Nothing's Stranger than Wednesday: “Wednesday: Season Two” mirrors the show “Stranger Things”

At the Nevermore Academy for Outcasts, it’s back-to-school season. But, this school looks a little different from SM East.

Trade textbooks for spell books, classroom pets for bloodthirsty bats and tight-knit friend groups for ever-present stalkers, and you’ll get the first week of school — Wednesday Addams style.

“Wednesday,” a popular, horror TV show first released in November 2022, follows the story of Wednesday Addams and her spooky journey through Nevermore. The second season of this widely popular show released the first four episodes on Aug. 6, and the final four came out today. 

At times, I would find myself laughing at Wednesday’s daring comebacks, but “Wednesday: Season Two” was unoriginal and eerily similar to another Netflix creation: “Stranger Things.” The four-season TV show takes place in a small Indiana town and is centered around a young girl, Eleven, and her psychic abilities.

Maybe it’s the fact that I binge-watched the entirety of “Stranger Things” this summer, but I can’t see past the similarities between the two Netflix originals — it’s woefully obvious.

The first, and most apparent, similarity: Wednesday’s black tears and Eleven’s blood dripping from her nose. Both caused by overuse of supernatural powers, it’s clear the two producers had the same idea in mind. Let’s use some creativity and at least pick a different sign to display mental exhaustion.

Furthermore, in both “Stranger Things Season 4” and “Wednesday: Season Two,” the main character’s struggle to fight flying animals, bats and crows respectively. Surely a crow wasn’t the best villain’s sidekick that director Tim Burton, the mastermind behind “Beetlejuice,” could think of. 

Additionally, the bats and crows were both controlled by a hive-mind, leading towards a greater villain. This is an overused plot of a horror film, and it’s just sloppy to release “Wednesday: Season Two” and “Stranger Things” with annoyingly similar plots. 

“Stranger Things” is an engaging and intriguing show with aspects of horror, but no one wants to watch the same show twice. Sure, rewatching a classic like “Gilmore Girls” every fall is nostalgic, but seeing a supposedly “different” show with the same details as another is stale.

If that isn’t enough to convince you that the two shows are practically identical, listen to this. Both of the main characters, Wednesday and Eleven, defeat their enemies through their psychic abilities.

Even more, both characters retreat to a third-dimensional type of reality to reach the person they're trying to contact. A black abyss or a spooky graveyard — what’s the difference?

Don’t get me wrong, the introduction of “Wednesday: Season Two” was phenomenal. It was set in our hometown of Kansas City, and threw me right into the plot of the new season. However, the catch comes when Wednesday uses her mind to track down her victim, The Kansas City Scalper, and finish off the murder. 

It’s scarily close to how Eleven uses her psyche to save her home town, Hawkins, Indiana, from an underground monster. 

I was devastated. If I’m going to wait over three years for a sequel to “Wednesday,” at least make it innovative and original. 

The first season of “Wednesday” was a masterpiece. The cameos, such as Christina Ricci as an evil science teacher and characters such as “Thing,” made “Wednesday” so addictive. I was really looking forward to the same thrilling feeling again in the sequel. 

But, I’ll give it to Burton — “Wednesday: Season Two” is funny. From the opening credits when Wednesday goes through TSA with murder weapons to sly side comments while at boarding school, I wasn’t short of a good laugh while watching the show. 

Burton even uses clever play on words of the phrase “woe,” like “Here We Woe Again” and “Call of the Woe,” to name the episodes. It’s clear that hours of effort were put into perfecting the little details throughout the series. I wish they’d put more time into developing a storyline that differentiated themselves from “Stranger Things.”

And let’s not forget, nothing, not even creativity points, can make up for the fact that “Wednesday: Season Two” was unoriginal and repetitive. I’m not alone in my disappointment with the second season; in fact, views have dropped by 42% since the first week of premiere, according to Variety. Let’s hope the next four episodes start to branch out.

In classic “Wednesday: Season Two” fashion, if these woes could talk, they’d say to skip the drop today and return to your totally original, cult-classic favorite: “Wednesday.”