Jessie Spoils Everything- Wednesday (Patreon)

Whether giving up the secrets of the pros to further your writing or exposing the largest oof moments of corporate creations, I’m here to help budding writers by opening up Hollywood for analyzing and spoiling f’n everything.

“…Wednesday’s Child is full of Woe”

You would think by that quote, I was about to tell you why I was not a fan of the Wednesday Addams Netflix show. Truth be told, it had a lot setting it up to be a miserable time for me. From Christina Ricchi–in Addam’s Family Values–being one of my first childhood crushes, and likely the seeds of my short gothic phase, to being helmed by the fallen from his peak Tim Burton, to just being the favorite CW angsty teenagers going to the YA novels favorite setting, the magical school. I can not put into words how much I hate two-dimensional primetime teenager archetypes recycled into yet another “place for special, misunderstood youths.” so… here’s an image.

Yes, If anyone can eat this stuff up, it’s these guys. But I did not hate Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’. I didn’t even dislike it. I looked forward to hitting an episode a night. Against my stacked judgmental nostalgia requirements and my jaded relationship with late-career Burton, I found myself liking a show about “misunderstood teenagers sent to a special place where stereotypes abound, and mysteries happen”. While not perfect and still laden with a bit of cringe, I’ve gone back over it to find where Wednesday actually succeeds where so many other shows and stories with young characters fail (for adults), and in the process, you all get  the beginning of my writer’s series on how to write young characters in a way that reminds you, teenagers, are indeed, still people, and not cliche puppets trapped in a trope tornado. The same will also apply to young college types as it’s often another big fail with writing for audiences outside of the target. So buckle up, open your minds, before a little Addams get’s a scalpel to assist you with it, and heed well my words… Lest you make your own cringe torture-causing youths!

Before I jump too deep into this Addams spin-off, I want to name-drop a show that does THE WRONG things with its young adult characters for comparison. And sadly, it’s another “Spin-offy-Sequel” of a thing from my childhood. Willow. The Willow show not only chews up, swallows, and regurgitates the style, spirit, and tone of the original movie into a bile-ridden slogfest, it does it by taking the Lucas Film fantasy adventure, overworking it into a more modernized style and then painfully inserting highschool brand stereotypes into the fantasy realm to make it… more relatable for teens? More approachable for a younger audience? Hell, if I know. It’s by far one of the most dismal IP reworkings on Disney+. The cast is full of a new, younger line of faces (which in itself is not a bad thing) but they are all stand-ins. The jock girl with big plans after highschool (I mean castle duties) the angsty, edgy spoiled girl wanting to rebel (princess) the dumb, heartthrob himbo (her brother) the nerdy, awkward kid (prince from the other kingdom) and the blonde ditz, who SPOILERS will have to shed her distzyness as she matures into the savior, as if personality and IQ just melt away into something else when you experience trauma. They are all token characters, with Willow being the underpaid teacher who cares but has lost their heart. It’s a high school drama in Fantasy land, and if that wasn’t a bad enough pitch, it’s done really, really badly. The entire cast, minus the bearded swashbuckler Boreman, is all very unlikeable. There isn’t really someone in the group you quickly relate to unless–and this is the trap of writing younger characters–YOU are one of those types. The reason so many teenage/college pieces are bad writing isn’t because teenagers enjoy bad writing or can’t handle good writing. They can and do. Because teenagers are people. But the shallow world that is the high school archetype cliques is built to dehumanize people into a label for conformity, and teenagers are still living that, so they (not all of them mind you, but a portion of them) often will accept pieces like this because their fresh experience fills in the gaps. Whereas adults often go “yeah, I remember that, and it was dumb as hell. So unless there is a compelling story, arch, etc to make this not be as annoying as I remember it- please no.”

We don’t have the “woohoo high school!” living in us. We don’t find the “ah it’s written about a world like I inhabit!” And the cycle of that bitter adult experience of how we perceive those years comes back as writers who put their disdain into it, as shallow, cliquish, and immature.

But teenagers DO face insane amounts of emotional trials, pressure, depth,and growth, hell, those years and college will set the path for their adult lives. Though they are often treated as a caricature until that 18-year-old mile marker hits, they deal with abuses and triumphs, lessons and losses just like anyone else. We just let the tropey setting of highschool, bleed into characters of that age. And while plenty of “consumer teens and young adults” put up with it, plenty crave more, just as we as adults want fully fleshed-out characters, no matter the age, if we’re going to root for them, cry for them, and celebrate them long after the story is over.

So how did Wednesday, a piece that actually still includes the high school cringe, both win despite it, and in some cases, because of it. It’s because Wednesday Addams is a well written lead.

Empathy and Commentary:

It might sound odd that Wednesday Addams, queen of deadpan delivery and constant disdain, would be our empathetic vehicle rather than just a  side character. She’s not known for having the rangeor huge emotional waves that melodramatic teen pieces often require. We don’t know why Wednesday Addams is the way she is, whether neurodivergent with just a macabre style, or if it’s just the Addams genes + Upbring, but her decidedly different approach to the world is always something we tend to enjoy. From shock value to just someone with no social filter always speaking the truth, we enjoy this freedom she has, especially when put against people we decidedly do not enjoy. In Addams Family Values, Christina Ricci as Wednesday (who plays a new part in the show as a throwback) is stacked against ultra conservative, highly privileged camp counselors and children when sent away, which Wednesday leads the outcast campers in a revolt, and we love it. The show calls back to that feeling. When we hate something just as much, Wednesday is the perfect hero.
Wednesday hates tropey highschool-

It has the cliques (though more themed like monster high), the angst and brooding romances (oh those poor boys longing to be loved by their ice queen) and the social politics that range from fellow students to multi-generational feuds. It has the Scooby Secrets, the awkward coming of age check boxes, and all the teenagers playing their roles a little TOO on the nose.

And Wednesday hates it. This is our buy-in, our hook. In this world we have so often been subjected to, our lead isn’t going to heart eyes fall through the steps of growing up. She’s going to critique with the muted venom of her tongue, clench her teeth at the annoying and torturous teenage moments. She’s the one thing many of us remember about those years. The someone get me the F out of here, vibe. And yet, after someone tries to murder her, she becomes intrigued. The school shifts from “End me now” to the methodical game she’s playing of cat and mouse. It’s not always a perfect mystery, as it’s not a perfect piece, but using our lead to both voices our disdain for such shows while slowly leading us into said show can only be done with an empathetic investment. Because we are invested, we are more open to giving all the characters room the breath and possibly shed some of their stereotypes to see a little bit more humanity.

Jenna Ortega plays the role masterfully, and it can be said few in the cast get quite close to her level of intensity, but that’s ok. If the school is a game, the pieces don’t need to be fully fleshed out. In some ways, our perception of the school is a reflection of Wednesday’s, and it only starts to shift as she grows. But that is the second important piece to making her fleshed out, invest in her character.

Imperfection

There is often a pull to avoid character flaws in some people’s writing. Their lead is untouchable, infallible… and unapproachable. If Wednesday were to be always right, she would eventually come off insufferably arrogant, with the world seemingly bending around her to justify it. That’s often the pole very female characters in many modern pieces. Someone very completely naive who learns a lesson by the end, or someone who always had worth and owes no journey to justify it. Both of these poles are very inhuman. The first was a trope pushed on women for years. From stubborn girls to princesses, the long line of hopeful girls who are tricked,and captured, need to be rescued. The Dumb Damsel is as dated as it is boring, and, as all things swing like a pendulum, we’re getting lots of female heroes (not all of them, as the anti-woke like to claim, though) that their journey is about realizing they always had worth, and casting off the chains of those that told them they didn’t WHICH IS GOOD, but that worth also seems to mean no faults. “She can’t be naive, weak, dumb, or emotionally unstable… lest she props up those old tropes” so where does that leave her?

The key to relatable imperfection is to stop treating people like a social media post, where one moment reveals their entire life story. We are all naive about something, but it doesn’t mean we have to be gullible about everything. We all lack knowledge on some subject, doesn’t make us stupid. There is always someone stronger, there are always emotions that break us! We need our heroes to have flaws, or they become more symbol than person, and symbols are flat, out of reach, and indifferent to everything but their cause.
With our flaws comes our inner conflict. Characters go on two journeys in every story. The main one is inside, and then the external story should facilitate that change.

Wednesday is a badass, who is very adept at the sword (her whole family is) and yet, she loses a dule early on, shocked as the drawn blood. She’s single-minded, which gives her more drive than the other characters, but it also makes her short-sighted. Her wealth of knowledge doesn’t fill in for lack of experience. And that’s the amateur detective journey she’s on. She’s great, but could be better. She can’t stand those around her but subtly shifts as she gets a clearer picture of them.

She’s the greatest critic of this world, and yet she gets humbled by it. The humbling doesn’t lead to her loving and accepting every aspect of the trope train, but it forces her to evolve. Emotionally, physically, she is a story worth following. Wednesday starts as a commentary on typical teen and young adult tropes and turns into a slight argument for their existence. Not that they are always good or done well, but that there is room for stories in this space that are worth following beyond your adolescent years.That it can be both entertaining and occasionally eye rolling and also be honest when delivering both.

That’s the truth of our youth. Some of it was eyerolling, and cheezy. And some of it stuck with us, and forged things about us we can’t really shake, nor should we.

Wednesday is the embodiment of the meeting of those two worlds, and it’s why she’s a great example on how to write a character who’s not yet fully grown, but who is growing up, matters.

I write for both SFW, and NSFW as an author. Obviously, this is going to be about my SFW as I would never make an underaged person the focus of a NSFW piece, but as writers in general, it’s important to understand HOW to write different ages, not as the tropes present them, but as human beings. When it comes to that 20 and under journey, whether you are making it a focus of your story, or a flashback, It’s important to embrace the cringe of youth for what it is, part of the journey, and remember that it doesn’t make those entire years cringe.
There is depth, tears, and learning that happens among all the things you may have loved or detested about growing up, and the bitter self trying to truncate into an annoyance while the naive whimsy tries to paint it as the golden years will both fail the attempt to capture it.

*Wednesday’s child is full of woe, for she is in the middle of the week, the middle of her journey, and she represents the turmoil that is growth. No disillusions of the early journey, no satisfaction of completion. Wednesday is the symbol of mid-journey chaos but also the gaining of Wisdom. For anyone who doesn’t know, Thursday comes from Thorsday, with the norse god Thor, but Wednesday comes from Woden, or as you may have heard of him, Odin, who was known both for his Wisdom and Guile.

No matter what your character's age, or their struggle, remember they are becoming wiser from the journey.