Secrets of Addictive Storytelling: Autopsy of WEDNESDAY's Opening Scenes S01 E01
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
It's all about hooks, these days.
In a highly saturated market where everyone's a creator, vying for eyeballs is a cut-throat business. The opening scenes of a pilot episode, or any form of scripted video content, need to engage the viewer, make an impact, and deliver concept fast.
Trained via the scroll, we’re experts at making snap judgements, deciding in a matter of seconds whether something interests us or not. As content creators or writers, we need to really sharpen those hooks at the beginning of our episodes, videos or podcasts to ensure we nab the viewer’s attention before they wander off to watch the next thing.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in WEDNESDAY, on Netflix
Netflix dropped a teaser for WEDNESDAY S02 recently. Jenna Ortega is back as Wednesday Addams, back at Nevermore Academy, back fighting monsters of all shapes and sizes and, by the look of the trailer, crying tears of blood. Due to be released August 6th (in two parts–good call, Netflix), there’s plenty of time to reacquaint ourselves with S01.
It’s been a while.
If you’re trying to take a pilot script or scripted video to the next level, whether as a newbie or a more experienced writer, it’s always useful to perform a little exploratory surgery (let's keep to theme and call it an autopsy) on hit shows like this one to examine the how’s and why’s behind their popularity.
Secrets of Addictive Storytelling: Why is WEDNESDAY so successful?
The first season was released near the end of 2022 and became insanely popular. Legendary filmmaker Tim Burton, synonymous with the quirky, dark and macabre, was always going to be the perfect match for an Addams reboot. Jenna Ortega also took to the role like a duck to water.
Looking at the pilot stucturally from a writer’s perspective, this was a show made by people who have a deep understanding of the craft. Namely, how to set up character, story and backstory in the most impactful, unexpected and intriguing way possible. Despite dealing with IP that's well-known, the writers didn’t take the easy way out. They introduced the character and concept in a way that would not only satisfy fans of the original Addams Family story, but also appeal to a whole new audience. And it’s done super quickly.
The first three minutes
Setting up character & the inciting incident
The teaser before the title sequence is a master class in succinctly introducing the protagonist, her wants, the status quo and inciting incident in broad but bold and intentional brushstrokes.
There’s no shot in this pilot episode that doesn’t earn its place; each works hard to contribute to the overall narrative and tone. Even the very first shot has a function besides just orientating us in the location: The Nancy Reagan High School. It’s a cheeky nod perhaps to Gen X, assuring us we haven’t been forgotten (Nancy Reagan was the first lady of the United States, 1981 - 1989, wife of Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the USA. She founded the anti-drugs campaign of the era, "Just Say No").
What we learn about the character, Wednesday
How is Wednesday’s story brought to life so efficiently and evocatively? There’s shorthand involved in getting the message across. We glean a lot via her appearance and how the students and teachers react to her as she glides down the hallway. Hearing Wednesday narrate her own story in sarcastic voice-over also gives us insight into her unique perspective; she’s more than just different. Wednesday is an outcast, the kind of intellectual subversive who finds the afterburn of electro-shock therapy “satisfying”.
The inciting incident
Discovering that her brother Pugsley’s been tormented by a group of older boys, Wednesday retaliates the only way she knows how: by extracting a blood sacrifice. She releases Piranhas into the school swimming pool during the bullies' water polo practice.
We’re barely passed the two and a half minute mark.
But this is not just an inciting incident that propels our main character on her journey to Nevermore. It’s also an action that further reveals aspects of her personality.
Yes, she's someone who doesn’t intimidate easily, someone not to be toyed with who revels in her unconventionality and extremism. But perhaps the most important take-away here is that the revenge Wednesday takes against the bullies is for something done to her brother, not herself. I believe this was a very deliberate story choice taken by the writers. This is key to why we’re going to join Wednesday on this ten-episode journey, why we’re going to fall in love with her at least a little bit. There’s a fine line between making her a blood-thirsty teen psychopath we can’t completely get on board with and someone who, behind that rebellious exterior and despite having deep-seated intimacy and trust issues, has a heart.
What we learn about the series story concept
She doesn’t fit in and never will. She’s a “freak”. And this little misadventure in the pool is so peak that there’s nowhere else to progress, story-wise, within the standard high-school setting. We know everything we need to know about what has been and what will be in Nancy Reagan High School within three minutes.
The audience understands the necessity of the situation–Wednesday has reached a point of no return and must go to a different school; somewhere they understand her better. This provides the foundation to a very solid story concept–more on that later.
Regarding Wednesday’s visions, the writers choose to reveal this very seamlessly. Pugsley could have just exlained who tied him up and threw him in a locker. But having this bit of backstory instead revealed to Wednesday via a vision is:
➡️ visually interesting
➡️ efficient storytelling
➡️ intriguing concept-wise
Wednesday’s visions are going to be key to the overarching story of the series.
Three – six minutes
After the bloody piranha chow down, we cut straight to the Addams family travelling in the car through picturesque countryside. Morticia and Gomez are serenading each other in the back, much to the disgust of Wednesday. This is all vintage Addams family but presented in a new and entertaining way: Wednesday’s parents have a solid marriage and are still (sickeningly for the kids) all over one another.
It’s a short scene packed with information. There’s quite a bit of disguised exposition tucked in amongst the funny family banter while in a moving vehicle–it’s distracting us with one hand, educating us with the other. There’s the fall-out from the piranha incident that is briefly touched on; then there’s some backstory regarding Nevermore and Wednesday’s parents’ connection to the school– a “magical place”.
Story and character motivation points of the scene:
Wednesday is not happy about going to Nevermore (we can make a reasonable assumption she’s probably going to try and run away).
Morticia points out that Wednesday might even make some friends while she’s at a school with people who “understand” her, i.e., other outcasts (we’re getting the message that making friends is probably not Wednesday’s forte).
Wednesday is very keen to remind her mother that she doesn’t want to follow in her footsteps and be captain of the fencing team or president of the séance society (i.e., she’s got mummy issues).
Wednesday will reiterate point three several times once she’s at the school, just in case we missed it the first time. Why? Because as an audience, we need to board this story train with Wednesday. And to do that with maximum engagement, we need maximum investment in our main character. How? We need to know not only what her motivation is, we need to understand it. In other words:
Wednesday’s external wants vs her internal needs.
· Wednesday doesn't want to go to Nevermore.
· She doesn’t want to be like her mother.
· She wants to stay a loner.
· She needs to learn to trust and build friendships.
· She needs to fix her mummy issues.
Six – seven minutes
Before the Addams family arrive at Nevermore, there’s just two more details that are helpful for the audience to know. These points are again important in terms of setting up the location of Nevermore and, more crucially, the stakes.
In a scene that barely lasts a minute and a half, we see another car going in the opposite direction, a local giving a hiker a lift to the woods next to Nevermore.
Why is that important? The local passes comment on Nevermore and–in a very natural way–we learn how the students of the school are viewed by people in the nearby town: with distrust, fear and antagonism. So, there’s sure to be tension and conflict somewhere down the line (all of which create great drama).
Then the stakes are increased ten-fold when the happy hiker goes into the woods, only to meet a grisly end at the hands of… we don’t know what because the scene is cut short and we’re back in the car with the Addams family, turning into the gates of Nevermore.
All we do know is that there’s something deadly lurking in the trees very nearby…
Summary of what the opening scenes of the pilot set up:
The main character: Wednesday
Relationship dynamics with her family, in particular her mother
Back story regarding her visions, her parents and Nevermore
The precinct: Nevermore Boarding School
The stakes: There’s tension with the locals of the town AND there’s something killing people in the nearby forest.
The story engine behind the first episode: Wednesday doesn’t want to go to Nevermore.
The story engine behind the series as a whole: Wednesday doesn’t believe in friendship, wants to assert her independence from her mother and will no doubt have to deal with the scary something in the forest.
This is all accomplished in an astonishing eight minutes of screen time.
Eight minutes. That’s all it takes to set up the series in a highly entertaining and enjoyable way. It looks deceptively easy, but it takes buckets of craft, creativity, collaboration, and rewrite after rewrite.
So, if you’re a screenwriter or writer who wants to share your vision, stories or novels with an audience (and make an impact), we have a special message for you straight from the pilot episode:
I admire the sadism.
Happy writing, Story Lovers!
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