SHOW OF THE WEEK: Wednesday (Nov. 23, Netflix)
As the famous theme song says, it’s creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, and it’s one of the more entertaining things that Netflix has released recently.
“Wednesday” takes Wednesday Addams of the Addams Family cartoons (and later TV series and movies) and ages her up. She’s now a 16-year-old attending Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for supernatural “outcasts” that was the alma mater of her father Gomez (Luis Guzman) and mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Jenna Ortega (“Scream,” “Jane the Virgin,” “You”) shines in the title role, with a lively, fierce intelligence behind the contemptuous stare and deadpan quips.
When she first arrives at Nevermore — having been expelled from eight other high schools, the last because she sicced piranhas on the swim team — Wednesday has only one aim: escape.
But she can’t resist the chance to make like a goth Nancy Drew when several mysteries arise: among them, why did a fellow student try to kill her twice; what or who is the monster ravaging hikers in the nearby woods; how does a long-ago death at the school, in which her father was accused of murder, figure in?
Wednesday has other things on her plate: psychic visions that she can’t control; a prickly relationship with her mother; and fellow students who insist on engaging with her despite her insistence she prefers solitude.
She has a roommate, Enid (Emma Myers), a cheery werewolf with a love of all things girly and brightly coloured; a rival in smart, athletic siren Bianca (Joy Sunday); an ally in nerdy beekeeper Eugene (Moosa Mostafa); and a couple of admirers, psychic artist Xavier (Canadian actor Percy Hynes White) and so-called “normie” barista Tyler (Hunter Doohan), the son of the sheriff (Jamie McShane) in the nearby town of Jericho. Plus she’s being closely watched by school principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie) and normie teacher Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in two Addams Family movies).
The school is also populated by vampires, gorgons and other supernatural scholars, targets of mistrust and bullying by the townies.
The series, the TV directing debut of filmmaker Tim Burton, blends YA high school drama with detective, fantasy and horror elements. It has dry, understated humour but also darkness: characters die.
There’s also a nostalgia element with callbacks to the 1960s TV series and 1990s movies seeded throughout the show: a double finger snap, for instance, opens the entrance to a secret library; when Wednesday rings the bell at the coffee shop, Tyler responds, “You rang?”; her parents send disembodied hand Thing (a scene stealer courtesy of actor Victor Dorobantu) to keep an eye on Wednesday, who co-opts him as her co-detective.
Servant Lurch (George Burcea) also turns up in a limited role while Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) is the highlight of a single episode. But it’s definitely Wednesday who’s the star of the show.
When all is said and done, there’s a heart beating under that forbidding, black-clad exterior, loath as Wednesday is to admit it. In the big finale, when Wednesday faces down a force that would destroy the school, fellow students have her back.
The show isn’t perfect. It’s somewhat overstuffed with characters and plot (a tangent about Bianca having escaped a cult, for instance, seems like an unnecessary distraction) and the Wednesday-Tyler romance angle strains credulity. But I would welcome another semester at Nevermore Academy, should “Wednesday” get a second season.
Netflix also has comedy special “Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would” (Nov. 22); the docuseries-drama hybrid “Blood, Sex & Royalty” (Nov. 23), touted as a look at Britain’s deadliest and sexiest monarchs, i.e. King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; movie “The Swimmers” (Nov. 23), based on the true story of two Syrian sisters who fled that country’s civil war; and the documentary “Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich” (Nov. 25), about the recently sentenced accomplice in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking schemes.
Short Takes
in “Welcome to Chippendales.” PHOTO CREDIT: Erin Simkin/Hulu
Welcome to Chippendales (Nov. 22, Disney+)
“Welcome to Chippendales” is billed as a true crime drama, but it really feels more like a biopic with some crime at the end. It’s based on the book “Deadly Dance: The Chippendale Murders,” which is itself based on the true story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the Indian immigrant who created the male stripper empire Chippendales in 1979. As “Welcome to Chippendales” tells it, Steve — consumed by his ambition to be a success in America — turns a failing Los Angeles nightclub into a gold mine by making it a stripper bar that caters to women. (According to other accounts, the idea was actually Paul Snider’s, the pimp and club promoter who murdered his Playboy playmate wife Dorothy Stratten, then killed himself in 1980. Snider and Stratten, played by Dan Stevens and Nicola Peltz Beckham, appear in the first episode, which significantly alters the facts of the murder-suicide.) Kumail Nanjiani portrays Steve as a man secretly riddled with self-loathing, especially since his mother in Bombay regards him as a failure, and rigidly focused on making money and inflating his status. The other star of the show is Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus”) as Nick De Noia, the choreographer and producer who turns the ragtag Chippendales dancers into stars, and comes up with the ideas for a lucrative New York club and a world tour. Bartlett is the standout in an excellent cast, which also includes Annaleigh Ashford as Steve’s accountant turned wife Irene and the seemingly ageless Juliette Lewis as costume designer Denise. When the team is harmoniously doing their thing, before Steve develops a deadly jealousy of Nick, the show is as fun as you’d expect a series about male strippers to be. But missteps and overreach by Steve — including a deliberate effort to keep Black patrons out of the bar — lead to grievous financial problems at the original club, and his fanatical jealousy of competitors spawns the criminal behaviour that ends with both Nick and Steve dead. It’s not groundbreaking TV by any stretch — especially since the Chippendales story is already a well-trod one — but the acting makes it an entertaining watch.
Good Night Oppy (Nov. 23, Prime Video)
We’ve come a long way from the days when NASA space launches were international events that millions upon million of viewers watched live on TV, but this documentary by Ryan White gives you a sense that space exploration is still a thrilling, if less high profile, pursuit. It uses archival NASA footage and visual effects recreations of Mars (by “Star Wars” effects maker Industrial Light and Magic, no less) to tell the story of Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Oppy of the title. The robots landed on the red planet on Jan. 3 and 24, 2004, respectively, and lasted long past their 90-day lifespans. Spirit made it to May 25, 2011, but Oppy was still going, albeit with robot “arthritis” and memory loss, until Feb. 12, 2019. Both rovers provided invaluable information about Mars, including a confirmation that drinkable water once existed on its surface, but this film isn’t a dry scientific treatise. Even before Spirit and Opportunity left Earth, the various scientists and mission specialists involved imbued them with human characteristics, which only intensified once the robots had begun their lonely, perilous journeys on the planet’s surface. It gives the doc an emotional resonance that very well might have you reaching for the tissues.
The Hip Hop Nutcracker (Nov. 25, Disney+)
If you find the idea of mixing Tchaikovsky with hip-hop beats heretical then avert your eyes from this update of the classic holiday story. But if you’re a fan of dance competition shows, particularly “So You Think You Can Dance,” you might like this. Like a ballet, the tale is told through dance without dialogue, other than Rev Run’s rapping. Actor-dancer Cache Melvin is Maria-Clara, an older version of the usual “Nutcracker” protagonist, and “SYTYCD” winner “Fik-Shun” Stegall is her Nutcracker/Prince. Also in starring roles are “SYTYCD” alumni and spouses Stephen “tWitch” Boss and Allison Holker as Maria-Clara’s parents, and Comfort Fedoke as sorcerer Drosselmeyer. And keep your eyes peeled for other alum like Alex Wong and recent winner Bailey Munoz. Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov even makes a cameo. The story — about Maria-Clara trying to get her folks to rekindle their romance — is as thin as the New York City sets are fake, but the dancing makes it seem like an extended “SYTYCD” holiday episode, minus the judging the competition.
Disney+ also has the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 31 finale on Nov. 21; “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” on Nov. 25; and the sequel series “Criminal Minds: Evolution” (Nov. 25), with original stars Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster reprising their roles.
Odds and Ends
Crave has two documentaries that illuminate stars of music and sports. First up is the four-part “Shaq” (Nov. 23, 9 p.m., HBO), about basketball great Shaquille O’Neal. On Nov. 24, the doc “Love, Lizzo” drops, about the one-named singer, musician and champion of body positivity. Crave via HBO also has Season 3 of “We’re Here” (Nov. 25, 10 p.m.), which follows drag artists Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela as they journey through small-town America preaching drag, self-love and acceptance of differences.
If you missed it at the Toronto International Film Festival or on Crave, “American Masters” has the documentary “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” (Nov. 22, 9 p.m., PBS) about Cree, American and Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. PBS also has “Tutankhamun: Allies & Enemies” (Nov. 23, 9 p.m.), which takes a fresh look at the story of King Tut on the 100th anniversary of the opening of his tomb in Egypt.
Season 1 of “The Pact” gained favourable reviews for its story of four middle-aged female friends implicated in a murder. Actor Rakie Ayola, who played a detective in the first season, returns in Season 2 (Nov. 22, 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse) as a social worker whose family is thrown into turmoil by a stranger (Jordan Wilks) claiming a connection.
W Network has the TV series sequel to the “Pitch Perfect” movie franchise, “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” (Nov. 24, 9 p.m.), starring Adam Devine as singer Bumper Allen.
BritBox has the original — and many would say superior — version of dystopian series “Utopia” debuting Nov. 23.
Finally, Apple TV+ has the new drama “Echo 3” (Nov. 23), written by Oscar winner Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), about the search for a missing American woman along the Colombian-Venezuelan border.
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.
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