On the Netflix smash hit Wednesday, where the eerie and extraordinary collide, there is one particular episode that the star of the show Jenna Ortega picked as her favourite.
Wednesday is based on Charles Addams’ original creation, brought to life by Ortega. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it follows Wednesday Addams unravelling a high school murder mystery. Tim Burton directed and produced season one, while Christina Ricci dropped in to drive the nostalgia factor higher.
The show also had an intriguing ensemble cast with Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer, and Naomi J. Ogawa. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán played the iconic gothic couple Morticia and Gomez Addams.
At the Netflix ATAS Official Event, held within the atmospheric Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Ortega was asked to pick her favourite episode from the debut season. Without hesitation, she chose ‘Friend or Woe,’ an episode she believes is quite underrated.
Explaining her choice, Ortega highlighted the elements that make this episode stand out for her. “I feel like Episode 3 is kind of underrated just because there’s that explosion with the statue, and we get that awesome cello piece,” Ortega reflected.
“There’s the god-awful pilgrim costume. There’s the fight sequence. There’s a lot of Eugene [Moosa Mostafa], who’s just the funniest guy of all time, in my opinion,” Ortega continued, “I think Tim [Burton] thought the whole pilgrim scene was hilarious. We also shot it midway through, so I felt like everyone kind of found their footing and was in the grip of things by the time we shot that.”
In ‘Friend or Woe,’ Wednesday, dressed in a pilgrim outfit reminiscent of The Crucible, embarks on a journey through Jericho’s Puritan history. A fiery spectacle unfolds as Jericho’s bigoted founder Joseph Crackstone’s statue succumbs to flames, which is accompanied by the haunting strains of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”, played diegetically by none other than our spooky child Wednesday Addams.
Ortega’s fondness for this episode goes beyond the story itself. This episode was shot at a juncture when the cast had started to bond. Hunter Doohan, who plays Tyler, told Tudum in 2022, “We split up into groups and made our own little short films and then had a fake Oscars night and a little film festival at the end [instead of a wrap party].”
As fans gear up for Wednesday season two, they can revisit season one, currently streaming on Netflix.
