I'm pretty late to the party, but this weekend I started watching Riverdale, the latest hit teen drama currently airing its 2nd season Wednesdays at 8pm EST on the CW. It's loosely based on the popular Archie comics, which have been around since the 1940's: the characters are all there on the tv show, but it's set in the present day and closely resembles other modern teen dramas. I have to admit that I don't know anything about the comics except for the names of the main trio of characters: Archie, Betty, and Veronica. In the CW's reimaging, Archie (KJ Apa) is the redheaded jock and aspiring musician, Betty (Lili Reinhart) is the blonde girl next door who pines for Archie, and Veronica (Camila Mendes) is the dark-haired vixen and new girl in town. Archie's best friend is Jughead (Cole Sprouse), a seemingly homeless tortured soul. Rounding out the central gang of teens are Kevin (Casey Cott), friend to Betty and Veronica who also happens to be gay, and Cheryl (Madeline Petsch), the bad girl leader of the cheerleading squad to which Betty and Veronica belong, the aptly named River Vixens. In a clever move by the CW, the adults on Riverdale are mostly portrayed by 80's and 90's teen icons. Luke Perry (Beverly Hills 90210) is Archie's dad Fred, Madchen Amick (Twin Peaks) is Betty's mom Alice, and Robin Givens (Head of the Class) is Riverdale's mayor Sierra McCoy. The other adults are Marisol Nichols as Veronica's mom Hermione and Skeet Ulrich as Jughead's dad Forsythe. The show also features the teen band Josie and the Pussycats, a popular part of the comics; Josie is Mayor McCoy's daughter and is played by Ashleigh Murray. The central mystery of season 1, of which I've seen just 4 episodes, is the death of Cheryl's brother Jason, whose waterlogged body (with a bullet hole in his head) is found by Kevin after disappearing on July 4th during the previous summer.
The best part of Riverdale is its overall mysterious and dark tone, which makes it feel deeper and more serious than your typical teen show. The show's creator Greg Berlanti, a veteran writer and producer of other hit teen shows like Dawson's Creek and Everwood, has described it as Archie Comics meets Twin Peaks, which is actually pretty spot-on. Without the mystery element the show wouldn't be nearly as interesting to me, so I worry that once Jason's murder is solved the story may fizzle out a bit, as it did on Twin Peaks when Laura Palmer's killer was revealed early in season 2. The acting is very uneven, but the main trio of Apa, Reinhart, and Mendes more than holds their own onscreen, which is really all that matters. Apa makes Archie believably popular without being a jerk, while Reinhart portrays Betty as the perfect girl-next-door (although not nearly as innocent as Joey on Dawson's Creek), and Mendes is a convincing vixen who is actually pretty friendly and supportive to her friends. Refreshingly, the show hasn't thrown the trio into a love triangle (yet), although it has started to explore Betty's feelings for Archie. Veronica seemed interested in Archie at first, but once she found out that Betty had feelings for him she started to back off. My biggest problem with the show so far is Archie's relationship with his music teacher Geraldine Grundy (Sarah Habel). Habel is the most bland and untalented actor on the show, and I'm finding it hard to believe that Archie would even want to be with her. The character is pretty, but for some reason the show makes her seem like a shy bookworm by putting her hair up and giving her glasses. I'm just waiting for the big moment when the hair comes down and the glasses come off, and she's revealed to actually be beautiful, a la She's All That. The show needs to ditch this story ASAP, plain and simple. I'm hoping that Riverdale also fleshes out the Jughead and Kevin characters more in future episodes; so far they have both done a lot with their limited time onscreen.
This show definitely seems like it could be the next teen hit and a worthy successor to Dawson's Creek, The OC, and Beverly Hills 90210. As long as it tightens its writing a bit and some of the weaker actors step up or ship out, then I'll be watching at least through the current season.
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