Wednesday: Netflix’s Addams Family series surprisingly relies on Rotten

The new Addams Family adaptation from Netflix Wednesday hit an unlikely milestone on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series stars Jenna Ortega (X) as Wednesday Addams, based on the character first created by cartoonist Charles Addams.

Wednesday is the latest in a long line of Addams Family adaptations spanning multiple TV series, a live-action film franchise and two recent animated films.

Luiz Guzmán Gomez Addams and Catherine Zeta-Jones Morticia will star alongside Ortega. Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 1990s film adaptations, is also one of Wednesday’s teachers.

The series has received mixed reviews, with The Independent‘s Nick Hilton described it as “pretty lacking in quality” in a two-star review.

“From lyrics that sound like they were reverse engineered using Google Translate to a deeply bewildering central mystery, the world series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have built is razor thin,” he wrote.

However, other reviews were more positive, with the series earning a “fresh” critics’ rating of 71 percent on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Additionally, the viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes is even more positive, with the series receiving an impressive 86 percent positive reviews.

Surprisingly, that makes it the highest-rated Addams Family adaptation since the original 1960s television series (which the site claims has 100 percent positive reviews).

It ranks significantly higher than in 1991 The Addams family (with 67 and 66 points respectively) and 1993 Values ​​of the Addams Family (which garnered 74 percent positive reviews from critics but only 63 percent from audiences), the latter is now often referred to as a cult classic.

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Wednesday also ranks far higher than those criticized Addams family reunion (1998) as well as the two more recent animated films.

While Ortega’s leading role received praise from viewers, special attention was paid to the casting of Uncle Fester.

Wednesday is now available to stream on Netflix.