Netflix viewers have been craving a new bingeable series, and they have finally been given one.

Wednesday

is the top show in the US on Netflix, and for good reason. The show is an amazing spin-off of the original Addams Family films of the ’90s, but the spotlight is directly on Wednesday, daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams. Don’t worry, Thing still has copious amounts of screen time.

The series follows the cynical yet lovable teen on her journey to Nevermore, a boarding school for “outcasts,” individuals with special powers or identities. Students at Nevermore include sirens, vampires, seers, werewolves and other fictional beings. Wednesday finds herself at Nevermore, her parents’ former stomping ground, due to a piranha-related incident at her previous school. Wednesday is not happy to be at Nevermore, (not that she’s really ever happy) and believes the school to be some sort of punishment. Upon arrival, she is met with a roommate exactly the opposite of her, Enid, a werewolf who loves color, gossip and stuffed animals. She immediately hatches plans to escape, but before she can, she gets sucked into the mystery that lurks behind Nevermore’s gates and in the town of Jericho, haunted by history itself. The town, which is filled with “normies” who hate outcasts, had been experiencing a string of gruesome murders that seem to link right back Nevermore. The monster, a seemingly inescapable evil, perpetrating the murders begins to target both the outcasts and the normies. The show does not only center around supernatural beasts, however, and the series is not too fantasy-like (think

Stranger Things

). The show also has true crime, villains, dark secrets, sick histories, twisted love triangles and heart-warming friendships, all in one. It pays homage to the original Addams family films but establishes itself as its own entity. It is delightfully gloomy in all the right ways.

The show has become immensely popular, going viral on many social media platforms, and creating Netflix’s record of 341.2 million hours of watch time since its release on Nov. 23, according to the show’s Instagram. One of the scenes of the show featuring a dark dance sequence has already sparked an international TikTok trend, The Wednesday Dance.

While the show as a whole is extremely well done and entertaining, Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday Addams is undeniably the best part of the series. Her delivery is spot on, her grimace never wavering (except for in the presence of her Uncle Fester) and her short and cutting one-liners never get old. Ortega presents Wednesday as an extremely intelligent and driven young woman who becomes a sort of detective in her own right. Ortega’s resume has been building quickly in the last two years. Her first big role was that of Young Jane on

Jane the Virgin

, but more recently Ortega starred in HBO Max’s

The Fallout

, A24’s

X

, and the most recent

Scream

film. But after Wednesday, it’s safe to say she will hold a place in people’s minds as the iconic Wednesday Addams for the foreseeable future. Ortega is not the only impressive name in the cast though. In fact, the original Wednesday herself, Christina Ricci, plays the new Wednesday’s dorm mother and professor, Marilyn Thornhill. The cast boasts even more famous names such as

Game of Thrones

’s Gwendoline Christie,

Boogie Nights

and

Narcos

’s star Luis Guzman and

The Mask Of Zoro

’s Catherine Zeta Jones. Not to mention, the director is spooky icon Tim Burton himself, the mastermind behind

Edward Scissorhands

,

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

,

Beetlejuice

and many more terrifying films.

The series only has eight episodes lasting about an hour each. It has a classic spook factor that takes a hold over you. The plot and copious amounts of subplots form a never ending twisted mystery that is endlessly fun to try to untangle as you watch. Whether or not someone has seen the original Addams Family films, Wednesday is an entertaining watch for all. Stream it on Netflix now.