'Riverdale': First Look

[Captain Comics]

GET A FIRST LOOK AT THE CW’S RIVERDALE TV SERIES

Live-action series based on Archie Comics characters premieres January 26th at 9pm ET/8pm Central

You’ve waited patiently for this moment – and now it’s here.

We’ve got a sneak peek at ‘Riverdale’, the new one-hour live-action drama based on the classic Archie Comics characters premiering January 26th, 2017 at 9/8c on The CW. What more could you want?

‘Riverdale’ is written by Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and produced by Warner Brothers Studios and Berlanti Productions and has been described as a subversive take on the classic Archie mythos. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schecter, Jon Goldwater, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa serve as executive producers.

The live-action series offers a bold, compelling take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring small-town life and the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade. The show will focus on the eternal love triangle of Archie Andrews, girl-next-door Betty Cooper, and rich socialite Veronica Lodge, and will include the entire cast of characters from the comic books—including Archie’s rival, Reggie Mantle, and his best friend, Jughead Jones.

‘Riverdale’ stars KJ Apa as Archie Andrews, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy, Luke Perry as Fred Andrews, Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom, Ross Butler as Reggie Mantle, Casey Cott as Kevin Keller, Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper, and Marisol Nichols as Hermione Lodge.

The show’s premiere on January 26th will be followed one week later on February 1st, with a special tie-in one-shot comic book written by ‘Riverdale’ showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and members of the show’s writing staff with art by Alitha Martinez. The RIVERDALE ONE-SHOT promises to reveal new secrets and stories from the summer before the eternal love-triangle debuts on television screens.

An ongoing RIVERDALE comic book series will debut in comic book stores and digital platforms in March by Aguirre-Sacasa and Martinez that will run alongside the show, expanding on the events of the series and diving deeper into the characters and their relationships.

For more information about ‘Riverdale’ and everything Archie Comics, visit the official Archie Comics website and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

[Richard Willis]

Captain Comics said:

Not only did Cheryl call out the faux lesbianism as passé, but she also shot down Kevin with a " 'gay best friend' is cliche" crack. She may be mean, but she's not dumb!

I wonder if they were pressured to include the kiss and they were using Cheryl to mock it?

Regarding Kevin, in the comics is he shown as being "on screen celibate" or actually having a sex life?

[Richard Willis]

Mr. Silver Age said:

Even there, Modern Family changed its Lily actor for a casting reason I forget now. Jenna Coleman (aka Clara) is 30 years old and she's playing the 18-year-old Queen Victoria on PBS right now. I wonder if they take that as a compliment?

Thinking of actors who look young for their ages, I always think of Diane Lane. I first saw her in The Cotton Club (which is a terrific film, by the way). When it was released she was 19 playing a gun moll. She looked 14. For years she looked much younger than her age. I think she must have been "carded" well into her 30s.

[JohnD]

More importantly, Jenna Coleman is playing the queen convincingly. Kudos to her.

Now back to the topic...

Richard Willis said:

Mr. Silver Age said:

Even there, Modern Family changed its Lily actor for a casting reason I forget now. Jenna Coleman (aka Clara) is 30 years old and she's playing the 18-year-old Queen Victoria on PBS right now. I wonder if they take that as a compliment?

Thinking of actors who look young for their ages, I always think of Diane Lane. I first saw her in The Cotton Club (which is a terrific film, by the way). When it was released she was 19 playing a gun moll. She looked 14. For years she looked much younger than her age. I think she must have been "carded" well into her 30s.

[JD DeLuzio]

Given how forced the kiss was, that would almost make sense, but I have a different hypothesis.

The kiss was deliberately placed, like the gratuitous underwear shot in Star Trek Into Darkness, for the sole purpose of being included in advertising. Then, in the style of the show, after doing the obvious thing, they then referred to the fact that they did it, as though lampshading their actions makes those actions acceptable. "You can't fire me; I quit!"

Richard Willis said:

Captain Comics said:

Not only did Cheryl call out the faux lesbianism as passé, but she also shot down Kevin with a " 'gay best friend' is cliche" crack. She may be mean, but she's not dumb!

I wonder if they were pressured to include the kiss and they were using Cheryl to mock it?

Regarding Kevin, in the comics is he shown as being "on screen celibate" or actually having a sex life?

[ClarkKent_DC]

I watched the pilot episode of Riverdale, but I think I'm in the camp that won't be watching any more of it.

I'm not against putting old characters in new settings, or reinventing a property, but ...

• Veronica and her mother are Latina?
• Reggie is Filipino?
• Josie and the other two Pussycats are Black?
• Miss Grundy is young? and hot?
• Moose is on the down low?
• Pop Tate is Black?
• Coach Clayton is Black? (Oh, wait, he was already.)

Can anybody say "trying way too hard"? I felt like somebody was smacking me in the face with a wet mackerel, yelling "This is NOT your father's Archie!"

Not only that, they really piled on with the broken parental relationships. Archie's mom left Archie's dad? Betty's dad is nowhere in sight, and the clear indication is that he won't be around. Also, Betty's mom, who, granted was a bland and almost anonymous character in the strip, was always cheerful and nurturing; on TV, she's an ice queen and a control freak.

And Archie the comic has always been about him getting under Mr. Lodge's thin skin, so why build the show around Mrs. Lodge? I hardly ever saw her in Archie stories over the years and didn't even know her name until I read Life With Archie (a series I loved dearly). Oh, yes; She Shares a Past with Archie's dad. 

On the plus side, Reggie did come across with exactly the right level of jerkiness. And I liked Veronica's takedown of mean girl Cheryl Blossom, and her efforts at matchmaking to put Betty and Archie together -- and that she was sensitive and astute enough to know, as Archie didn't, that Betty wouldn't want to see she and Archie looking for her.

On the minus side, the whole business of Archie and the hot teacher is all kinds of wrong. It didn't help that I watched the Riverdale pilot after watching the 400th episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where the case of the week was about a woman -- a psychiatrist, yet -- who's been preying on teenage boys, including her son's best friend. There's more, but it's pretty sordid ... as is the notion on Riverdale that Archie and Miss Grundy are merely keeping a secret, and not that she engaged in criminal behavior.

Not only that: Miss Grundy is young, but she still goes by "Geraldiine"? In this day and age? No, she'd be going by "Gerry" or something. "Geraldine" is most definitely an old lady's name. Here's a case where the reinventions didn't go far enouugh.

There's definitely the Twin Peaks vibe, what with the mystery of "Who killed Jason Blossom?" But my overall feeling is the one I had with Howard Chaykin's Twilight, the miniseries that put a "modern" spin on a raft of Silver Age space heroes: These aren't the characters I knew. These are other people with the same names.

Enjoy it without me, gang.

[JD DeLuzio]

Y'wanna sit down over a beer and some old comics?

ClarkKent_DC said:

I watched the pilot episode of Riverdale, but I think I'm in the camp that won't be watching a

Enjoy it without me, gang.

[Mr. Silver Age]

>>I'm not against putting old characters in new settings, or reinventing a property, but ...< But they couldn't really win this one, could they?

Veronica and her mother are Latina? They should be white!
Reggie is Filipino? He should be white!
Josie and the other two Pussycats are Black? They should be white! Well, some of them.
Pop Tate is Black? He should be white!

Think anyone would point it out if all those characters were represented as they were in the comics?

>>Can anybody say "trying way too hard"? I don't think there's any question they were trying for diversity. Too hard? Tell that to the Oscars. Is there a reason they can't be what they are except that it doesn't adhere to the comic book images? Popular media are going to want to expand beyond comic books' original appearances, especially those that were set 70 years ago. (Iris West and Wally West shouldn't be black either.) >>I felt like somebody was smacking me in the face with a wet mackerel, yelling "This is NOT your father's Archie!" They do want to say that, but I see it more as acknowledging the wider world out there that your father wouldn't acknowledge and trying to pull in a bigger audience than wanting to upset you.

I saw a number of people on Facebook that said they watched 10 minutes and shut it off. That was only enough time to confirm that it would be like the trailers said it would be. Lots of people were set up to hate it from the beginning.

And, to be fair, maybe upsetting a bunch of (very) old-time comics readers on CapCom wasn't a big concern.

HOWEVER, that said, I'm still not sure this idea works for most people. Throwing out most of the concepts and keeping the general appearance of the people and a few relationships seems like a very small amount of Archie to hang this on, but it's enough to make people who don't care about Archie stay away too.

And I may give up on it myself strictly on the basis of the Grundy character. Not only is the name nonsensical--the ONE PLACE they went overboard in trying to maintain something Archie--but the relationship is a horrible thing to be showing, much less condoning. They don't seem to realize that the show presents TWO horrific crimes that need to be uncovered.

I'd hoped it was a one-time thing to complicate the beginning of the murder plot and it would fade. It doesn't look like it's going to, and I'm not sure how long I'm willing to watch a show that thinks that relationship is okay.

>>Not only that, they really piled on with the broken parental relationships. I figure that's for dramatic purposes to bring in relationships for the parents. Ideally, that'll keep some of us watching who don't care who Archie ends up with as a sophomore in high school.

All that said, I saw a report that Riverdale's ratings are not very good. It doesn't surprise me, as they decided to destroy any goodwill the name provided in the way they set it up. So we may not have it to angrily turn off for very long.

BTW, is it just me, or is anybody else not getting any icons or editing info on their posts? I seem to only be able to get HTML coding, which is a pain.

-- MSA

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mr. Silver Age said:

>>I'm not against putting old characters in new settings, or reinventing a property, but ...< But they couldn't really win this one, could they?

Veronica and her mother are Latina? They should be white!
Reggie is Filipino? He should be white!
Josie and the other two Pussycats are Black? They should be white! Well, some of them.
Pop Tate is Black? He should be white!

Think anyone would point it out if all those characters were represented as they were in the comics?

>>Can anybody say "trying way too hard"? I don't think there's any question they were trying for diversity. Too hard? Tell that to the Oscars. Is there a reason they can't be what they are except that it doesn't adhere to the comic book images? Popular media are going to want to expand beyond comic books' original appearances, especially those that were set 70 years ago. (Iris West and Wally West shouldn't be black either.) >>I felt like somebody was smacking me in the face with a wet mackerel, yelling "This is NOT your father's Archie!" They do want to say that, but I see it more as acknowledging the wider world out there that your father wouldn't acknowledge and trying to pull in a bigger audience than wanting to upset you.

Unlike some, I don't think TV producers invest any energy or any thought into upsetting the fans. They are all about trying to attract people to what they are offering.

Diversity? Diversity is good. And TV is doing way better in that regard than the movies are. But there's doing it organically, and doing it ham-fistedly. An example of organically is Grey's Anatomy, where diversity is in the DNA of that show, both among the regular cast and the parade of patients and relatives that come through the hospital. Likewise with other shows produced by Shonda Rimes. The Flash does it well, first with Iris West and her family, and with the presence of Cisco and his brother, and Captain Singh and District Attorney Cecile and her daughter. 

But Riverdale? It’s not organic; it’s done ham-fistedly. Archie itself moved forward by swapping out Coach Kleats for Coach Clayton. Also by bringing in Kevin Keller – which is a huge leap forward when you consider those Spire comics featuring the Archie gang. The kids in those comics would have stoned Kevin Keller to death. And they probably would have performed an exorcism on the TV town of Riverdale.

In my mind, it’s not that the Riverdale producers couldn’t win. It’s that, for me, they didn’t thread the needle in making it the-same-but-different in the ways that count – keeping what had to be the same the same and changing what didn’t have to stay the same to beneficial effect. So the casting worked against it in my mind because it smacks of tokenism, not “acknowledging the wider world out there that your father wouldn't acknowledge.”

Done right, you don’t sweat the changes, because the actors and their performances carry you along, like on The Flash. Done wrong, and you feel like you’ve been smacked in the face with a wet mackerel.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mr. Silver Age said:

BTW, is it just me, or is anybody else not getting any icons or editing info on their posts? I seem to only be able to get HTML coding, which is a pain.

Yeah, that happens to me too from time to time. I try refreshing the page, or switching browsers, which works some of the time, but not always.

[Mr. Silver Age]

But Riverdale? It’s not organic; it’s done ham-fistedly.

I don't see the organicness of Iris and Wally West being black and the inorganicness of Pop Tate being black. It's the other way around for me. I do think that if every major character was white, as the comics would have it, there'd be criticism.

I'm not a huge fan, but I think it's taking criticism for not being about high school hijinx from a quaint, out of touch town. That wouldn't have lasted long, but it's possible the version they came up with won't either. I think something closer to what the current comic is would have been the best approach, but we may never know if this one fails quickly.

BTW, my icons are back. They'd disappeared before, but a refresh would bring them back. This time, nothing, not even leaving and returning, did it.

-- MSA

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mr. Silver Age said:

But Riverdale? It’s not organic; it’s done ham-fistedly.

I don't see the organicness of Iris and Wally West being black and the inorganicness of Pop Tate being black. It's the other way around for me. I do think that if every major character was white, as the comics would have it, there'd be criticism.

Well, that's what makes horse races. Of course, the yelling and screaming over "This is not MY Archie" is likely directly related to how much anyone is invested in the characters being like you remember. Admittedly, I have a greater attachment to Archie than to Iris West and The Flash. I hardly ever read the title and know the character a lot more from his appearances with the Justice League. I did read "The Trial of The Flash" -- I got it entirely from the quarter bin -- but Iris was long dead by then. In fact, I can probably count all the Flash stories I've read that Iris was in on one hand.

Mr. Silver Age said:

I'm not a huge fan, but I think it's taking criticism for not being about high school hijinx from a quaint, out of touch town. That wouldn't have lasted long, but it's possible the version they came up with won't either. I think something closer to what the current comic is would have been the best approach, but we may never know if this one fails quickly.

I think something that was at least somewhat comedic should have been tried. I think something like Jane the Virgin might have been the way to go, but then, the CW already has Jane the Virgin, so they might not have wanted a clone.

[JD DeLuzio]

And yet, there is a successful New Archie comic that does a new take on the old gang and has sold fairly well and met with critical acclaim. I'm repeating myself, but doing something like that would have been an actual radical move for the CW. Instead, they just made Archie Comics into another overwrought CW drama.

Yeah.... Representation. It seems odd that they would race-change some characters, but reduce an established Black character, Chuck, to cameo status.

Or that they would play-up the gay character(s), but remove Jughead's asexuality, only recently declared but long a part of the character.

Dilton is a brainy Asian. Never mind the potential for stereotype: it's all irrelevant if he only appears in three episodes.

I dunno....

Mr. Silver Age said:

But Riverdale? It’s not organic; it’s done ham-fistedly.

I don't see the organicness of Iris and Wally West being black and the inorganicness of Pop Tate being black. It's the other way around for me. I do think that if every major character was white, as the comics would have it, there'd be criticism.

I'm not a huge fan, but I think it's taking criticism for not being about high school hijinx from a quaint, out of touch town. That wouldn't have lasted long, but it's possible the version they came up with won't either. I think something closer to what the current comic is would have been the best approach, but we may never know if this one fails quickly.