WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Don’t get me wrong. I love Wednesday, I love Jenna Ortega and her performance as Wednesday was brilliant.

#spoilers

However, ultimately the show felt bland in the end to me, because the whole plot ended up revolving around the romance drama: of course, one of the romantic interests was going to be the villain and break her black heart. It was so painfully cliche. To me, as someone who writes and reads a lot, it was obvious from the start where the plot was heading, since the first scene with Thornhill in the dorms and Tyler at the coffee shop. Thornhill was actually better written though.

It was the love interests that just ugh, fell so flat and soured the experience for me. Both Xavier and Tyler were both written in JUST to add romantic drama because Wednesday’s a teen and as such she “should experience typical teen problems and boy problems”.

Which is absolute fucking bullshit in my opinion, not every teenage girl protagonist has to experience love triangles and romantic drama just because she’s a teenager, that is just a cliche trope that has been perpetuated by movies and series, but doesn’t portray the real life of a teenage girl. Besides, why would Wednesday ever need romantic drama? She’s a great character by herself, being how she has always being, she never needed other characters to make her “evolve” or seem more relatable or teen-like.

The cool thing about Wednesday has always been how unapologetic she is, she will be herself without giving a fuck about what others think of her, she will speak her mind always, specially when something that she perceives as “not right” (like the bullying, misogyny, white-washing retelling of history, etc) is happening in front of her; she’s different of course, but that’s what makes her so special, she’s not willing to change herself or bow down to society.

Wednesday has never needed love interests to seem more teen-like, or be more relatable. She’s great just like she is. The weak attempts at writing romance with Wednesday… holy gods they were so bland. Xavier and Tyler were added in with only that purpose, barely have any personality, not to mention having absolutely zero chemistry with Wednesday, at least romantically.

Tyler, if you ignore him being one of the antagonists, reads as a puppy-eyed white male who finds her intriguing because she’s so different from all the other girls he has met before, and since she pays a modicum of attention to him because she needs his help, he thinks she’s interested. Xavier reads as the boy who literally just broke up with a girl he liked, but could never trust, and his mind immediately grabs onto Wednesday as a new love interest because she’s someone who he has met before, and he knows how she is; she’d never lie to him or manipulate his feelings knowingly, he knows she doesn’t have the power to do that, so of course, in his mind she’s trustworthy and because she’s so different from Bianca, she’s perfect as a new crush.

Wednesday never gave them signals of being interested. And yet of course, typical, just because she seems to tolerate them, they automatically assume she likes them. Even though it’s clear from the start she’s just using them for her own means and ends, not actually bonding with them. Tyler is the normie who’d help her with the investigation and help her escape Nevermore because he has a car, and is conveniently the sheriff’s son, so she can keep an eye on his father through him. They had no conversations outside the ones related to the investigation, yet somehow they kissed…..

She barely talked to Xavier outside of the scenes where she snuck into his studio, those scenes being; the infirmary, the classroom, the burnt yard, the jail.

In none of those does Wednesday show any signs of being interested in him in any way, she tolerates him because they’re sort of childhood acquaintances, and he’s her suspect. And in those scenes, the lines they exchange-with the exception of the infirmary (because it’s the moment Xavier’s character is introduced)-are painfully brief and to the point. In fact, I don’t even think they talked in the classroom; Wednesday just looked at him and smashed the spider. She didn’t even say anything. The yard scene was after their fight in the studio and it’s only like 4 lines because they’re not on good terms, which again, were they ever really? And the jail scene is just full of tension and friendship heartbreak because Xavier perceived her differently than she is, and Wednesday is hurt by his words, even though she doesn’t seem to (but Ortega really is brilliant at expressing what Wednesday is feeling just with little face muscle movements. If you pay attention to her face, it is really easy to read how Wednesday is feeling in every scene).

In their efforts to add romantic interests for Wednesday, they ended up coming up with two extremely bland characters. Not to mention Ajax, who is not as bland, but still feels like kind of an unncessary addition. Honestly, the way they’re written, it’s painfully obvious that the purpose of the 3 boys is just to merely act as romantic interests and a stopper to the shipping between Wednesday and Enid, being like “oh but see? They both have boyfriends! Male interests! They’re not queer! They’re just really good friends and roommates!”

….. god that’s just terrible writing. Both read as heavily queer coded, and Enid is the only character Wednesday actually cares about and bonds with out of her free will, unconsciously (with the exception of Eugene, but he’s like a sibling to her). By the second episode, Wednesday is already showing signs that she’s starting to care for Enid, without being prompted to by anything else, circumstancial or otherwise. When they argue, Wednesday is hurt by it, saddened because she’s now alone; she keeps looking back at Enid’s side of the room and hopes to solve everything asap so it can all go back to normal. She’s again, hurt and disappointed when Thornhill shows up to tell her that Enid has requested to room with Yoko for the rest of the year, but tries to play it off. Wednesday is a character who perceives emotion as weakness, because it’s how people commit mistakes and get hurt, it’s what people use to manipulate each other, so she convinces herself that she doesn’t need emotion, including affection and caring about people.

Yet by episode 5, not only does she clearly care about Eugene, completely willingly and with no ulterior motive, she also cares about Enid’s feelings and talks with her easily, standing close to one another. She tries to tell Dr. Kinbott that she’s still as cold hearted as she was the first day, but it’s clear she’s trying to convince herself of it too, because although she has tried, she cannot help but care about them. She could have thrown away the snood when Enid was not looking, but she kept it, tried to avoid hurting her feelings by telling her she didn’t like it, and even wore it when they were investigating.

Enid literally turned into a werewolf in her hurry to get to Wednesday and help her. She fought for her and got scarred, and the first thing she says when she’s in her human form again is “where is wednesday?” And she’s worried, scared for her. She could have hugged Ajax when she saw him, but she just leaned into him for comfort, because she literally just turned into a huge beast, fought for her life, and is really shaken by it. In contrast, when she sees Wednesday she literally runs to her and hugs her tightly. And Wednesday actually reciprocates, hugging her tightly and hiding her face in her neck while Enid clutches her uniform in her hands. Wednesday didn’t hug Tyler even when they were kissing, she only let herself be held, but made no move with her own arms.

I could continue, but this is getting really fucking long. Point is: there is no fucking way Wednesday and Enid are not queer in some way, regardless what netflix may say (when one writes a story, the characters always evolve and develop beyond one’s imagination and thoughts, because they are characters, and ultimately, they are people). And Xavier and Tyler made no goddamn sense as love interests, yet sadly it’s already obvious that Xavier is gonna be endgame, unless they decide to actually make Wednesday x Enid canon. The show just felt like compulsive heteronormativity to me.