Wednesday Season 2: Part 1 marked the official start to the spooky season this year, and the titular Addams is still a delightful menace to polite society. While Wednesday remains iconically unbothered by plenty that would strike fear into even the bravest hearts, there are a few things that have her rattled. One of them is her relationship with her mother, Morticia. There’s actually a significant amount of time dedicated to mother/daughter relationships and dynamics in these first four episodes of the season: Wednesday and Morticia, of course, but also Bianca and her mother. But I found the most compelling illustration to be between Morticia and her mother, the Grandmama we’ve all been waiting for, Hester Frump.
Joanna Lumley was an inspired choice to play this character. Not every actor can be believable as a member of the Addams Family — they need a certain look and vibe — and she has that special something that feels exactly right. Not only is Hester most welcome (Grandmama is an absolute must in any Addams adaptation), she’s an inspiration for all the women watching! Hester Frump is fabulous and fierce, elegant, beautiful, and the embodiment of everything that makes a towering matriarch. She’s the kind of woman who makes you excited to age so that you, too, can one day possess that level of experienced confidence and poise.
When Wednesday needs her most, Grandmama swoops in, offers support, drops some much-needed knowledge, and even buys Wednesday a graveyard for future economic security. YES to financially independent ladies! Because really, what is the point of working hard and being your best girl boss-self if it’s not going to earn you a leisurely life with a butler, delish cocktails to sip, and all the black clothes and nice things that you could ever want? Gimme some of that. Less grindset mindset, more luxuriating, please.
We also know, even from her brief appearance in Episode 4, that Hester is complicated. Things between her and Morticia are clearly strained, and there’s an implication that, at least from Morticia’s point of view, Hester is not the most loving and supportive parent. Hester may have taught Wednesday a lot, and surely loves her daughters in her way, but there’s palpable hurt and tension when Hester and Morticia speak. There’s a snarky dig about Morticia’s dependency on Gomez, and a volley back about Hester failing Morticia’s sister Ophelia. There’ll be more to come about both topics, one would assume, in Wednesday Season 2, Part 2.
I really like that Hester isn’t presented as the most natural mother. The enduring love for and relevance of the Addams Family has always been due in part to its critique of the ridiculousness of so many of our accepted cultural norms by portraying their opposite. Right now, we’re living in a time of extreme conservative and right-wing backlash against women, led by people whose feminine ideal is forever young, dichotomously nubile yet innocent, maternal, and submissive. The Addamses (and the Frumps), of course, say “no thank you” to all of that and present us with Grandmama, a whip-smart older woman who takes no prisoners, wields her influence however she sees fit, and looks damn sexy as she does it. She’s everything small, weak men are afraid of. Eat it, haters.
In short, Hester Frump is a diva and an icon, and I can’t wait to see what the last four episodes of this season have in store for her. Wednesday Season 2, Part 1 is streaming on Netflix now. Part 2 will be released on September 3rd.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix