As September closes out and we roll into October, we are entering the season of binge-watching our favorite shows that exude fall vibes. This list is a perfect guide if you’re looking for a must-watch show during the fall season!
Pretty Little Liars
When we think about shows that we have to rewatch during the fall season, Pretty Little Liars is at the top of that list. Everything about the twists and turns of life in Rosewood keeps us on our toes. From the endless “A” reveals to the beyond stellar music that moves the show along to fashion choices that truly shaped our high school closets, this show has everything. Plus, it features the best “mean girl” in a TV show of all time with Alison DiLaurentis, and a theme song we would recognize anywhere.
Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is the ultimate comfort show. Everything about the world of Stars Hollow makes us want to wrap up in a blanket with a cup of coffee and binge-watch. This show is as feel-good as it gets. Even in moments where it may get emotional, it is generally a low-stakes show. You can watch Lorelai and Rory and escape into their world for the entirety of an episode.
Only Murders In The Building
We aren’t sure if it’s the “Knives Out as a TV show vibes” or if it’s the fact that Martin Short and Steve Martin on camera automatically make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, but Only Murders in the Building definitely puts us in the perfect mood for this time of year. Our fellow Crime Junkie Selena Gomez as Mabel is also, of course, our current fall fashion icon.
The Haunting Of Hill House
If you’re looking for something that plays into the spookier side of the fall season, The Haunting of Hill House is clearly the way to go! This show is expertly written and features some of our favorite acting that has graced our TV Screens, specifically with Victoria Pedretti. You will become addicted after the first episode, and we would be surprised if you didn’t binge the whole show in a day or two.
Wednesday
To finish out this list, we had to give flowers to this modern take on a universally beloved character, Wednesday. Wednesday Addams has been a pop cultural mainstay since the 60s, and with the help of the incredibly talented Jenna Ortega and an industry titan in the form of Tim Burton, this show carries that legacy beautifully.
Check out more of our Fall/Halloween coverage here!
We would love to hear from you! What show makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside during this time of year? Is it Gilmore Girls? Pretty Little Liars? Let us know by commenting below or by tweeting @TheHoneyPOP! We are also on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok!
In some ways, September feels more like a reset than January. After the hedonism of Summer, snapping back into routine feels welcome and motivating. And some part of my brain was trained by the rigors of back-to-school season to associate September with new starts.
From moodboarding to buying new planners, I feel so productive in the fall. Many of us get this renewed burst of confidence and inspiration, even as we mourn the end of summer — and our beloved summer Fridays). It will always be back-to-school season, even if the closest you’ve been to a classroom in years is binge-watching Abbott Elementary.
The nostalgia trip we all take — pining for the days when our biggest worry was whether we’d make it to homeroom before the bell — is enough to make me yearn for high school. I don’t miss the classes or the people, but I do miss that time when the only thing I had to pay for was school lunch — and I didn’t even have to use my own money. Things were simpler, even if they weren’t better. But on TV and in movies, you can indulge in reminiscing and go on pretending that everything was better when you were in school.
What better way to indulge in that nostalgia than with a solid back-to-school watchlist?
These school-inspired shows and films aren’t merely entertainment — they’re time machines, transporting us back to that era of questionable fashion choices, awkward first crushes, and the unshakeable belief that high school was going to be the best four years of our lives. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. Our high school crushes did NOT look like Zac Efron in High School Musical.)
From the hallowed halls of Gilmore Girls’ private school or Hawkins Middle School’s air of murder in Stranger Things, these stories capture student life in all its glory and angst — no matter how unrelatable the actual scenarios are. They remind us of the friends we made, the lessons we learned (occasionally in class, but mostly outside of it), and the unshakeable certainty that our lives were about to change forever.
Without further ado, here’s our definitive back-to-school watchlist, guaranteed to give you all the feels and maybe — just maybe — make you wish you could do it all over again. But only if you get to look like a 25-year-old playing a teenager, because let’s face it, that’s half the fun of these shows.
1. Gilmore Girls
I used to wish I lived in Stars Hollow — the town where everyone knows your name, your coffee order, and your SAT scores. Gilmore Girls has become synonymous with fall and with the back-to-school season for a reason. We all wish we could channel Rory: her good grades, her pick of hot guys, and her superficial drama. So of course this show is ideal for when you’re feeling nostalgic for a high school experience that you never actually had. At its heart, this show is about the relationship between Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a mother-daughter duo, so close you’ll give your mom a call. Rory’s journey through the hallowed halls of Chilton Preparatory School and later Yale University makes this show a back-to-school essential. Watching her navigate the cutthroat world of an elite private school — complete with Paris Geller, the human embodiment of a Type A girlboss — is both hilarious and oddly comforting.
2. Matilda
If Matilda doesn’t inspire you to want to telekinetically hurl your principal out a window, you never went to middle school. But more than wishing harm on Miss Trunchbull, This Roald Dahl adaptation makes me wish I had a teacher like Miss Honey. I had a few English teachers that came close (it’s always the English teachers) but corporate ladders of the adult world is devoid of soul that pure. Matilda Wormwood is every bookworm’s hero, a pint-sized genius who finally gets the recognition she deserves. We’re all waiting for our powers to kick in once we read enough books, I’m sure.
3. Jennifer’s Body
This film is Megan Fox at her peak — no wonder it’s recently been referenced by stars like Madison Beer. A Tumblr mainstay, Jennifer’s Body is a cult classic that went unappreciated in its time but it goes triple platinum in my apartment each back-to-school season. It asks the important question: what do you do when the scariest thing about high school isn’t the pop quiz in third period, but your best friend’s sudden appetite for human flesh? This bisexual-coded film is the Black Swan of high school dramas. Megan Fox stars as Jennifer, the quintessential high school hottie who starts killing — and eating — boys. If I was her bestie, I would let her. The gore and the gloriously cheesy one-liners — “You’re killing people!” “No, I’m killing boys.” — make this a brilliant feminist revenge fantasy. No wonder I crave it every year.
4. Bottoms
When it comes to gory, kitschy modern classics, Bottoms is a new entry and it’s number one with a bullet.
Bottoms is a queer high school comedy that reveals what happens when you mix Fight Club with sapphic energy and sprinkle in some Gen Z absurdism. Starring Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott, it follows two unpopular lesbian students who start a fight club to hook up with cheerleaders. It’s gloriously unhinged, unapologetically gay, and so killingly awkward in the best possible way.
Bottoms changed my brain chemistry, just like high school. It aptly captures the desperation of trying to fit in while also flipping off the entire concept of fitting in. Wrapped up in a packaging of violence, dark humor, and surprisingly tender moments, it’s a love letter to every queer kid who felt like an outsider. This film is the chaotic good energy we need in our back-to-school watchlist, reminding us that sometimes the best way to navigate the hellscape of high school is to create your own ridiculous rules.
5. The Breakfast Club
Speaking of creating your own rules and changing high school archetypes, The Breakfast Club is the OG film celebrating high school angst. The Breakfast Club is a John Hughes classic that never goes out of style. Five stereotypes walk into detention, and by the end, they’re dancing on tables and oversharing like they’re on their third glass of rosé. It’s a terrific reminder that high school was actually terrible, and we’re all just damaged goods trying to fit in.
As someone who was a floater in high school, this is pretty much what my average afternoon looked like. But without the cool 80s outfits. The film’s exploration of clique dynamics and the pressure to conform is still painfully relevant — even outside the halls of high school. Whether you identify with the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, or the criminal (let’s be real, you’re probably a mix of all five by now), there’s something here for everyone. Plus, watching Judd Nelson’s John Bender stick it to the man will make you feel better about that passive-aggressive email you sent to HR last week. It’ll have you fist-pumping and cringing in equal measure – just like your actual high school experience.
6. Young Royals
One thing about me, I’m gonna bring up Young Royals. I thought my boarding school was full of angst and drama? It was nothing compared to Wilhelm and Simon’s experience at Hillerska, the Swedish boarding school for the elite in Young Royals. It’s gay Gossip Girl meets gay The Crown with a hefty dose of Swedish angst. Imagine if Prince Harry’s memoir was gay and he wrote it while listening to Robyn on repeat.
Young Royals follows a fictionalized Swedish Prince who is the “spare.” He grapples with royal responsibilities at a new school where he balances dealing with family expectations, class differences, and his growing feelings for a non-royal — and decidedly male — classmate. Tea. It’s a delicious cocktail of privilege, repression, and teen hormones that’ll make you grateful for your mundane high school experiences. But it also reminds you how much can change in September. Who knows, you might fall in love tomorrow. We can dream. The show’s final season aired this summer and it has one of the best finales I’ve ever seen. Go forth. Break your own heart.
7. Heartstopper
For a less angsty and more fluff-filled queer romance, turn on my personal comfort show: Heartstopper. It’s the wholesome gay content we didn’t know we needed in our cynical lives. Based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novels, this British coming-of-age story follows Charlie and Nick as they navigate friendship, love, and self-discovery. Its cast has grown iconic with the show’s immense popularity, making us root for Kit Conner and Joe Locke’s endeavors in real life as much as we root for Nick and Charlie on screen.
It’s so sweet but somehow manages to avoid being saccharine. It’s a refreshingly optimistic take on LGBTQ+ youth experiences that’ll make you want to go back in time and give your teenage self a hug. The show tackles issues like coming out, bullying, and mental health with a deft touch, all while serving up enough adorable moments alongside cringe-worthy universal experiences — like the age old “am I gay” quiz.
8. Sex Education
Less wholesome, but equally as iconic, Sex Education is a British gem about the awkwardness of puberty. It’s set in a high school that seems to exist in a timeless bubble of ’80s aesthetics and modern sensibilities. The show follows Otis — the son of a sex therapist — as he and his friends navigate the treacherous waters of teen sexuality. It’s frank, it’s funny, and it’ll make you wish you had access to this information when you were fumbling through your own sexual awakening. Apt for back-to-school season, it reminds us that no matter how old we get, when it comes to sex and relationships we’re all still awkward teenagers.
9. Election
Election is another cult classic starring a young Reese Witherspoon. This razor-sharp satire takes on the cutthroat world of high school politics and turns it into a mirrored funhouse mirror that reflects our current political landscape. Way more lighthearted than stress-watching the debate, I promise. Reese Witherspoon’s Tracy Flick is the overachiever we all love to hate — or secretly admire, depending on how many color-coded planners you own.
She’s gunning for student body president with the intensity she brought back in Legally Blonde. All while Matthew Broderick’s Mr. McAllister tries to sabotage her campaign in a misguided attempt to teach her a lesson (spoiler alert: it doesn’t go well). Election is a delicious back-to-school watch for when you’re feeling disillusioned with the system but still harboring a secret desire to change it from within. It’s a biting commentary on ambition, ethics, and the dangers of unchecked power — all wrapped up in a deceptively perky package.
10. 10 Things I Hate About You
My favorite movie of all time. I don’t need back-to-school season to make me want to watch this and transform myself into Kat Stratford — but it’s a good enough excuse. This modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew is a time capsule filled with crop tops, combat boots, and enough feminist rage to flashback to high school when I’m painting signs for the Women’s March.
Kat Stratford — played by Julia Stiles at her eye-rolling best — is the sardonic, Sylvia Plath-reading heroine we all aspired to be but lacked the natural coolness. Meanwhile, Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona is the bad boy with a heart of gold that launched a thousand sexual awakenings. The film’s take on high school politics feels both delightfully dated and eerily relevant — because let’s face it, adult life is just high school with more expensive wine. 10 Things is the perfect back-to-school watch when you need a reminder that it’s okay to be the “difficult” one, that grand romantic gestures involving marching bands are severely underrated, and that you should never-ever let someone tell you that you’re “incapable of loving anyone.”
11. Love and Basketball
Hear me out: half of Spike Lee’s 2000 film Love and Basketball may take place in adulthood, but it starts with the first day of school. This is the ultimate story about actually ending up with your childhood crush or high school boyfriend. Yes, it’s delusional but something’s gotta motivate me to attend my reunion in a few years. Love and Basketball follows Monica and Quincy from childhood neighbors to high school sweethearts to rival athletes, all set against the backdrop of competitive basketball.
The film perfectly captures the intensity of first love, the pressure of pursuing your dreams, and the realization that sometimes you can have it all — just not all at once. Love and Basketball is the ideal back-to-school watch for when you’re feeling sentimental about the days when your biggest worry was balancing your crush with your extracurriculars. It’s a poignant reminder that life doesn’t always follow a straight path, and sometimes you have to take a few shots before you score. And that women’s sports are just as valid as men’s sports. Play for her heart, Quincy! Play for her heart!
12. Abbott Elementary
Everyone’s favorite sitcom is the defining school-inspired drama of our era. Quinta Brunson’s masterpiece accurately portrays the chaos of elementary school while prompting us to wonder: what were our teachers up to during those years? While I don’t remember much, I’m sure I was just as much a menace as the kids in Abbott Elementary. Teachers deserve a raise, seriously. Full of hearty laughs and genuinely moving moments, this feel-good show makes me consider teaching somewhere. I won’t do it, but maybe…
13. Stranger Things
Hawkins Middle School may be full of monsters and murder, but what I would do to be part of the AV club with those nerds. Netflix’s paranormal smash hit is set in a small midwestern town and, while the last two seasons have been set in the summer, the show is at its best when our characters are balancing a fresh school year with battling the demogorgon. The wait for Season 5 is lasting as long as Senior Year felt. If those kids can get through middle school, you can make it through your next meeting. I believe in you.
Complex mother-daughter relationships are at the heart of Gilmore Girls. In its 23 years, there has always been controversy about the volatility of Emily and Lorelai’s. Lorelai intentionally keeps her parents out of her life; she left home at age 16 and was pregnant with her daughter, Rory. Lorelai’s parents, Richard and Emily, decided the best way to deal with the pregnancy was for their daughter to marry the baby’s father, Christopher. This is the catalyst for driving their daughter away.
Some fans believe Lorelai is selfish and thoughtless for running away from home as soon as she had a baby of her own, leaving Emily bewildered as to why her daughter has abandoned her. I watched Gilmore Girls when I was in my early 20s and Lorelai’s actions resonated with me a lot. I am an only child—like Lorelai—and just like Emily, my mother has always micro-managed my life.
When I started discussing with my friends how similar Emily is to my mother, and how our relationship echoes that of Emily and Lorelai’s, friends who have narcissistic parents started educating me about what a narcissistic parent looks like. The more I started to learn, the more convinced I became that Emily is the real problem. She is a narcissist. I know this because my mother is, too.
In season two, Emily learns her daughter is getting married when one of Lorelai’s friends calls her to confirm her availability for the wedding shower. Emily bemoans to Richard, “Our daughter is getting married. She’s getting married and she didn’t tell us.”
The more I started to learn, the more convinced I became that Emily is the real problem. She is a narcissist. I know this because my mother is, too.
Yet, while Lorelai and Rory’s characters have been reduced to “demon spawns” countless times over the internet, recently I’ve seen more Reddit threads describing Emily as a “textbook abusive narcissist”, placing the blame for their failing relationship firmly on her shoulders. As someone who grew up with a mother with extreme narcissistic tendencies myself, I completely agree. Growing up, my mother controlled every aspect of my life and tried to manipulate me when things didn’t go her way.
Lorelai’s defense is to always keep her parents at arm’s length, which is why she makes sure to divulge no information to her parents. In response, Emily throws a tantrum about why Lorelai never shares any information with her and why she had to find out about Lorelai’s wedding from her daughter’s best friend.
This could easily be deemed cruel and thoughtless behavior by Lorelai, but I know better than some that it’s an impossible situation to win. When Lorelai replies, “I don’t know how to tell you things, Mom. When something good happens to me, I’m just afraid you’re gonna make me feel bad about it. And when something bad happens to me, I’m always afraid you’ll say, ‘I told you so’.”
In one episode, Emily manipulates Lorelai into going on a spa weekend with her. But Emily continuously berates her daughter and when they have a huge argument, Emily gets upset about why she and Lorelai can’t have the same relationship that Lorelai and Rory have.
Similarly, my mother constantly moans about why I don’t tell her anything about my life. I keep my dating life private and every time she sees me, she asks me if I’m dating someone. I lie and tell her no, regardless of the truth. She laments, as Emily does: Why don’t we have the relationship that other mothers have with their daughters?
At one point, Rory asks Lorelai if she has ever just tried talking to Emily, to which Lorelai replies, “I have tried. I have tried my whole life. But my mother and I, we speak a different language. I talk, I think I’m being clear, and all she hears is, ‘Blah blah blah Ginger’.” Those words sum up my entire relationship with my mother, but it makes me feel less alone when I watch it on the show.
Hailey Bieber continues to take her style cues from Rory Gilmore this sweater season.
A month after styling a black turtleneck and plaid miniskirt with an oversized coffee cup that would make the Stars Hollow teen jealous, Bieber cemented herself as a Gilmore Girls stan by wearing the cosy cream jumper we all know and love. While the model’s massive crewneck is definitely made of a much softer knit than Rory’s famous fisherman sweater from the Y2K series’ pilot episode, the colour and oversized fit were spot on.
Of course, the 26-year-old put her own spin on the iconic look by swapping out Rory’s bootcut jeans for a pair of ultra thigh-high orange and black striped boots. Posted by Hailey on 17 November, the outfit can be seen on slide three of an Instagram photo dump documenting “the best 48 hours” with husband Justin Bieber and close friend Kendall Jenner.
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Hailey Bieber topped off the daring ensemble with a pair of tiny oval sunglasses and gold earrings, keeping her hair pulled back into a claw clip with two face-framing strands left out. She also shared the full look on her Instagram story.
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Despite Rory Gilmore’s less-than-stellar reputation among Gilmore Girls fans, the fictional teen’s wardrobe has become more coveted than ever in 2023, likely thanks to the show’s surging popularity on TikTok. “Still hate her but girl has great sweaters,” one Instagram user commented on Glamour US’s recent post about “Rory Girlmore Fall”.
We’ve all daydreamed about what it’d be like to grow up surrounded by vibrant yellow, red, and orange leaves in a picturesque place like Stars Hollow—the fictional northeast town that’s the setting of Gilmore Girls. Stars Hollow is the epitome of fall vibes. From the vibrant foliage to the cozy outfits, it’s an autumnal dream. This fall, I’m channeling all things Gilmore Girls and Stars Hollow as far as getting dressed goes. Think cozy sweaters, layers, plaids, denim, and so many more cool-weather styles.
If you’re like me and want to live your best main-character life this fall, look no further because I’ve curated a delicious selection of lovely fall fashion pieces that I’m excited about. You can expect endless layerable pieces, boots, hats, and more. Keep scrolling to be one step closer to life in Stars Hollow.
Sean Gunn wants Netflix executives to share the wealth with the actors they rely on.
The “Gilmore Girls” star, who joined his fellow Hollywood workers on the picket line this week, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday about his anger over the low residuals he receives as the multibillion-dollar company streams his former show.
“I was on a television show called Gilmore Girls for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix,” he said. “It has been one of their most popular shows for a very long time, over a decade. It gets streamed over and over and over again, and I see almost none of the revenue that comes into that.”
In the THR interview, Gunn had also claimed that Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Executive Chair Reed Hastings “give each other bonuses in the 10s of millions,” though the article has since been updated “to remove incorrect statement about Netflix CEO bonuses.”
“I don’t understand why they can’t lessen those bonuses to share the wealth more with the people who have created the content that has gotten them rich,” he had told the outlet. “It really is a travesty. And if the answer is, ‘Well, this is just how business is done’ … that sucks. That makes you a bad person.”
THR’s article now notes that Sarandos’ and Hastings’ compensation last year mostly came from stock options rather than bonuses. This year, Sarandos could reportedly earn up to $40 million from his salary, stock options and performance bonus. Co-CEO Greg Peters is reportedly set to see an enormous $30 million raise in potential stock options and bonuses, in addition to his $3 million salary.
“You really need to rethink how you do business and share the wealth with people,” said Sean Gunn.
Amanda Edwards/WireImage/Getty Images
In his remarks to THR, Gunn had seemingly conflated revenue — the amount of money that a business like Netflix makes — with residuals, which are doled out by a company producing and licensing a project. In the case of “Gilmore Girls,” the residuals come from Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Gilmore Girls” originally aired on The WB, which later became The CW, from 2000 to 2007. It was then made available on Netflix and became a staple for viewers who clamored for the show’s small-town atmosphere and witty banter.
Gunn, who played Kirk on the beloved show, told THR that the need to better compensate Hollywood workers “really is a moral and an ethical issue as much as it’s a financial issue” — effectively summing up what writers and actors have argued all along.
“You really need to rethink how you do business and share the wealth with people,” he added. “Otherwise this is all going to come crashing down.”
Sean Gunn, who played Stars Hollow’s eccentric wannabe filmmaker Kirk on “Gilmore Girls”, is among the actors who hit the picket lines on Friday after SAG-AFTRA voted to strike.
Interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn — who’s the brother of DC Studios’ co-head James Gunn — discussed the issues at stake for actors, and cited Netflix’s acquisition of “Gilmore Girls” as an example of what he characterizes as unfair compensation for actors.
According to Gunn, he “particularly wanted to come out and protest Netflix” because he believes he and other actors who appeared in “Gilmore Girls” have not been receiving an equitable share of the profits from the show.
“I was on a television show called ‘Gilmore Girls’ for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix,” he explained. “It has been one of their most popular shows for a very long time, over a decade. It gets streamed over and over and over again, and I see almost none of the revenue that comes into that.”
As THR pointed out, Gunn and the other actors receive residuals from the show from Warner Bros. Discovery — the studio that produced “Gilmore Girls” and licensed the show to Netflix; however, those residuals remain the same, regardless of how many people stream the series on Netflix.
Meanwhile, Gunn explained, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and executive chair Reed Hastings have given “each other bonuses in the tens of millions of dollars” while the compensation given to him and his “Gilmore Girls” co-stars has remained static.
“I don’t understand why they can’t lessen those bonuses to share the wealth more with the people who have created the content that has gotten them rich,” he said.
“It really is a travesty. And if the answer is, ‘Well, this is just how business is done, this is just how corporate business works,’ that sucks. That makes you a bad person. And you really need to rethink how you do business and share the wealth with people. Otherwise, this is all going to come crashing down,” he warned.
Maybe it seems ironic to say that the character of Wednesday Addams has been “gentrified,” considering she’s no longer white. And sure, in Jenna Ortega’s hands (whether that includes Thing or not), Wednesday is perfectly “passable” as a macabre dark mistress. To those who examine the presentation of the character more deeply, however, it’s clear to see that she’s been sanitized for the sake of making her more “likable” (read: watchable) to normies and outcasts alike. Except that the true outcasts of this world will not be encouraged to find that Wednesday’s so-called black heart is as penetrable as the Grinch’s.
It all starts promisingly enough when Wednesday reveals her lust for exacting revenge to be uncompromising in the first episode, “Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe.” This is where we’re introduced to her at Nancy Reagan High—the school’s namesake being a pointed dig at any preppy, pastel-wearing git that Wednesday might be likely to encounter. Except for the fact that, in the present, with the greater commodification of “weird” as normal, one would be less likely to see such 80s-era “queen bees” of a Republican persuasion “running” the school. Nonetheless, one is willing to go along (at first) on this journey helmed by Tim Burton and writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (all three being white men serves as something of a “behind-the-scenes” case in point of the aforementioned gentrification).
Suspending disbelief that “normies” still reign supreme in the era of their disfavor (with normies themselves having adopted the “trends” embodied by “freakdom”), we watch as Wednesday vindicates her brother Pugsley’s (Isaac Ordonez) bullying by the jocks of the water polo team, their ringleader being the fittingly-named Dalton (Max Pemberton). To secure justice for Pugsley, she thusly targets the team at their most vulnerable: half-naked in the pool during practice. Unleashing two bags’ worth of piranhas (as Edith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien” plays) into the water, we learn afterward that Dalton ends up losing a testicle. But Wednesday maintains, “I did the world a favor. People like Dalton shouldn’t procreate.” For yes, she does hold fast to her “savagery” for all of episode one, complete with her declaration, “I don’t have a phone. I refuse to be a slave to technology.” Her Luddite ways, of course, will be thrown out the window by the eighth and final episode, “A Murder of Woes,” after fellow student and semi-“love” interest, Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White), gives her one as a parting gift at the premature end of the school year.
Xavier is sort of like the Tristan Dugray (Chad Michael Murray) to townie Tyler Galpin’s (Hunter Doohan) version of Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki). Which brings us to Wednesday’s Rory Gilmore-esque (Alexis Bledel) nature in this edition. Complete with both girls being bookish introverts with writerly aspirations, each starting out at public school (in Rory’s case, Stars Hollow High) before being presented with the opportunity (fine, obligation for Wednesday) to attend a private. Wednesday’s is called Nevermore Academy, not just a private school like Rory’s Chilton, but a private boarding school. Which is where the Hogwarts Academy element comes in. But more on the Harry Potter similarities later. As for those well-versed in poetry ought to detect, “Nevermore” is a direct reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”
Poe being the “mascot,” of sorts, for darkness and lovers of the grim and grotesque, it’s only natural that the writers should see fit to make him a former alumnus of the academy. There’s even a Poe Cup competition in episode two, “Woe Is the Loneliest Number,” during which Wednesday’s blooming friendship with her roommate and would-be werewolf, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), is further solidified by Wednesday’s desire to help her beat the long-reigning winner, Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday). It is she who embodies the school’s proverbial “most popular girl” role—though no one can say for sure if that’s because she’s a siren with a very persuasive voice.
The character of Bianca harkens back to yet another Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. A show that, who would have predicted, turned out to be much less afraid of full-stop darkness than Wednesday. In it, Sabrina Spellman’s (Kiernan Shipka) own rival at The Academy of Unseen Arts, Prudence Blackwood (Tati Gabrielle), serves as the locks shorn, Black mean girl of the equation. And, like Wednesday and Bianca, Sabrina and Prudence eventually seem to develop a mutual respect for one another after Bianca and Prudence get over the fact that the chosen boy of her affection prefers Sabrina and Wednesday, respectively, to her.
The magical facet of Wednesday’s Burton-ified persona doesn’t just relate to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, either. Even more than that, it echoes Charmed. Most overtly via Wednesday’s powers of premonition mirroring Phoebe Halliwell’s (Alyssa Milano). Charmed in general also seems to cast a towering shadow over the series. At one point, Wednesday tells Thing as she touches a book of spells in “Friend or Woe, “Codex Umbarum—that’s Latin for Book of Shadows.” This being the name of the book the Halliwell sisters use as well for their spellcasting. Then there is Rowan Laslow (Calum Ross), a fellow student at Nevermore with the power of telekinesis… just like Phoebe’s oldest sister, Prue (Shannen Doherty). But yes, more obviously connected to Charmed is Wednesday getting premonitions the same way Phoebe does. The latter, too, can’t control when or where the premonitions will arrive, triggered by touching something seemingly arbitrary that leads to a vision that will ultimately offer a bigger clue.
This is the component that suddenly makes Wednesday a teen detective who actually gives a shit about saving her school from an unknown and sinister antagonist. That Wednesday and Pugsley had to be forced to go to school in general during the first series run of The Addams Family should be an indication, however, that Wednesday would never care enough about any “institution” of learning to stick around and save it. Indeed, there are glimmers of Wednesday’s contempt for the entire construct of school at the beginning, when she notes of Nancy Reagan High, “I’m not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism.”
Other callbacks to Wednesdays of the past show up in moments both big and small, from Wednesday telling Tyler she used to decapitate her dolls with a guillotine as a child (this being mentioned in the 60s sitcom version of the show) to her particular way of dancing to her having an ancestor who was a witch to her utter contempt for whitewashed pilgrim history just the same as Christina Ricci’s Wednesday in Addams Family Values. And, speaking of, Ricci’s own presence in the show goes largely wasted and underused. Except when she has the gumption to say to Wednesday, “Never lose that, Wednesday. The ability to not let others define you.”
Alas, Wednesday is gradually being conditioned, molded and defined by norms and conventions as the series goes on. This includes her cringeworthy romance plotlines with both Tyler and Xavier. If anything, Wednesday would be more prone to asexual tendencies, the antithesis of Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Worse still, they actually have Wednesday kissing a boy already in season one. Goddamn, at least work up to that kind of thing. All “sexual” interactions when it comes to Wednesday Addams, after all, should be strictly Bollywood.
Even more unnatural is that Tyler, who writes her off as “Grim Reaper Barbie” (that “Barbie” can be associated with Wednesday at all in this series should tell one everything), has the gall to actually take some kind of “ownership” over Wednesday. Doing so when she confesses to him that she is deigning to attend the Rave’n dance (Nevermore’s version of a prom) with Xavier in episode four, “Woe What A Night.” He then bitches out, Dean-style in Gilmore Girls, and berates her, “I mean, call me crazy, Wednesday, but you keep giving me these signals.”
Of course, the “real” Wednesday would never give any signals to a boy apart from a death stare. Regardless, she lets him continue to whine, “I thought we liked each other, but then you pull something like this and I have no idea where I stand. Am I in the ‘more-than-friend’ zone or just a pawn in some game you’re playing?” Wednesday, genuinely looking guilty, therefore emotional, about what he’s saying, becomes cliché enough to reply, “I’m just dealing with a lot right now.” No outright ignoring or horrification over how some guy would try to make her apologize in any way for her behavior.
But herein lies the rub with the true essence of the character. No normie actually has the stomach to watch how a misanthrope would realistically behave without some “light” sugar-coating to it. Some glimmer, through plot device, that all the character really needs is to be “drawn out.” That their defenses are only up because they’re just protecting themselves, but secretly want to be an active participant in “society.”
Maybe that’s why something about Wednesday feels tantamount to “dark and weird” Billie Eilish going blonde pin-up and then dating an older white male that fronts an “indie” band. In both scenarios, the lack of faith in audiences to want to stick with such a bleak character/persona—an “anti-hero” (and not in the chirpy, Taylor way), if you will—is part of the capitulation to “Disney-fication.” But oh, let’s not forget about the Harry Potter-fication as well. For, not only does the headmaster, Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie), end up dead, but the “Voldemort” of the narrative also ends up inexplicably brought back to life in the last episode. A dash of Pretty Little Liars even gets thrown in when Wednesday receives a stalker-y text (because, lest one forget, she has an iPhone now) in the vein of “A.” By this juncture, the only on-the-nose “quirky” aspect missing is some background music from Lana Del Rey (“Ultraviolence” would be a good choice).
Hence, whatever season two holds, it’s sure to provide more of Wednesday “gradually” opening up to people as she feigns cold-bloodedness through her barbing dialogue. Yet, to borrow from a meme that gained traction during the Trump presidency (“I know this isn’t the USA Miley was talking about partying in”), “I know this is isn’t the dark and macabre Wednesday that Christina Ricci’s version would have grown up to be.”
Angela Chase once told Jordan Catalano, “Admit it… That you have emotions.” That appears to be what Tim Burton, et al. is saying to Wednesday with this “modernized” rendering of her. And yet, to quote another character from a teen drama, Blair Waldorf, “You have to be cold to be queen.” In this instance, queen of misanthropy. Which Wednesday no longer really is, leaving that, ostensibly, to the descendants she inspired in the animated personages of Daria and Emily the Strange.
