The One Thing That Doesn't Make Sense In Wednesday

Things will always get a bit weird when a story is being told about The Addams Family, whether it be a single member of them or the entire twisted family tree. This is a dynasty of darkness that have links to autonomous piles of hair and a severed hand, after all. With that said, the strangest thing about "Wednesday," the new show from Netflix focusing on the eldest daughter of our horrific and dark-humored household, is that with this iteration, one of the family doesn't quite fit.

It's a tried and tested formula, of course. In the much-loved big-screen adaptation from 1991 starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as heads of the household, Gomez, and Morticia, it was Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) that was the outcast to the outcasts. This was partly due to him being part of a scam posing as a lost relative before it was revealed he was the genuine article. In the case of "Wednesday," a younger generation member seems totally out of place, regardless of their part to play in the grand despicable scheme of things.

The whole chain of events in "Wednesday" begins after the titular teen's antics defending her little brother, Pugsley. After a gruesome retaliation against a school bully, she's expelled from her school and sent away to Nevermore boarding school to get her act together. The issue here is that there's something noticeably off with her little brother whenever her family visits. According to creator Charles Addams, Pugsley is described as a "genius in his own way, he makes toy guillotines full size racks, threatens to poison his sister" (via Fandom). It's the antithesis of the Pugsley we see in the show, who is so meek and frightened that a paternity test might be needed to prove he's actually part of the family.

It's understandable "Wednesday," while still wanting to hold some connection to the franchise, will make some tweaks, but in the case of Pugsley, it feels like a big misstep. The original Pugsley would no doubt relish in his sister's turmoil of being at a boarding school, but here he feels almost akin to Anthony LaRusso in "Cobra Kai." A family member that doesn't share the same twisted perspective that his parents and siblings are invested in. In this case, it's being terrifying and naturally dark-natured. Maybe if we ever get a second season of "Wednesday," the truth finally comes out that Pugsley isn't that bad for a reason because, so far, fans may see this as just plain wrong.