RIVERDALE, the brooding reimagining of the Archie comics brought to you by the CW

there is definitely a Glee vibe at times. but i'm okay with that. epic cheerleading tryout burn by veronica was suitably epic. stuff like that. i'm a big fan of bring it on though.

this show is good. i am on episode 11. i really like archie/veronica as 'agent of destruction.' and dark betty! there should be more dark-betty. for a while, i thought her sister was going to be, like, a split personality. also, the actor who plays archie is fascinatingly weird, and weird-looking. so is cheryl.

archie seems to have a sibilance in his speaking that makes me think he has relatively new veneers in his teeth

reminds of when billie piper got her teeth done in Doctor Who

*this has been the Veg dental update*

He is from NZ, right? My wife caught him slippin on one word at a certain point.

Betty is an impossible cross between katee sackhoff and p arquette

perfect description

I heard someone describe Veronica as "Mean Hermione" and this feels otm to me

Haha yes

i started listening to a recap podcast which is as good excuse as any to rewatch :D

I should not have started watching this for the first time after seeing new Twin Peaks

Miss Grundy give two rides?!?

lol

looooooooooooooool

i watched the first ep tnite. idk does it get better? i may just be burnt out the literate teen drama genre.

mordy you need riverdale in yr life i promise

tbh I only made it midway through :/

>:(

I got further into the season than I'd expected and might end up finishing the season.

I haven't read any long takes on the concept, but it really feels less like a gritty reimagining -- although it definitely leans into the gritty moments -- and an exploration of what Archic Comics would be like if the adults showed up and stayed instead of making brief appearances. Nearly every problem that's not a normal teen drama plot is fallout from some choice a parent made, historical family drama, or the imposition of adult concerns (failing businesses, real estate deals, in appropriate relations with a student (!)) on the kids.

They manage to still put these classic teen things in. Should Archie play football or follow his dream to make music? Will Josie's band get back together, or will Veronica be the new backup singer? You know that Archie's going to decline to be captain and somehow the compromise will work, and there's no way the band doesn't get back together, but it's good to watch it play out.

Making a first season's theme be "Who killed Jason Blossom?" is a pretty ridiculous Twin Peaks homage but it works. The Blossoms as this malevolent force in the town is this weird echo of how they were introduced into this very staid, throwback comic at a very late stage in its existence.

I thought Cheryl Blossom was an early character who got written out?

in the comics i mean

I guess she made a brief appearance in the early 80s but was deemed too scandalous, and was only a regular character in the mid 90s onward?
I mean, anything introduced to Archie in the 80s is still a relatively recent addition when you realize Archie predates the second world war

So i just watched the first episode of this and first thought was oh it's like a 90210 for millenials, and then i realized that's luke perry from 90210, which I watched briefly in the 90s

Then uh I started getting this weird feeling that those things weren't the only things I recognized

1 this place reminds me of my school
2 no shit this was filmed in Vancouver

Lol no wonder everything looks so familiar

I think I'm down to a few minutes to determine whether a new tv show was filmed in Vancouver after having watched a bunch of SyFy and CW stuff.

There are at least a dozen actors who show up in every show filmed in the area because... Vancouver.

Yeah but i mean it's weird to see places you hung out in or walked around hundreds of times on screen in a popular show (not counting the hundreds of crappy low budget shows/movies that use Vancouver as a backdrop)

I don't watch a lot of american shows and not a lot of new Hollywood movies but the last one I remember is that superhero one and i didn't actually watch it but the trailer featured the viaduct so prominently it was also weird

I don't know any of the riverdale actors and I've never seen them in any other shows or movies either

yeah I think most of the kids are newcomers, I only recognize the Kevin dude from a L&O episode. the parents are uh all pretty recognizable!!

I take that back, about half of them are

Obv I'm a tv addict but it's weird to think about watching Riverdale without the cultural references from the casting, Archie's Dad = Dylan from 90210, Betty's Mom = Shelly from Twin Peaks, Jughead's Dad = Billy from Scream, Betty's Dad = Jack from Charmed etc etc

I've only really seen 90210 out of those (handful of episodes)

I watched a couple episodes of charmed when it was on tv and all I remember is that it bored me to death

Wasn't shannon doherty in that one? Or was that that other vampire one? Buffy or whatever?

it really bothers me that archie isn't into betty like isn't the whole pt of the comix that he likes both???

it's pretty obv by the end of the season archie likes betty, it's just weird because they're next door neighbors and as little kids they had the whole destined to be together shtick. they even mention betty saying something about getting married in first grade!

like maybe archie wants to reach out in life and find himself instead of marrying his next door best friend. but it's also why his other relationships are mostly blips, with one notable exception (two if you get into the bad "archie in the future gets married" crap in the 90s or whatever)

really love how the show treated this jughead + betty plot

agree

i personally love how Archie is kind of the least important part of the show, and that Betty & Veronica drive so much of the plot

that is kind of the unspoken premise of a lot of the comics. Archie occasionally bumbles through something and has some pratfalls, but a lot of it is him reacting to what other people do

notably his own title began the comics, but usually one of the other main characters joins him. meanwhile, Betty & Veronica get a series together

the only main comic dynamic that the show hasn't tackled is Reggie and Veronica's close bond, but I could see her ditching Archie to hang out with or date him in the future

btw this is all based on me remembering comics from the mid/late 80s, including a ton of reprints, and having browsed them while my mom was shopping in years after that

sidebar i have a huge crush on Riverdale Reggie good lord he is handsome

comic book Moose was one of my earliest crishes. i think i liked him bcz he reminded me of Fred from Scooby Doo

awww

love how Ronnie (btw the show really gelled around the same time Archie starts calling her Ronnie!) seems like she was airdropped into this show from Gossip Girl

agreed that's great

just started watching this - lol Archie is the worst. So, so, so dumb.

also I kept thinking Jughead looked like a baby Skeet Ulrich before I found out they actually cast Skeet Ulrich as his dad!

it's back and more ott than ever?

:D

so silly, so great

oh, Miss Grundy is baaa- wait oh never mind

plz capitalize OTT or I think you're talking about someone else and I have to spend a whole minute trying to figure how you mean

was this show always this horny or are they really ramping up that factor?

It's gone full Zodiac.

i enjoyed the first season but watched the first couple of episodes of season 2 and i think i've grown fatigued of the melodrama

otoh jughead ate a burger in the first episode so that's good

dreading the moment when Jughead has to return the favor for that lawyer, oh boy

i've almost finished the first season of this show and i'd just like to say that it's perfect

Brad, welcome to Riverdale

it is somehow every show i love rolled into one. twin peaks + gossip girl + pretty little liars (if it had a sense of direction) + specifically during the slut shaming episode i thought i had entered a dark hybrid of vmars and degrassi

bookmark for this thread isn't clearing

Yeah I unreservedly love this show and can't wait for the second season to go up on NF.