When he most seemed anchored in laziness and condemned to irrelevance, Tim Burton has once again had a success on his hands with ‘Wednesday’, the peculiar revision of the character of ‘The Addams Family’ made for Netflix. The most watched series of the year on the platform has conquered everything from youth adventures to fantastic and macabre comedy.
In order not to stay there, another of our already classic lists arrives that dives between the different streaming platforms and recovers some series tonally or thematically similar to the Jenna Ortega series . Whether you liked it or feel that its potential has been wasted, these three proposals offer the perfect mix of high school problems and supernatural or extraordinary moves.
‘Buffy, cazavampiros’ (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, 1997-2003)
Creada por: Joss Whedon. Reparto: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Anthony Head, James Marsters, David Boreanaz.
An essential classic when it comes to gathering youth and solving macabre ballots. With a complicated legacy because what makes it great is just having someone as disgraced as Joss Whedon responsible for it, the series has enough virtues within it to remain worth rediscovering .
First with an absolutely iconic Sarah Michelle Gellar as this young vampire hunter and demon problem solver. Then with a team of secondary schools that grow and take on a life of their own as the series progresses. His way of working each episode as “the monster of the week” is an absolute reference even for current series , and few have established a better connection between moving on to adulthood and kicking monsters.
‘Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events’ (‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, 2017-2019)
Creada por: Mark Hudis, Barry Sonnenfeld. Reparto: Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Warburton, Malina Weissman, K. Todd Freeman, Louis Hynes.
One of Netflix’s first strong bets on twisted family adventure with fantastic details. The adaptation of the seminal work by Daniel Handler (who created the alter ego of Lemony Snicket, who ends up taking a relevant role in the series) comes from Barry Sonnenfeld, who has already left his mark on this kind of fiction with the two ‘The Addams Family’ films that survive the longest in the collective memory.
Without completely breaking it, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ was able to enter the drama experienced by the Baudelaire orphans with enough lightness and fantasy so that it is not all a depressing tragedy. Managing the tone well and distributing the stories appropriately (as well as a superb Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf), it was a grateful proposal that knew how to adapt the special touch of the books .
‘The chilling adventures of Sabrina’ (‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’, 2018-2020)
Created by : Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Cast : Kiernan Shipka, Jaz Sinclair, Michelle Gomez, Miranda Otto, Lucy Davis.
If I have mentioned the permanent influence of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ before, I have done so with this fantastic adaptation of the Archie Comics character, which maintains the structure while tracing its current season arc. He does it with a fabulous macabre aesthetic , which knows how to differentiate the character of his ‘Riverdale’ cousin-sister, from which he also takes elements.
The adventures and problems of adolescence, but with the peculiarity of a world of witchcraft and satanism demanding their leap towards maturity. First-rate youthful terror that gradually lost power and relevance over time until a less flashy ending. However, it is still full of twisted fun , with a splendid Kiernan Shipka in the role and a good gallery of fantastically designed creatures.
