'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.

[ClarkKent_DC]

JD DeLuzio said:

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

JD DeLuzio said:

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.

JD DeLuzio said:

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

It all seems -- what's the word? -- ham-fisted to me ... 

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mr. Silver Age said:

I understand why the Grundy-Archie thing, they need a good reason why they can't come forward with what they heard, although now that the body's been found, that they heard a shot isn't a revelation. So their guilt over that is lessened. Bonus points to Grundy trying to snuff out whatever she was thinking at the time. I mean, geez, a sophomore? Even so, that it's simmering in the background makes me like them both way, way less, and that's not a good plot to have going.

Another thing about the Grundy-Archie thing: It's possibly a way out of doing the Archie-Betty-Veronica triangle. Mark Waid's Archie starts with Veronica moving to Riverdale just after longtime couple Archie and Betty have broken up. Waid explained in a text piece that he just couldn't write Archie stringing along both girls and couldn't see why either of them -- and both of them -- would put up with it.

In Riverdale, Veronica is the new girl in town, and Betty likes Archie, but he thinks of Betty as the sister he never had. And in this scenario, he's not committing to Betty or Veronica because he's hung up on someone else -- Miss Grundy, but it's a Deep Dark Secret. That makes storytelling sense, to the degree that plotting is putting all the pieces on the board, but it totally ignores the ick factor of an adult taking advantage of a minor. They really needed to think that one through a little more. 

[Richard Willis]

I think Cap would say it's a Ning Thing.

ClarkKent_DC said:

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.

[Captain Comics]

Yeah, the Grundy thing is rape. If the genders were reversed, we'd be screaming for Grundy's head. That we're calling it "icky" instead of being outraged is something to think about.

Which is something the second episode mollified a bit. We see Grundy deliberately manipulate Archie to NOT tell the cops that at least he was at the lake on the morning of July 4, which he knows is the right thing to do. Later he has a chat with his father, which helps him do what he'd already decided to do -- tell the cops he was at the lake, although he would try to keep Grundy out of it. So the kid is still trying to do the right thing, even by Grundy, who he still thinks he might have something "real" with.

That episode showed me that Grundy is really not a very nice person and that Archie is still Archie. It helped mitigate the ick factor, in that the show isn't disguising the predatory nature of Grundy's behavior.

[Mr. Silver Age]

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.

I agree, and most of that comes from people who haven’t read them in decades, at least as a current comic (ie, not in Digest reprints of quainter times). But it’s important to remember that Archie threw out their history (while keeping the Digests) to reboot all of the series because sales were so low.

Admittedly, I have a greater attachment to Archie than to Iris West and The Flash.

It depends on what is meant by “attachment.” We have an image in our heads of who the Archie characters are and probably less of one for Iris. There were a lot of complaints about naming the character Barry rather than Wally, since those who knew Barry didn’t picture him as a young, cocky guy (with long brown hair). But those have faded.

>>I think something that was at least somewhat comedic should have been tried.

I agree that something more humorous was a better idea, given that it’s what Archie has always been about. Why they eliminated any trace of that is hard to understand.

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.

True, and it’s a delicate balance to pull that off, so Waid deserves kudos. That said, a successful comic doesn’t have to translate to a successful TV show, even if they reproduced it. But I do think that makes a better template (although I like the TV Veronica and Cheryl much better). The way they went was a huge risk, and it doesn’t seem to be paying off.

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

I think those characters will get more attention moving forward. They’re focused right now on the core people and their over-arching murder mystery. I’m guessing that the murder mystery will fade to the background (as the  umbrella story often does on Berlanti shows) to tell other stories, and those characters will get more time then.

>>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.

Jughead was never asexual, he hated women—they pulled the boys away from better activities and kept them distracted. That’s a different thing than the more recent approach, which is probably more politically correct than walking around saying, “Women, bah!”

Waid explained in a text piece that he just couldn't write Archie stringing along both girls and couldn't see why either of them -- and both of them -- would put up with it.

Updating Archie comics to an in-continuity comic (or into a TV show) is extremely difficult, because the Archie characters are an ensemble of personalities that change to fit the story plot. One time Reggie and Veronica pull the most vile prank  imaginable, and one page later they’re out on a picnic with the gang. Archie is bumbling around as the water boy and next time  he’s the star quarterback. The extent to which Betty & Veronica are back-stabbing enemies or let’s-share-clothes buddies varies widely.

>>In Riverdale, Veronica is the new girl in town, and Betty likes Archie, but he thinks of Betty as the sister he never had.

That’s true in the comic, too (re: The Lipstick Incident). The comic has lots more bumbling slapstick Archie, such as him pulling down the Lodge’s construction. I don’t think that translates into humor for the TV show.

>>It helped mitigate the ick factor, in that the show isn't disguising the predatory nature of Grundy's behavior.

I didn’t see it quite that clear-cut of predatory, in that Grundy seemed to be trying to tamp it down after the fact. But she could’ve done a better job of that. The problem is that she fully realizes what she’s doing could send “us” (yeah right) to jail, but she still does it. And I agree it would never have gotten on TV if the genders were reversed. It’s more than just an “ick factor” to me, and if they don’t resolve it, I might have to stop watching.

There were many ways they could have reached the same point without Grundy committing a felony, including having the two of them just talking and Grundy fearing what people would believe if they heard about it. I agree completely that they needed to think it through better, because the situation doesn’t seem to strike them as being as repugnant as it does me.

-- MSA

[Captain Comics]

Mr. Silver Age said:

I agree completely that they needed to think it through better, because the situation doesn’t seem to strike them as being as repugnant as it does me.

-- MSA

I remember during "Attack of the Clones" turning to my wife and saying, "Anakin just married his babysitter." Yuch. Of course, this is the same writer/director who retroactively made a potentially romantic couple brother and sister.

The Grundy thing reminds of that, in that whoever wrote this story doesn't see the same things as icky as I do. Not exactly profound, but that's what I got.

[Richard Willis]

Captain Comics said:

We see Grundy deliberately manipulate Archie to NOT tell the cops that at least he was at the lake on the morning of July 4, which he knows is the right thing to do.

Yeah, I didn't see why Archie couldn't say he was at the lake* alone. Maybe Grundy was afraid he wouldn't stick to that. I also caught the "we could go to jail" manipulation. It's a little atypical that Archie, as a high school sophomore (15 years old!), would be mature enough to realize he couldn't continue the "relationship." 

* Nobody else goes to the lake who might have seen the two of them? Adult females who do this have been described as sexually childish, a description that is not used to describe men who do the same thing. 

[Captain Comics]

The show hasn't addressed it, but I wondered exactly what Archie could tell the cops and leave Grundy out of it. If he says he was alone at the lake at 6;30 a.m., the obvious question is why? He can't answer that, so he immediately becomes a suspect. Grundy, among other things, is his alibi.

Of course, the ending of the show may make all of this moot. We don't know exactly what the confession at the end was a confession to.

[The Baron]

Grundy?

[Mr. Silver Age]

 We don't know exactly what the confession at the end was a confession to.

I'd just like to point out that apparently none of us have watched last night's episode yet, which might explain some of it. The wonders of technology! It's nice that we can talk about the show without feeling the slightest compulsion to catch up first. I *do* plan to watch it soon, though. It's still on the bubble for me, so maybe where this confession and the subsequen ramifications go will make up my mind.

-- MSA

[JD DeLuzio]

I suppose someone should point out that it's not just gender that blinds us to the problematic nature of the Archie/Grundy relationship; it's the fact that, though Arch is only 15 on the show, the actor is  nowhere near fifteen.

He could easily be older than the actor playing Geraldine. It's hard to get upset about two thirtysomethings having consensual sex, and that is the visual the show gives us.

Superman didn't make any money

Saving your kids from Geraldine Grundy....

[Richard Willis]

Well, we got to see Chuck, and a ripped from the headlines story.

B&V are tighter friends every episode. Cheryl gets more and more complex and she finds out Jason wasn't as wonderful as she thought.

Dilton isn't what he seemed, and may be getting Archie into trouble.

Archie and the Pussycats colaborate.

Archie seemed to be over Grundy, but isn't, and Grundy may not actually be Grundy.

We're enjoying the show.