Riverdale, an Archie Comics adaptation on the CW

Don't blame CW for that, there are plenty of decent parents on some of the other shows.

It's the "rotten town" element they're going for ala Twin Peaks.

Fred was kind of a wishy-washy prick about Archie's music though. The only good parent is the sheriff.

The sherif seems to be a pretty good dad, also I love how for once the kids stumble upon evidence and promptly contact the authorities, like reasonable people.

Eh, I'd argue Fred's wishy-washiness is just proper parental caution. Archie may have a gift or he may not as Ms. Grundy was stroking his ego for sex. The actual expert says that Archie's work is juvenile and, well, it is because he hasn't lived yet or experienced enough music to be really good at it. He's a folk singer, for example, who doesn't get Dylan and electric as a reference. Fred would prefer Archie go with football and college but I'd argue Archie thinks he's getting less support than he is.

Riverdale has been confirmed for a 2nd season, so yay for that!

Seriously. They're all crazy, and "sins of the fathers" seems to be a major theme. It's funny, because while Hermione was doing her whole backstabbing thing, I was just thinking that in any other show she'd be the Evil Matriarch, but here Alice Cooper is just so much worse that she makes everyone else seem normal by comparison. And Josie's dad—he couldn't wait thirty seconds for his daughter to finish her damn song? That dinner was kind of hilariously terrible, because Fred just had this look on his face the whole time like "Am I the only sane parent here?"

Also, is it going to be a Running Gag for Betty to just ignore people kissing her? Because I would be down with that.

Maybe Betty became the asexual one instead of Jughead (No I'm not bitter why do you ask)

According to this episode 8 won't air until March 30.

This show is just an epic fail!

None of the actors are well-known (barring ex-Disney Channel star Cole Sprouse of course), the story is so dark and unfaithful to the mainstream Archie Comics, to the point that it even tries to rip-off Twin Peaks, the sex is borderline-TV-MA, and young teens would be offended by how much violence this series could have enough of, so much that the PTC would keep naming it the "Worst Show of the Week".

Now, about the casting... the role of Archie should have gone to Angus T. Jones (You know? Jake, the "Half" of Two and a Half Men?), Victoria Justice should have been Veronica, and maybe Calum Worthy of Austin & Ally should've been Jughead. The casting of Josie and the Pussycats was also such a bad choice, I'm hoping they'll eventually be Put on a Bus, cancellation notwithstanding.

Regarding any speculation that Sabrina Spellman would appear in Riverdale, she will NOT. If she did, Melissa Joan Hart won't be very happy about it, and the entire series will end up degenerating into supernatural crap. Remember the ABC soap opera Port Charles?

Port Charles was spun-off from General Hospital and started off as if it was your basic average medical drama, but then all of a sudden it transitioned into becoming a Supernatural Soap Opera and ended up turning off many soap opera fans as a result (here's two videos demonstrating how awful supernatural themes can be).

In conclusion, this is not the kind of Archie Comics show that I originally expected. If I was the one who made the series, I would have reimagined the Archie characters as young adults, have the show filmed in Portland, Oregon, and not have Josie and the Pussycats or Sabrina appear at all. Riverdale is so bad, it should have NEVER EVER been renewed for a second season. Unless it aired on Syfy. Or Netflix.

1) It's a Netflix original everywhere but the US. 2) It's not trying to be the original thing. I mean, the comics have some incredibly dark spinoffs and this seems more in the vein of those. 3) Who cares what Melissa Joan Hart thinks? She's an actress who was hired to play the character, she didn't invent Sabrina. 4) The producers have actually flatly said that they want to put Sabrina in. 5) It's actually pretty standard in terms of violence and all that for the CW.

It's up to you whether or not you like it, but lots of people do like it, so maybe tone it down a tad.

x2

Last I heard Sabrina was confirmed to appear in the season finale. That said, I actually really like the show. Granted I haven't read the comics but I still don't think it's bad. Who care if the actors/actresses are well known or not? As long as they fit their characters it doesn't matter and from where I'm sitting they pull it off very well.

I grew up reading Archie in the 90s-2000s when it'd been made more overtly wholesome. The 40s-80s stuff could be... not exactly dark, but more adult, I guess, though some later stories were mature and all of them were well-written. But there was still a big difference between those and this show, even when taking the adult-oriented spinoffs and reboot into account.

One of the biggest (and most controversial) differences was Chuck Clayton, who in the comics is a really nice guy and also an artist, and in Riverdale he is... not.

edited 18th Mar '17 12:45:52 PM by lalalei2001

The asexual thing with Jughead is definitely depressing. Albeit, Jughead has had girlfriends for 73 of his 75 years of existence. Here's him dating Archie's granddaughter from the future.

http://comicsalliance.com/jughead-time-police-digital-collection-preview/

edited 17th Mar '17 10:32:14 AM by CharlesPhipps

Regarding the show itself, here's how I would have made it...

• It would have a dark and more realistic tone than the mainstream Archie Comics, akin to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy.
• The show would be set five years after Archie and his friends' high school graduation; the characters would effectively become young adults as a result.
• Archie would become a Formula One rookie whose career ends in a huge car crash during a race in Florida; Betty would be living with her cousins in Milan, Italy and trying to be a fashion model, Veronica would now be a nurse working at the Riverdale hospital, Jughead would become a lawyer in Nashville, and Reggie would be entered into the Rio 2016 Olympics. The five of them eventually return to Riverdale and attend their high school reunion.
• I would use the main storyline of Archie investigating on the disappearance of Jason Blossom, but add that his sister Cheryl was thought to have disappeared as well, until the end of the pilot episode when it's revealed that she's still alive.
• I'd have J. J. Abrams as executive producer, and Tim Kring as the writer of the pilot. They've never worked together on any TV show in the past.
• There would be a bunch of references to other J. J. Abrams and Tim Kring productions (Alias, Crossing Jordan, Lost, Heroes, Fringe, Person of Interest, etc.).
• I would pitch this show to ABC or, if it's on cable TV, Syfy.

edited 18th Mar '17 1:03:52 AM by AmourMitts

I'll be completely honest, that absolutely would not grab me. Dark, gritty and realistic isn't a great draw on its own, and Riverdale has a weird enough tone that it avoids that problem for me. It's kind of obvious that production started with "So what if we fused Archie with Twin Peaks?"

...and I'm curious, why Sy Fy? Your idea is absolutely not in their wheelhouse right now. Yeah, the stuff they've got right now is pretty dark, but their current big flagship shows (The Magicians, the Expanse and to an extent, Dark Matter) are either straight up fantasy, really hard science fiction or space opera.

edited 18th Mar '17 6:58:43 AM by Zendervai

Yeah I'm pretty tired of "dark realism", if it's your thing that's fine, but it's not for me.

What's so wrong with Josie and the Pussycats? You're literally the first person I've heard that doesn't like their casting. I think the actresses do a good job, and it helps Riverdale not be the whitest place in America. Granted, it fucked up with Chuck, but yeah. I also like the camp elements of the show that a gritty imagining would completely strip. Then again I loved the first season of Twin Peaks sooo...

And the one time Archie is proactive on the show he fucks up.

I thought this was a good episode all around. And the promo for next episode has me very excited.

As with any CW show where the entire cast is very very attractive, I find it very easy to ship just about any character with any other character. Plus I really really enjoy Cheryl (she's, as the kids would say, "so extra" which I love), so while I doubt the show will go very far with that, it'll be enjoyable to watch.

Although as the show goes on, who knows? I certainly didn't expect the relationships in Grimm to shake out the way they did.

For once, I think that Mr. Cooper takes the no-prize for Most F'd Up Cooper.

I think this may be the best episode yet. Or one of the best.

I was hesitant about Bughead at first, but they're so cute together. They seem to be good for each other.

I kind of hope that Sabrina doesn't become part of the show. A witch could make it easier for the writers to write themselves out of corners. That's just my opinion.

It seems like everything is coming together.

This episode definitely shed a lot of light on why Alice is the way she is.

And I wonder if they'll wrap up the season with "This is Jason's killer, the end!" and save the next big season-long plot line for Season 2, Ep 1, or give it to the audience in the last few minutes of the finale.

Maybe through the return of Faux-Grundy or something else. Hiram Lodge getting out of prison possibly. Or the teased appearance of Sabrina.

Even if Jason's killer is found, will they face justice?

I was thinking it was suspicious that no one seems to suspect Sheriff Keller...

Most of the time, people don't usually suspect the police when there's a murder.

Especially when there seems to be no real connection between the Sheriff and Jason-if anything, he seems more disposed to be deferential to the Blossoms.

And while I'm unsure exactly how things will shake out, I'd be surprised if the show doesn't have Jason's killer either be arrested or killed themselves-at some point.