B-

Wednesday gets by with a little help from its friends

In the back half of season two, Werewolf Enid and a zombie called Slurp breathe some life into the Netflix show.

By Christina Izzo | September 4, 2025 | 3:00pm

Photo: Helen Sloan/Netflix

TV Reviews Wednesday

Wednesday gets by with a little help from its friends

Wednesday fans didn’t have to wait until All Hallows Eve for more ooky, kooky spooks from their favorite goth-teen detective. No, the second half of season two of the Addams Family spin-off arrived less than a month after the first, wrapping up the series’ initial foray into the streamer’s go-to split-release format. And after the chaotic and crammed episodes of part one, that brief break has only highlighted just how disjointed this sophomore season has been.

But first, the big question: Is Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) dead? Obviously not, as there’d be no Netflix show without her. Our girl manages to survive that brutal attack from the hulking Hyde, Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), and she’s quick to rouse herself from that cliffhanger-induced coma to continue her investigations. Except she has some unwanted help this time around: the return of Larissa Weems (an always-welcome and ever-delightful Gwendoline Christie), Nevermore’s now-dead former principal who has been assigned to act as Wednesday’s spirit guide. (And before you start griping about spirit guides needing to be a relative, they’re thirteenth cousins twice removed, okay?)

Most Popular

Weems tells the girl that the reason her telekinetic powers have gone kaput is because of the unresolved tensions within the Addams household, a fracture that will all too neatly remind young Wednesday that she can’t possibly do everything alone. And she needs all the help she can get now that she’s not only trying to track down Tyler but also two fellow patients who escaped Willow Hill in season two’s first round: Tyler’s mother Francoise Galpin (Frances O’Connor), another Hyde, and his uncle Isaac (Owen Painter), a mad scientist brought back from the dead. Yes, Isaac just so happens to be the fully regenerated version of Slurp, the brain-eating zombie that Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) has been keeping as a pet all season, as well as the long-lost Nevermore roommate of Addams patriarch Gomez (Luis Guzmán).

There is also the lingering matter of money-hungry Principal Dort (Steve Buscemi), who has been trying to squeeze the family fortune of Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her mother, Grandmama Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley). Dort’s deceptions, which involve cults, dopey cons, and some coercing of Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday) to utilize her siren powers, are a season weak point and feel tacked-on. (“I can’t believe Bianca had a whole crime drama going on and none of us knew about it!” one character aptly sums up.) It’s a waste of Buscemi, a singular actor who clearly knows how to play silly and sinister in equal turns.

Far more convincing is the breakout performance of the season from Owen Painter (The Handmaid’s Tale, Tiny Beautiful Things), who managed some great physical comedy beneath all that zombie makeup as Slurp but is downright deadly as Isaac. Looking like a classic Tim Burton hero—that filmmaker directs the final two eps of the season, with the others helmed by Angela Robinson—but if played by Crispin Glover, Painter’s Isaac Galpin is a macabre, modern-day Da Vinci desperate to revive his family and exact revenge against the Addams. And the young actor graciously brings a real sense of menace to a season that has sorely lacked in creepiness. The Galpin family horrors aren’t the most compelling overall, bogged down by the now boring will-they/won’t-they-kill-each-other dynamic between Wednesday and Tyler, but Painter’s scene-stealing performance helps elevate things.

It’s in the sisterly bond between Wednesday and her contrastingly cheerful roomie Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) that this batch of episodes—and the series as a whole—shines brightest. While some of the dynamics on the show still feel disjointed—the historic, loved-up horniness between Morticia and Gomez is fully absent in this adaptation, and both Ordonez and Guzmán pale in comparison to their more formidable female co-stars—there’s a delicious, lived-in chemistry between Ortega and Myers as odd-couple BFFs.

In fact, the season’s best episode is the Freaky Friday-esque “Woe Thyself,” which sees the polar-opposite buddies swap bodies to excellent effect. It’s a hoot of an hour—which kicks off with that buzzed-about turn by Mother Monster herself, Lady Gaga—giving both Ortega and Myers a fine showcase to flaunt their respective range. (Myers, who nails Ortega’s deadpan delivery as Enid-as-Wednesday, gets a worthy spotlight overall in the season’s back half, as her character comes to terms both with the reality and restrictions of her werewolf powers.) And the twosome gets a delightfully weird third in the disappearing form of Agnes DeMille (Evie Templeton), Wednesday’s onetime stalker and Enid’s current dance partner. Here’s hoping this burgeoning friendship is explored next season.

Speaking of, when it comes to Wednesday season three—which this finale neatly sets up, with Wednesday taking off in Lurch’s sidecar on yet another ghastly investigation—leave the split-season model behind, Netflix. It kills the momentum and allows for dreadful detours. Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar need to instead chart a course that’s fully focused on family: not only the Addams but also Wednesday’s chosen one. If they can do that, Wednesday will be one freakishly fun ride.

Wednesday season two, part two is streaming on Netflix