I absolutely hated this. They took everything queer and campy about the movies I grew up with and made it serious, edge lord BS. Wednesday literally goes torture someone for intel like she's working for the government.
They completely misunderstood what made The Addams Family movies special - the way we were in their shoes to see the mundane and everyday facets of middle-class, white, suburban, cishet life as absurd and creepy through their eyes.
Now Wednesday is at a school with other "outsiders" but all the "outsiders" just act like normal, spoiled, privileged kids? And there's so many mixed metaphors and wedged in wokeness, it felt like the script came straight from JK Rowling's Twitter feed. Werewolf is like puberty but also like being gay? But the girl we follow isn't gay? But her mom wants to send her to werewolf 'conversion therapy?' WTF is happening.
I didn't like Ortega as Wednesday at all, though I generally otherwise like her and was initially excited by her casting. I think directing and the script are largely be to blame. Her affect was too flat, and her dialogue was straight up cringe in several places. Again, it's like all the people in charge of this had no idea what made Wednesday so special and watchable.
This all made me wish we were getting Cristina Ricci playing Wednesday as a 40-something trying to keep her creepy roots while being a mom and wife. Or something. Just not this. Anything but this.
Warning - Spoilers included for both this and the original British version.
Everything that made the original British version of Utopia special, intriguing and ultimately great is lost in this new version from writer, Gillian Flynn. The main thing that made the original show stand out so greatly was not just the story it created but through the visuals and the score, it was a stylised masterpiece. It was something we hadn’t seen before. This is not that. In Gillian Flynn’s own words, she wanted to make it “more gritty” and wanted to “Americanize” Utopia for the US audience and she’s certainly succeeded in that, but at the same time, she has, as mentioned taken away all of its wonder.
The introduction of new character Samantha adds absolutely nothing at all and when she is killed abruptly there is no sadness from either the audience or really from the rest of the cast. She dies and the reaction is not one of mourning but just a bit of shock. Honestly though, as mentioned she was a nothing character anyway. The show was trying to build her up as “the leader” but it just felt like they were stretching Becky’s original character across two characters instead and not leaving enough to make Becky interesting afterwards. Instead, both are barely a shade as interesting as the original character and ‘Deals Syndrome’ here is just a side-note. It may as well have not been mentioned.
But they don’t get much better from there. Rod (Lee in the original) is killed off early but again had no personality really as the show instead tries incredibly hard not to pull focus away from how excessively weird Arby is this time around. Arby in the original show is conflicted and simple-minded, easy to please and later builds his own life, grows, tries to have a family and saves them. Arby never gets that respect this time, instead being turned into a stereotypical Autistic man who has the voice of a serial killer and you’re never allowed to feel for him. He’s given no backstory.
Jessica, obviously the main character in the original is given a little more time than others here but Sasha Lane’s depiction of her is much like Arby’s. In the original, yes she is brutally honest, forward and knows she has to get things done right to save herself and the others but she also has an almost child-like innocence about her – A sense of wonder if you will. She is seeing things for the first time. She is experiencing love for the first time, she smiles, finds things funny and develops a relationship with Grant that’s almost like a big sister. Here, she is just brutal. Nothing else is given to her as a characteristic and it’s just weird when she splits from the rest of the group and they have an embrace in the final episode. None of them ever got that close to one another so what are they embracing for? They don’t like one another.
For some reason they’ve made Jessica’s story that she wants to find her daddy and go home rather than seek revenge and save people too. She’s selfish, yet cries her eyes out when she finds out daddy might be dead and that’s just so out-of-character it’s as weird as Arby.
Grant isn’t given enough time either but Alice is given far more. Wilson, I have fewer complaints about and Desmin Borges was a solid choice in his role, as was Rainn Wilson as Michael.
The main issue though outside of not caring about any characters, the wonderful score being a series of dulcet tones this time around and the visuals being unspectacular is that in this version of the show, the audience have no choice on what to believe. It isn’t until 42 minutes before the end that we’re told what the real reason behind the entire conspiracy is. We are given just 42 minutes of the near-eight hours to think about Dr. Christie’s world-saving sterilisation vaccine. In the original show we find this out around half-way through and it allows the audience to feel conflicted because we are given genuine reasons for it and enough information to allow us to truly think – what if?
There is so much that is lost in this version of Utopia that it ultimately isn’t worth the time. Instead, Amazon should have just pushed the original show like Netflix has with The Fall. The original show was so unique and ahead of it’s time that trying to re-make that was going to be a struggle and it does unfortunately fail here – As expected. Watching this version, we just feel like Dr. Christie is leading a cult who are trying to change the world with their “purpose” and it almost feels like this is because it is American. By that I mean, the original is more of a government conspiracy and I don’t think a show about a viral pandemic being led by the government would go down very well right now so it’s turned into a cult instead and it just feels silly.
And don’t get me started on John Cusack’s catchphrase, “What have you done today to earn your place in this crowded world?” – It is said SO MANY times that you just don’t care. I think Flynn thought this sounded edgey and cool or something but it just sounds awkward, clunky and becomes a catchphrase for the cult. I never want to hear that phrase again.
Ultimately, it’s predictable… We knew Colleen was on the bad guy’s side. We knew Dr. Christie was Mr. Rabbit. Milner was pointless in this version too. At the end of the series, you’re just left not really caring for anyone. Nobody is likeable except Michael and then he drives off into the sunset with an egg for some reason!
This is thankfully, just entirely forgetful and you can go back to the original and forget Gillian Flynn’s Utopia ever happened. She just doesn’t “get it” despite believing she did.
What a steaming pile of -
This Show sucks don't waste your time. I mean seriously so pridictable that tyler was the hyde and the normal teacher was the sister of the guy Gomez supposedly killed. I mean even ray charles saw that coming.
Vastly overrated.
This is basically just a Nancy Drew, Veronica Mars style murder mystery, but placed in a supernatural school.
If you're a 30-40-something year old looking to revisit the Addams Family for some creepy capers and what-not. This isn't for you. This is written for alt-teens who grew up on Disney Channel movies and are now at the point in life where they are trying to rebel. The only thing here for the older crowd is Christina Ricci popping up in a new role.
The show is entirely predictable from the moment the "Hyde" (monster) is introduced. Ask yourself, why are certain character 1 and 2 so prominent in the story? What are they seriously offering?... Oh, it's because they're the bad guy and whoever are the bad guys at the start obviously won't end up being so. There are zero surprises here.
Despite the world it's set in, werewolves, sirens etc., it's entirely unimaginative and lacking in any real depth. Wednesday is just a 15/16 year old kid trying to be a detective and sticking her nose in where she has no business. Everyone keeps telling her to go away and stop and she is just annoying as anything. She also just isn't creepy and at all threatening like Christina Ricci was in the 90s. Jenna Ortega seems to act like she's watched one too many movies of Hollywood depicting an autistic kid and rolled it all into one reclusive bundle. It doesn't help that the script is bad and cheesey to be fair to her but again, she's just a kid devoid of giving a crap... with some one liners thrown in to make her sound like she's threatening or creepy here and there just to remind you she's Wednesday Addams and not Veronica Mars.
I fell asleep three times trying to watch through some of the middle episodes.
Oh... and the CGI on the Hyde monster. HORRIBLE. So cartoon. If you want to be reminded "this is definitely not realistic", that CGI covers it off nicely for you.
I have only watched the first episode yet (still plan to finish the rest because I don't have anything better to do anyway haha) but you're better off just watching the british original. This is just a dumb-downed americanised bad cosplay fan-fiction.
I feel like if the original didn't exist this would be solid binge watch for a weekend. Nothing more but a decent show. But the original does exist. And it's IMO a fucking masterpiece. So just watch that.
EDIT: After E2 - what the fuck have they done with Jessica? It's so fucking stupid. They are obviously trying to be different to the original to stand out. But it just doesn't work. Fuck that. Arby and Lee are just hollowed out shadows of themselves. Nothing stands out as being good. I'm giving up on this. WATCH THE ORIGINAL!!!
I really wanted to like this show because I'm a fan of several cast members, but while the acting was great, basically everything else fell apart. The worst was the characterizations. I didn't really understand why these characters were motivated to do what they were doing beyond like Ray/Leo. Why did Judy stay with Bob? What was going on with her and Stan? It's really never explained. The characters feel super shallow and I think part of that is because of the show's structure in trying to allow people to enter from (basically) any episode, they can only reveal so much in each installment. It limits the writing and it's to the show's overall detriment. Just overall a huge letdown. So many things don’t make sense.
[tv+] The Addams Family turned "Home After Dark" meets "Harry Potter" may hold its own, but the series indulges in the standard product with some gothic touches without apparently having anything to contribute. The tendency to reconstruct the original stories in conventional productions that use the referent as a mere marketing element has become a common formula. Even Wednesday seems like another character, as if her sense of cruelty and darkness had to be explained through trauma or fragility. In Tim Burton's career it is one of his most impersonal creations, one of the least relevant contributions of his filmography.
Started really good, and... it turned out to be another teen drama “Woke Sabrina" show from Netflix.
A really shame
Started good ,but just for one episode , another nosedive like Sabrina still waiting for something like harry potter
Got bored during the 3rd episode, rather a teen detective show at Disney levels than a dark comedy, won't keep watching it, overall poor.
Season one was great throughout and a really fun watch but season two loses a lot of the charm and comedy that we had grown to love early-on. Some of this is lost as a couple of characters become far less involved but overall it just fell into a bit of a depressive hole. I'd happily rewatch season one over and over but season two, I can do without.
It took some time to get used to and get onboard what the creators were doing here but I get it.
You're not meant to like the canned laughter, the bright coloured, typical US sitcom. It's a tool to make us hate Kevin as much as Allison does and it works. Hated Kevin immediately and hated every moment of the cheesy jokes, the daytime sitcom crap style. It was horrible and cringeworthy to watch, but that's why you're on Allison's side so much during the other side of the show, the more grey, gritty, real world side of life. It's why you want her to win and get away. It's why you don't feel any sympathy for Kevin.
It works and I'll watch season two for sure.
Also, Annie Murphy's accent took some getting used to after watching Schitt's Creek but... it's there. Deal with it.
i want betty gilpin to murder me
