Does Addams Family's Wednesday in the Netflix series 'Wednesday' need an emotional arc?
Published on March 17, 2023. Created by gmoss.
NOTE: The following musings on writing were inspired by the Variety article: Jenna Ortega Changed ‘Wednesday’ Scripts Without Telling Writers Because ‘Everything Did Not Make Sense’: ‘I Became Almost Unprofessional’ by Zack Sharf
Genre: Comedy. Protagonist: an extreme/unique personality. Hook: the protagonist’s personality.
When you are writing a comedy based on an extreme/unique personality, do you need an emotional arc? Do you need for that character to change at the end, for better or for worse?
The writer can choose and make it work either way. But once that happens it’s not only the protagonist who changes, it’s the entire series moving forward. It can work, but the series starts to wind down from that moment on.
A less mean, more likeable Wednesday? (comment: both words perhaps not an accurate interpretation of Wednesday) There goes your hook. You want to make your character feel a bit more real by having both good and bad characteristics? In this case—a comedy based on an extreme personality—you don’t change their personality. But that doesn’t mean that Wednesday, for example, can’t be a good friend (good personality characteristic).
She may not offer you a shoulder to cry on, but she will help you take revenge. She will do it very efficiently. The police will never suspect you either. Her family will always accept you no matter what you’ve done. They’ll probably throw you a party too. Isn’t she a good friend?
And that way, you can have an arc. She may not be able to show emotion through her face or voice—“a flat surface, no emotion at all”—but she can through her actions. She doesn’t need to change who she is. So, for example, hypothetically, at first she doesn’t like her roommate, but by the end she is helping her.
Take Monk. Do you cure him from his obsessive compulsive disorder? Make him less difficult, in season 1 (with 8 episodes in Wednesday’s case)? The character is a lot more than just that characteristic and the plot isn’t based on OCD, but your hook is. You change that, you are not writing Monk any more.
What about Sabrina? Do you make her not be a witch? Maybe for an episode or two, but you take that away, you no longer have the series "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina".
With Wednesday of course you have some interesting choices. The writers chose to take her out from a normal school and put her in a school with other even more unique characters than hers, werewolves and sirens and such individuals. So the comedy based on personality can still work but it becomes more challenging; less accentuated than it would have been among “normies” and with less room for comedy.
And then you have Wednesday the police detective. OK—and it would be a very interesting vocation for Wednesday in general, unless the CIA was hiring—Overall, the plot was based on solving a mystery/case so you didn’t need Wednesday to change or show emotion to “move the plot along” even if she was in every scene.
How would Wednesday respond? Wednesday’s answers in bold.
“'Okay, this is her arc. This is where she gets emotional.”
You know when I’ve become emotional when the sharp blade of a guillotine makes contact with your neck.
“'When you are little and say very morbid, offensive stuff, it's funny and endearing. But then you become a teenager and it's nasty and you know it. There's less of an excuse.'”
If you’d like to discuss my formative years, meet me tonight. Midnight. At the lake. Bring a shovel.
“'Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense.”
You are right. Love triangle? A Werewolf? A Siren? Anyone can be killed. Trust me, I know.
“'There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, 'Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh — I can't believe I said that. I literally hate myself.'”
Oh, my God, I love it. How did that sound?
“…I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn't… I didn't know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.' “
Yes, I admit, I can do better than throwing flesh-eating Piranhas in a pool. Just a nip here or there never worked for anyone. And to think I was expelled for that. There was so much more I could have done.
“'When I read the entire series, I realized, 'Oh, this is for younger audiences.'”
You know, forced socializing with co-workers is why I’m thinking skipping uni.