Wednesday: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray Review)
The Addams Family has always been a great source of creepy fun for TV and Film fans. The creepy, kooky, altogether ooky family has been able to transcend both media formats providing fun, somewhat scary, yet still family friendly thrills and laughs. Wednesday certainly took the streaming crowd by storm when it debuted on Netflix in 2022. With Jenny Ortega in a star making embodiment of the titular character, how could you go wrong?! Icing on the cake, we now have a physical release of the show. Downside, it’s only a Blu-ray, but collectors can’t always be choosers. See more about Wednesday below and click the cover art at the end for a paid Amazon link to buy your own copy.
Season 
“Wednesday” is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.
The very interesting world of Nevermore Academy is on display almost immediately in Wednesday. A more horror-fied alternative to a Hogwarts, we meet this Wednesday Addams as she is sent to the school after avenging her kind-hearted gentle brother Pugsley after he’s been bullied. Morticia and Gomez Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman), were once students at Nevermore and they have their own skeletons to uncover, but have been able to keep their story quiet from their smart daughter.
Gifted with a psychic ability she shares with a departed mother, Wednesday begins to use her gifts to help the local police and townspeople find a murderer who begins to kill after a long spell of nonviolence. This mystery of course links to Wednesday’s parents, and clues are uncovered through the episodes, which often end on cliffhangers.
Wednesday is exceptional TV. Great production values, wonderful casting and a very well written story play out with verve on-screen. Jenny Ortega shines as Wednesday while Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones are natural replacements for those who played Morticia and Gomez before them. We also have the treat of tons of engaged character actors new and veteran (Fred Armisen, Christina Ricci (In a winking supporting role) Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Emma Myers just to name a few…) that add so much to the story unfolding.
I was late to the game in watching Wednesday. Perhaps it was the hype that kept me away, as I tend to resist what people want to push on me. When I finally caved and watched the show, I had to stop myself from binging the show, just so I could keep guessing as each episode went on. What unfolds is wholly engrossing and well worth your time.
Video
NOTE: Stills are provided for promotional use only and are not from the Blu-ray.
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
HDR: N/A
Layers: BD-50 (2 Discs)
Clarity/Detail: Wednesday streams on Netflix in 4K Dolby Vision. This is an obvious downgrade, but not as much as you think. In my opinion, 4K Streaming is just HD with an HDR sheen on it. In truth, this is still a sharp, beautiful presentation and one that is the standard for new content on Blu-ray.
Depth: Nevermore Academy is a lot of CGI, but that doesn’t make it look bad, fake or otherwise. The look of the show is dark and murky but nothing is lost in those dark moments, and everything you see remains fully in focus.
Color Reproduction: Purples, blues, blacks, and a few rainbow colors all look excellent here.
Black Levels: Black levels are recreated with love. No crushing is in evidence.
Flesh Tones: Most of the cast of the show is pale, and they look just as they should!
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Dynamics: Wednesday streams with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Downgraded, I didn’t notice a huge difference with my Neural:X filter on. The track is full bodied, wide-spread and well reproduced.
Height: N/A
Low-Frequency Extension: Thunder, music, explosions and more activate the sub! The bass is deep and engaging throughout.
Surround Sound Presentation: Surround activity comes in tense moments, quiet and loud scenes, crowd scenes and even in dorm spaces.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is front and center throughout unless it’s meant to be off-screen.
Extras
There are no extras included on Wednesday: The Complete First Season Blu-ray. There is a slipcover.
Summary 
Whether your mileage for collecting heeds you to buy a Blu-ray of a show streaming in 4K Dolby Vision with an Atmos soundtrack, or if you’re happy to keep going to your Netflix app, this show is one of the best to come out in recent years. Universally interesting, creepy yet charming and featuring fantastic work from Jenny Ortega and the rest of the packed cast, this bare-bones release is worth a buy if you collect like I do. One does with there were a 4K disc, or some features to go along with the release, but the price point is right, and if you don’t have Netflix and want to get in on the fun, this is a definitely good way to do so.
