TV Review: ‘Wednesday’ Season 1, Episode 7

There’s little doubt that Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester was the highlight of Wednesday‘s seventh episode. Christopher Lloyd did such an iconic job as the character in The Addams Family’s movies — especially in the sequel, which had Fester as a central main character. At his core though, Uncle Fester is even weirder and kookier than Lloyd’s depiction. And in that regard, Armisen did an even better job. As an actor, he’s just so bizarre and quirky to begin with, that bringing his trademark humor to the role seems like a natural fit. Of course, this is Wednesday’s (Jenna Ortega) show, in which the other Addams characters have pretty much been relegated to the sidelines, so seeing him in one episode isn’t surprising, but it made for a very fun experience.

The two-pronged plot to Episode 7 saw Wednesday continue her investigation into the monster murders while also protecting Fester from the law enforcement looking for him after a robbery. This episode used Fester wisely as he informed Wednesday that the monster is called a Hyde, which opened up a new avenue for the story. Also, Wednesday’s relationship with Tyler (Hunter Doohan) started to flourish, which is made all the more complicated when she has a vision revealing him as the monster.

Aside from Fester’s hilarious antics, the plot points were fairly paint by numbers. All murder mysteries tend to hit the same plot beats, especially TV shows that are multiple episodes long. It’s pretty much a given that any early suspects are going to be ruled out later on. There’s also a high likelihood that these early suspects might fall victim to the murderer themselves, bringing a twist to the investigation. So while the episode was fairly predictable, the characters and overall tone of the series still makes for very fun entertainment.

Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.