It seems viewers of Tim Burton's Wednesday are just as unblinking as its title character as the series has just broken Netflix's record for most hours viewed in one week for an English-language program, a distinction previously held by Stranger Things Season 4.According to the streamer, which posted the news on Twitter, Wednesday has clocked 341.2 million hours viewed in its debut week. This bests Stranger Things Season 4's previous record of 335.01 million, which was set during the last week of May/first week of June.
Tim Burton's Addams Family spinoff series starring Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán hit Netflix on Nov. 23, becoming the streamer's most watched series in 83 countries. The show has also been generally well-received by both critics and audiences, holding a 70% critic score and 88% audience rating at the time of this article. This makes Wednesday the best reviewed entry in the Addams Family franchise since Barry Sonnenfeld's Addams Family Values (1993), which holds a 74% critic rating and a 63% audience score.
Though unconnected from Sonnenfeld's films from the 1990s, Wednesday features the return of Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams in that series of films. News that Ricci had joined the series broke all the way back in March. At first glance, many speculated that she would be reprising her role as an adult Wednesday and that Ortega would play a younger version of Ricci's character. However, after passing the pigtails down to Ortega, it was revealed that Ricci would play an entirely new character, which was revealed to be that of Marilyn Thornhill, one of Wednesday Addams' teachers at Nevermore Academy.
Wednesday's Recent Controversy
Despite its popularity, Wednesday and its creator Tim Burton have received criticism recently for what some consider racist characterizations of minority characters. The controversy revolves around the show's depiction of its Black characters, with many playing the roles of villains and bullies to Ortega's solemn protagonist. Burton and his work have been criticized for similar reasons in the past.
The director was a subject of controversy in 2016 when discussing his childhood viewing of The Brady Bunch, suggesting the show's eventual inclusion of Black and Asian characters was a move of political correctness. These comments came as part of a response to Samuel L. Jackson's claim that he is the only Black person to have appeared in a Tim Burton movie (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children). Wednesday's Jenna Ortega is the first person of color to lead a Tim Burton project.
Wednesday follows the iconic Addams Family character's attempts to solve a mystery involving her parents while honing her emerging psychic abilities. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: Twitter