Wednesday has the overwhelming popularity to become Netflix’s next Stranger Things-sized hit, but the Addams Family spin-off will need to make one key change to take the flagship show’s place. Starring Jenna Ortega in the title role, Wednesday revolves around the coming-of-age of Gomez and Morticia Addams’ psychic teenage daughter as she attends the Nevermore Academy with other supernaturally gifted kids. Within just its first season, Wednesday had become one of the biggest hit shows in Netflix history, so a season 2 renewal seemed like a no-brainer.
Since Stranger Things is coming to an end with its upcoming fifth season, Netflix will need a new hit genre show with a global audience to take its place. Wednesday is currently the streamer’s best candidate to take Stranger Things’ throne as its signature show. It has everything going for it: a beloved cast of young adults, a fantastical hook, an air of mystery around the characters. But there’s an issue in the first season of Wednesday that needs to be resolved in season 2 if this show is going to reach the heights of Stranger Things’ success.
Wednesday Needs Bigger Stakes To Be The New Stranger Things
If Wednesday is going to replace Stranger Things as Netflix’s biggest show, then it needs some higher-stakes conflicts to spark discussions around the water cooler. Part of the reason why Stranger Things became so popular was because the show opened with a bunch of huge mysteries, like the Upside Down and the underground lab’s involvement in it. By the end of season 1, the storyline of Will’s disappearance had been wrapped up, but there was still a lot more of the Upside Down to explore, and the monsters lurking within it were far from defeated.
After putting a lot of mysterious threads on the board in season 1, Stranger Things was able to build towards solving those mysteries across multiple seasons, which led to its continuing success. Wednesday season 1, on the other hand, didn’t leave much on the table plot-wise. The season revolved around Wednesday’s quest to identify the “Hyde” that was terrorizing the campus. But after the finale revealed the Hyde’s identity and they were definitively defeated, there’s nowhere for season 2 to take that plotline. As it stands, Wednesday doesn’t really have a grander story or mystery tying everything together.
Why Wednesday Needs More Than A Murder Mystery Plot
In its future seasons, Wednesday needs to introduce some larger, overarching storylines. Season 1 played out as a standalone murder mystery with a paranormal twist as Wednesday donned her Poirot hat to identify the Hyde. Although a one-season murder mystery is interesting, Wednesday needs to inject some sort of running storyline if it plans to go beyond season 2 and become as big as Stranger Things. People will only stay interested if it’s building to something; adventure-of-the-week storytelling will only take the series so far.
