Furness as A Farmer , Islam Bouakkaz as Carter , Morgan Beale as Jonah , Karina Varadi as Young Wednesday Addams , Daniel Himschoot as The Hyde Monster and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / resented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With alot of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances in this episode and really starting to make there characters really feel there own which is something that must have been hard to do for the episodes legacy characters as each member of The Addams Family have been played by several different people over the decades and yet the actors in this episode still found a way to make them feel like making the characters their own and while yes some actors don't get as much screen time as others as quite literally every single member of The Addams Family except for both Thing and of course Wednesday get around five maybe ten minuets of screen time total and then get written out of the episode which does mean that we the audience really can't get that solid of a handle on their performances but from little of them that we see the actors playing them do do a solid job of portraying these iconic characters with of course the best actor in this whole entire episode being Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams as she just steals every single scene that she's in and is quite clearly just having a blast playing this character with enough actors that's having a blast in this episode being Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair as while she doesn't quite match what Jenna is doing with Wednesday Emma does make Enid seem like a very fun character and someone who is perfect to be friends with Wednesday with both actors really bringing their best work out of each other with the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as hey are written and a good performances will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Agog Special Effects and Rocket Science VFX. Now then interms of what u personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGU that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with the episode having alot of really decent looking effects shots in it however that the same time tho the episode does also contain alot of really goofy looking effects as while things like well Thing himself do look good with the same thing also being true for alot of the sky alterations that are in the episode what doesn't look all that good is The Hyde Monster as it does look a little two much like a cartoon character to be taken seriously in a live action setting this is despite the fact that the design for the character does look good and suitably creepy it just needed better quality effects to make it look actually scary and while the piranha fish that Wednesday uses at the start of the episode do look good in some shots in others that do look pretty bad but given that there only in that one scene and aren't seen every again it's forgivable the effects team didn't give them alot of attention as the episode does have alot of other effects that need there attention and therefor it's understandable that they would turn out to OK at best but at the same time tho when the next big effects heavy creature that we see is The Hyde Monster with him looking like a cartoon character it really does make you wonder why the effects team didn't put more time and money into making him look good as they quite clearly had the resources to do so but at the same time it very easily could have been a budget issues as they'd have to stretch out this shows effects budget across several other episodes.
Enid in this episode was a nice addition to the episode as she's everything that Wednesday just isn't which is what makes her a fun character. As there two characters that deep down do need each other as Wednesday wants friends and Enid just needs someone anyone outside of her family to care for her and while that doesn't mean that there infact couple as there not a couple it is something that does make them good friends even if they don't know it with the one thing that makes Enid a really annoying character it's the fact that she's a character that is so obviously meant to be the character that todays Tiktok loving generation can get behind as she talks and acts exactly like them and when you add in the fact that the episode doesn't really give her any character flaws it is something that could potentially make her a badly written character with really the only thing about her character that does seem interesting in this episode is we are told that she's a wolf that can't wolf out and while this is something that does obviously set up her character arc for this season with it even ending exactly how you think it would do it is something that could make her an interesting character as now we the audience have a character outside of Wednesday that we want to see achieve their goal no matter how small the goal is interms of the bigger picture with the only thing that could have been changed about her character from this episode being the fact that she's basically just there for the Tiktok crowd and therefor does feel out of place when she's in a scene with quite literally any member of The Addams Family as while even tho The Addams Family have always thought that being normal was to them weird it would therefor seem out of character for someone like Wednesday to talk to let alone befriend someone who in our eyes is normal when Wednesday would infact be more interested in someone who is in to the things that she's in to.
One of the thins that the episode gets wrong is the fact that it treats Wednesday as being the bad guy at the start of the episode. As while yes granted setting loose two bags full of piranha on the school swim team is a bad thing she only did that because of the act that they picked on her brother so all she was doing was standing up for Pugsley something that is in her character to do as The Addams Family is a very close knit family and so of course she would stand up for him she even says as much in the scene where she sets the piranha loose and yet for some odd Morticia and Gomez still kind of treat her like she was in the wrong for doing something that kept her brother safe from further harm and while OK granted The Addams Family never directly hurt anyone and would never directly cause harm to anyone they would still sick for of their own and they would still defend one of their own as well and while Wednesday could have found another way to get her revenge for her brother to do literally anything else would feel out of character as after all she outright caused a riot at the camp in Addams Family Values just because of the fact that she , her brother and all of the over people that the camp owners and some of the campers deemed to be weird and out of place and yet she still did it because that's in her character and yet her parents didn't punish her for that they applauded her for it and yet here while she's doing the exact same thing by defending her brother they punish her for it which makes no sense and it seems like an excuse for the makers of the shoe to get her into this school when they didn't need one as they could have started the episode with her being driven there and that's it.
For some odd reason the maker of this episode chose to have the school Nevermore Academy look pretty much how The Addams Family Mansion looked in the 1991 film. So much so that it would be forgivable if people thought that this show took place in the house as from the outside they do look the exact same and while that's not a bad thing as the house did look pretty good in that movie all it does is remind you that you could have been watching the 1991 movie and it makes you wonder if what your seeing was actually the families house or not from that movie but just reused as the school for this show and speaking of the school the idea of having a school for all of these supernatural people is a good idea as it does make sense that all of these types of characters would eventually need a school like this it just reminds of you Hogwarts as the school in the Harry Potter films and the school in this show fill the exact purpose and even have a main outside area that does look kind of similar with the only difference being in this school people have all sort of magical powers and aren't just either witches or wizards and that's it with even the school itself having alot of character to it that does make it look like a charming place almost as if it's a character in it's own right with the very idea of tieing this newly created to the Addams legacy in this case in being where Morticia and Gomez not only met but also feel madly in love with each other was a good idea as it's a good way to tie into the legacy of these characters and while the design of the school does look like the house from the 1991 movie it does also feel like something that Charles Addams himself would design as it does have this dark and almost gothic look to it that makes it perfect for the world of The Addams Family.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty nine minuets and twenty seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grad total running time for all of this show as alot of this shows episodes also had a very similar running time to it as well with it being helped by the fact that this episode really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time as even tho this episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely it's also an episode that does really need to be that long due to how much plot for the season as a whole that it needs to set up including why Wednesday is even at this school in the first place and while this does come at the expense of giving the episode an actually strong plot as for a whole it does seem like Wednesday is just doing things purely for the sake of doing them and not because of the fact that it's to forward what little plot that this episode has going for it in the first place with same thing even being true for the episodes characters as well as while Wednesday Morticia and Gomez come across as being decently well done with of Wednesday being the better of the three characters none of this episodes new characters get alot of screen time to get across what there personality is alot of the time thus making them come across as being very one dimensional this is something that is only an issue because of the fact that the episode introduces so many characters all of whom will play a part in the first season of the show and yet doesn't bother in this episode to give us a reason as to why we should like them or even what there personality is in the first place with the only exception to that being of course Enid and that's really it but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well the in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With Wednesday and even Morticia having alot of really funny one liners in this episode episode all of which are really funny and while alot of them are basically just "the thing that the normal people like is weird to us" kind of jokes they are done so well in this episode with the episode even having alot of laugh out loud moments in it and while granted not alot of this episodes jokes are that memorable that doesn't stop them from being good with one of the episodes best jokes being when Wednesday is just hurling insults at Morticia and while she does take it on the chin Wednesday says something about not having a heart to which Morticia simply says "finally a kind word for your mother" which is such a good joke as it feels like something that the two of them would say and while Wednesday herself does get alot of dark jokes all of which are aimed at Enid the best one has to be when the statue is falling down towards her and all she's doing is thinking about how happy she'd be if she died which is a joke that her character would say and because of that alot of her jokes do oddly enough work as they all feel like something that she'd say with this episode having alot of jokes just like those two in it with nearly all of them working really well as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while we only have to wait a week to find out if the first half of the shows second season will be any good what can be said for sure is that not only this first season of the show but also this first episode set the bar really high as this is a really good first episode that really does sets the tone for the rest of this first season as it's just that good of an episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at lest. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does ern itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official The Addams Family fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official The Addams Family fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official The Addams Family fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.