They’re baaaaaack . . .
How many of you remember that short but scary phrase from the 1982 Spielberg film Poltergeist? Hands?
Tim Burton brings us Wednesday, a new iteration of the beloved Addams Family, which since its unholy birth in the 1930s has continued to defy both permanent burial and being overshadowed or replaced by a new family of ghouls (see "Family Matters").
Wednesday has always charmed us with her quietly macabre nature, blending nicely into the background until she opened her mouth and delivered a glance into the depths.
Burton’s new version looks tantalizing in the trailer. It has the same delicious commentary that ran throughout Addams Family Values, skewering mainstream traditional values. Wednesday's entrance into Nancy Reagan High School parallels her first moments at Camp Chippewa.
And there's Burton's signature style of production values that manage to be both stark and richly satisfying.
The series is said to stay close to Charles Addams’ vision, certainly closer than other versions in the choice of Luis Guzmán for the portrayal of Gomez. Guzmán is not as debonair in appearance as Raul Julia, who was an extremely handsome upgrade to say the least; and like the original character, his Gomez is much shorter than Morticia.
Addam's biographer, Linda H. Davis, said in an 2021 interview that one thing she felt the movies and tv series got wrong was the casting for Gomez. "Gomez in particular is a really revolting-looking man. He was inspired by Thomas E. Dewey, though there was a little bit of Peter Lorre. Addams never said that, but I could see that. But crossed with a pig, a very unattractive man. And I think that Hollywood just can’t bring themselves to cast somebody who looks like that."
In addition to a more Gomez Gomez, I'm delighted to see that the core truth, the point of family, remains the same in Burton's new series: they may have their own problems, but they also have each other’s backs.
And heads, Wednesday might say.
Here’s to a happy reunion with the First Fam of Gothic, and further adventures.
p.s. I’m embarrassed to admit that ever since a kid, and that’s roughly since the Inquisition, I thought “Wednesday” was a play on 60s movie star Tuesday Weld’s name, even though I was familiar with the old nursery rhyme.
