Jenna Ortega will make 'Wednesday,' an Addams Family spinoff, your favorite day

A teenage girl in a Netflix show is forced to attend a dark and forbidding private academy filled with supernatural outcasts, hating it at first but gradually finding her way.

Another season of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina?” No, that streaming ship has sailed. This time it’s “Wednesday,” a new-ish take on Wednesday Addams of “The Addams Family” fame.

The eight-episode series, of which Tim Burton directs four episodes, does owe a lot to “Sabrina” in its look and vibe. They also share star-making performances from the title characters.

In this case, it’s Jenna Ortega, playing Wednesday. Where Kiernan Shipka had the luxury of a range of emotions to play with as Sabrina, Ortega has to play Wednesday flat as a pancake.

It’s part of Wednesday’s charm, after all.

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Jenna Ortega does a lot with a little as Wednesday

Yet Ortega still makes her compelling. This is despite the story’s insistence on constantly reminding the audience that yes, Wednesday is dangerous, she’s wily, cross her (or just look at her wrong) at your peril.

That gets old, even though the absurdity of all things sad and evil delighting the Addams family is built into their makeup. It’s what’s so lovable about them.

And you should love them.

The Netflix series, like two previous films and a TV series, is based on the cartoons of Charles Addams, in which a family of delightful weirdos do weird things. (A favorite cartoon is the family about to pour a hot cauldron of something onto Christmas carolers down below. Or Gomez, the father, snuggling with his wife, Morticia. Are you unhappy, darling, he asks? Oh yes, she replies. Yes, completely!)

But in this telling, Wednesday sometimes takes things too far. Like when members of the swim team at her high school bully her younger brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), she releases piranhas into the pool during practice.

This lands her at Nevermore Academy, where her parents went but, precisely because of that, Wednesday never wanted to go. Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) are thrilled, but Wednesday is mortified — and not in a good way, as she might say.

The school is home to outcasts, which in this case means werewolves, vampires, gorgons and whatever Wednesday is. There’s only one “normie” teacher, Marilyn Thornhill — played by Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in two feature films.

The principal, Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie), was Morticia’s roommate. There’s still a rivalry there, but Wednesday’s parents are happy to drop her off where they enjoyed some of the worst days of their lives, as Gomez puts it.

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Here's who else is in 'Wednesday'

It’s certainly an interesting place. Wednesday’s roommate is Enid (Emma Myers), a cheery would-be werewolf (so far she only sprouts claws) who loves bright colors and bonding, all the things Wednesday detests. The place also comes with an instant rival for Wednesday: Bianca (Joy Sunday), as well as Xavier (Percy Hynes White), a guy who may or may not be on Wednesday’s side.

Sides are necessary. A monster is killing people in the woods next to the school. Naturally, this piques Wednesday’s interest. She spends most of the eight episodes trying to find out who the monster is — and who is trying to prevent her from doing so.

Along the way, Wednesday, brilliant but aggressively antisocial, will kinda, sorta befriend a townie, Tyler (Hunter Doohan); work uneasily with his father, the sheriff (Jamie McShane); and threaten to maim a substantially high number of people she comes into contact with.

(Look for Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester.)

It’s a lot. Too much, really; like most streaming series, it could stand to be a couple of episodes shorter. And the mystery isn't particularly satisfying.

But none of it works without Ortega’s performance, which is morbidly delightful. She rises above the dreary threats and boasts Wednesday is always making to create a more fully formed character than such a one-note arc would suggest.

And she does it with subtlety, with a raising of her eyebrow, a quick turn of the head. If there’s another season — we still haven’t seen Cousin Itt, after all — I’m in.

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Where to watch 'Wednesday'

"Wednesday" starts streaming on Netflix on Nov. 23.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Wednesday' on Netflix: Jenna Ortega is delightfully creepy