Riverdale, an Archie Comics adaptation on the CW

It's a "mature" adaptation of the Archie comics, what'd you expect?

With Crisis this week I couldn't help but think:

FP JONES, PARAGON OF STREET JUSTICE. YOU ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE MULTIVERSE.

Pretty solid episode this week though.

Honestly, aside from the underage drinking the combination of music + business + grades is probably a really good selling point for Veronica.

I'm not even sure why these kids need college when they're running their own businesses straight out of high school.

I'm going to give this show a try tonight. Will I have to have been a fan or read the original comics to get through this or is it gentle to virgins like me?

You can understand the show without comic knowledge. Mainly because most of the characters aren't very recognizable as the comic versions.

After Season 1 I'd suggest turning your brain off somewhat.

You'll have more fun that way.

Also no prior knowledge needed. I watch it with someone who basically knew nothing except Jughead likes burgers.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jan 19th 2020 at 5:54:43 AM

Riverdale is back with Episode 10.

Does anyone else sort of ship Monroe and Archie at this point?

Like, I would unironically enjoy it if they went for that ship.

Also I love it whenever that Bear comes back up.

Did this show really need to give Cheryl yet another adult for her to feud with? Weren't principal Honey and her mother enough?

Maybe Archie and Cheryl can bond over their relatives supplying drugs to kids.

If Jughead was telling the truth about what happened when he was homeless I think it does put his kid detective thing in a new light. He's basically trying to atone for not saving his friend.

I dunno.

I don't really see how his inaction correlates to being a kid detective.

If it had influenced him in that way he'd be more like Archie.

I swear one of these days the bear's cubs are gonna be going to that school. Wouldn't be the weirdest stuff to go on.

Katy Keene is a weird choice for something to adapt. It's based off of the Archie comic Katy Keene. Why not just do Josie and the Pussycats? They already have Pepper, Alexandra, and Alex on board.

I dunno, but I like it so far.

Why is it a weird choice to adapt then?

It's a very obscure comic with few rereleases and no current books. I would have expect Josie and the Pussycats or, heck, even The Shield before it.

Skeet Ulrich and Marisol Nichols are leaving 'Riverdale'.

I quite enjoyed that musical episode.

Probably the one I liked most of the three.

The creepy ending with the Masked Jug and Betty was eerily cool. And peaked my interest.

I mean the prep school kids are arrested. So who could it have been?

Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart Deny Sexual Assault Allegations Made Against the Riverdale Cast

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a32935200/cole-sprouse-lili-reinhart-deny-riverdale-sexual-assault-allegations/

So I just caught up with season four on Netflix and I've been thinking about the "Mr. Honey was actually a good guy who cared about his students" reveal in the impromptu season finale. And. Like. I don't think it actually changes much?

It proves that he wasn't malevolently trying to destroy his students out of spite, but was that ever in question? Well-meaning but such a strict, merciless, and unyielding dumpster fire of an administrator that it undermines his good intentions was already how I saw him, at least.

Like. Before the season started focusing in more on him, his actions weren't even that bad. Taking the Vixens from Cheryl? That girl is multiple shades of f*cked up. Declaring her mentally unfit to be a leader for other impressionable kids and sending her to therapy is a reasonable course of action.

But those last three episodes. Like. "Not one student's been murdered on Mr. Honey's watch!" Crediting Mr. Honey with the fact that Betty's dad didn't rise from the grave to do some more serial killings or whatever feels very much like a Correlation Equals Causality claim. I'm not sure how condemning an LGBT production and making a stalker video as a pretense for cancelling prom is supposedly repelling gang violence, mafia intrigue, and murderers from the students' lives.

They made Honey way shittier right before trying to pull out the rug and preaching that he was a good guy all along. And the first really undermines the second. A nice letter of recommendation for Jughead doesn't change the fact that he's one of those "THE HORROR! High school students might start thinking about sex if they're exposed to sick LGBT depravity, and that would destroy their futures!" assholes.

Of course, I'm half-convinced that the "Maybe Mr. Honey is actually a good guy" is just to distract from the impending reveal that he's the video tape voyeur in the set of episodes that was supposed to complete the season. So maybe that disconnect is intentional. But either way, color me not in Camp Honey.

Having done some research on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I think an argument could be made was that Honey didn't think the kids really understood what the musical was about and would have adapted it rather sloppily. Cheryl and the Vixens trying to persuade him by singing a song called "Sugar Daddy" didn't help either.

Sadly, this is a show about teenagers so the adults have to be wrong even when they're right.

Edited by windleopard on Jun 26th 2020 at 10:32:54 AM

Yeah, Cheryl was definitely doing more harm than good from the moment the first set of lyrics left her lips.

But I think it was a very deliberate creative choice for him to be singling out the show's main gay male character, Kevin, to condemn an LGBT musical as too sexualized for schools. Honey's particular angle of criticism parallels a common anti-LGBT talking point, where anything LGBT-related is called out as being too sexual for children to be exposed to.

An opposite-sex couple passionately making out while naked in bed? Appropriate for PG-13.

Two same-sex men sharing a quick kiss before going about their day? Get this hypersexualized pornography away from my children's delicate eyes!

Indeed, it's not Veronica or Betty or Jughead who earns further contempt from Honey for the ill-conceived Sugar Daddy number, but the show's main gay female character Cheryl. The subtextual meaning of Hedwig being "too sexualized for our school" is pretty apparent, I think.

The funny thing is that Riverdale unintentionally endorses Honey's viewpoint. At least when it comes to gay male characters. People have been pointing out how marginalized Kevin is in the show when it comes to story focus and development. Especially when compared to Cheryl who is gay. In fact, them making Cheryl gay (which she isn't in the comics) seems like them trying to shield themselves from accusations of homophobia.

This review even pointed out how odd it is that Kevin is depicted as directing musicals as opposed to starring in them even though his actor Casey Cott has Broadway experience.

I'm not sure if it's that. I get the impression that the CW network, in general, makes a deliberate effort to appeal to the lesbian demographic.

Don’t forget they also made Moose bisexual.

And then did very little with him before writing him out.