"The Addams Family" sitcom from the 1960s, set a standard that no subsequent adaptation could even come close to. Two seasons with a total of 64 episodes are one of my fondest childhood memories. Perfect casting, perfect morbid-comic atmosphere, brilliant dialogues and replicas, and seductive Carolyn Jones. An unforgettable experience, partly because it's so good, and partly because I can't forget something that I rewatch every couple of years.

Tim Burton is one of my favorite filmmakers. "Batman" (1989), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Batman Returns" (1992), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), "Corpse Bride" (2005), "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007), are pretty strong reasons why I had high expectations for this show. Unfortunately, it would have been better if I had approached the "Wednesday" series without any.

If it was supposed to be a comedy - it's not funny, if it was supposed to be a horror - it's not scary, it's not dramatic, it's not tense, it's not particularly imaginative. The Addams Family was originally conceived as "a satirical inversion of the ideal post-war middle-class American nuclear family", eccentric, morbid, and seemingly completely oblivious to how others perceive them. Wednesday is conceived as a girl who is extremely different from the students of a normal school, not an academy for fantasy beings. The other Addamses have no connection with their black and white ancestors, neither in appearance nor in character. The characters don't have the charm of the originals, the series isn't nearly as funny as the old one, and it doesn't have the iconic tune we all had our fingers snapping along to. Long story short, for a fan of the sixties series, and even compared to the films that followed in the nineties, the only thing this series has in common with its predecessors is the title and partly the image of Addamses.

On the other hand, viewed independently of its predecessors, "Wednesday" has its qualities. Impressive photography and use of color, interesting, if very poorly developed characters and, despite, in my opinion, a barely mediocre script, excellent acting by the entire cast. I was particularly won over by Hunter Doohan and Emma Myers.

And by far the strongest asset of this series, and the only reason why I didn't give up on it after one or two episodes, is Jenna Ortega, whose Wednesday completely overshadowed Christina Ricci's. It's not the Wednesday we loved in the sixties and nineties, but this new one might be even better. Jenna made this character her own, and I think I can say with certainty that from now on her performance will be the first thing most people associate with the mention of Wednesday, and even The Addams Family in general.

6,5/10.