Wednesday season 2 review: Nevermore has never been better in much-improved Jenna Ortega follow-up

After she saved the day and put Tyler (Hunter Doohan) behind bars, Wednesday has become a beloved hero of sorts in season 2.

That attention is excruciating because the only thing Wednesday loves more than sleuthing or embalming is being left alone. Headteacher Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi) even puts our favourite introvert centre stage in a special event to kick-start the new school year.

But beyond that unwanted attention, Wednesday the show must also contend with its own overwhelming popularity now.

The Addams Family is a cultural institution at this point, so it came as no surprise that Wednesday would fare well on Netflix, yet few could have predicted it would slither up the charts and end up becoming the streamer's most watched English language show of all time (with 252,100,000 views and counting).

As such, the quintessential underdog protagonist has quickly become one of the most popular figures on the planet. There's a tension in that which the first season didn't handle very well, leaning far too hard into commercial mainstream tropes that The Addams Family, for all its popularity, once defied.

Some elements of that first run wouldn't have even felt out of place on America's The CW, for example.

It would have been easy for season 2 to follow in that vein, repeating more of the same tricks to try and recapture the surprise success of season 1.

That's not the case though, thankfully. Instead, season 2 does exactly what a second season should. It builds on what made the first so popular while improving on what didn't work, like a new and improved Frankenstein creation that stitches stronger flesh to the skeleton of where we began.

The premiere opens with Wednesday facing off against a doll-obsessed serial killer played by Haley Joel Osment. It's creepy without being too scary, or too safe for that matter, straddling that fine line this franchise does so well when firing on all cylinders.

The signature Addams humour is key to this, established early on when the TSA force Wednesday to hand over various weapons in what feels like a Looney Tunes gag unfolding in live action.

Wednesday's dry one-liners remain a highlight, stinging in their emo absurdity. "You and father in the house alone fills me with a dread usually reserved for costume mascots," is a good one, but my favourite moment comes later when she hears a sad sob story and replies, "I play cello, not violin."

Ortega's performance in season 1 was already a fundamental reason why the show works as well as it does, and here she's further honed it to perfection, especially when it comes to minute changes in the character's incredibly stoic physicality. Buscemi is typically great too as the new headmaster who flounders around yet carries just a hint of menace.

Other newcomers who stand out, of which there are many, include Christopher Lloyd as a head in a box and Joanna Lumley, whose take on Grandmama fits just as perfectly as the gloves she wears on a jolly day out to a funeral. And the hair. The hair!

Everyone is immaculately clothed and presented thanks to Colleen Atwood and her costume design team, but it's Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) who looks the most divinely horrid, whether she's arguing with Wednesday or sharing a surprisingly atmospheric duet with Billie Piper's music teacher.

With so many new characters to introduce, some of the returning stars are given less to do. That makes sense for Tyler - who is inexplicably shackled and shirtless for pretty much the entire first half of season 2 - but less so for Enid (Emma Myers), whose friendship with Wednesday was a driving force of season 1.

That means the sizeable number of fans who ship these roomies together might feel short-changed this time around. But don't howl in despair just yet. The queer subtext is still apparent, especially when Nevermore's most colourful werewolf grows jealous of a surprising new friendship that Wednesday develops at the Academy.

There's less focus on the teen cast in general, which might not go down well with younger viewers, although this means that there's a welcome shift towards more of the Addams family instead.

Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) enjoys a particularly electric arc this season, but each member is given more chance to shine and disgust in equal measure, including Fester (Fred Armisen), whose proposed spin-off is now more enticing than ever.

It's a lot to juggle, but even with all this in the mix, Wednesday defies the pacing issues typically seen in streaming with standout episodic moments that fit comfortably within the wider arc.

These include a competitive camp getaway in episode 3 and a gorgeous Tim Burton-esque stop-motion sequence in the premiere.

By "Tim Burton-esque", I mean Tim Burton actually directed this episode and the other three too, yet nowhere is his trademark aesthetic clearer than it is in this loving continuation of the animation he celebrated in classics like The Corpse Bride.

The result is a split season which does the unthinkable and actually builds to a thrilling "finale" of sorts, all while setting the stage for what's to come still in the rest of season 2. It's the rare split that actually makes sense, and Netflix would do well to remember this for other big originals of this kind moving forward.

On the downside, this means that the highly anticipated guest appearance from Lady Gaga hasn't arrived just yet. Still, this show is mayhem in the best way possible, finally living up to the unparalleled popularity that season 1 (perhaps unfairly) earned.

As Enid says at the start of episode 2, "I know being popular goes against everything Wednesday-core," but it turns out being popular is actually a good look for Wednesday. Almost as good as black, in fact.

Let's just hope the second half keeps this momentum going or we might be in for some woe of the unwanted kind.

Wednesday season 2 part 2 will stream from Wednesday 3rd September on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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