Riverdale Season 1 . A Beautiful Mess

Riverdale 

Season 1 . A Beautiful Mess 

Archie Andrews, is that you ? Well this was my reaction for the whole premise of the show more or less throughout.  Based on the popular ever-going and evergreen American comic series , Archies the show was set to be different from the start go. While the comics presented a happy go lucky carefree guy Archie living the average American teen life with the worries of his life being football, his car and balancing between Betty and Veronica. Riverdale takes a complete turn here and even the marketing and promo is evident that they are pushing for this. Instead of the cheerful bright atmosphere from the comics, its a town shrouded in mystery and murder. I think the only somewhat resemblance these characters have to their comic counterparts is the fact that the names and likenesses match and thats it. Yes we might have the rich spoiled brat Cheryl and Riches to rags Veronica or the girl next door Betty with the same character plots as in the comics but all of these take a setback in turn for the greater good of the story. So coming to the story, after watching the trailers I did have some expectations for this and compared to the source material they were actually using this turned out to be very good. In fact I was surprised how they were able to weave a deep narrative in the world of ‘Archie’. 

Coming to that narrative the show must either get a lot of praise or the praise must be taken back because since in its core structure its a teen drama. The rising popularity of teen drama is attributed to the fact that not much work has to be done in order for it to appeal to a casual or core audience, but here the murder suspense theme along with a hint of supernaturalism about the town and its inhabitants, it seems nothing is what it looks like. Maybe I am going off the rails or putting in too much though about this, but theres no denying that this show came out about the drastic reimagination of Archie and his pals through comics like chilling adventures of Sabrina and Afterlife with Archie. So maybe seasons later we can deep dive into a dark lore of Riverdale ,bring in Sabrina or go crazy along the routes of something like Archie’s weird mysteries. But whatever route the show takes on its at its heart a teen drama somewhat and it embraces the fact too. Our heroes Archie and Jughead have the figures that girls die for and in fact leaving Archie who’s an athlete Jughead stick is that he’s a smart guy with emotional issues and my god does he have muscles just lazying around all day. Beautiful female leads and stars who in fact alone their personality traits might make them seem a bit two dimensional and comical but together even if two of them get together the narrative seems to fold around quite nicely. 

So the characters are good. I mean just a hint of the comic book counterparts and everything else has been dialed up to suspense times 10 here. A feel of the classic ninety’s Archie is here with milkshakes and diners and muscle cars along with gang warfare an important part of their lives. Archie the sweetheart throb has a secret and it is that he wants to sing not play football. Jughead is trying to find himself even though he doesnt want to. Betty the girl next door with Veronica the rich Princess who stumbles in their lives and Cheryl , most possibly the most cringy yet likeable character of this season. 

Coming to the story, its a simple premise but well executed and for the sake of drama the suspense on the characters has been elevated so much that it actually worked for the sake of the story. The incest feel among the Blossom siblings, Betty’s dark persona switch, Family honour parts, Gang warfare, everything was looking at pointing the guns elsewhere but at the end it ended up out of the blue exposing the real murderer. And now if u were watching it for the sake of its detective skills and lot, u’ll be disappointed. Everything was been done to set up a dark and gloomy mood of Riverdale and while everyone was a suspect the way they handled the reveal was surprising but not shocking. 

Well its a suspense teen drama so of course you are going to have the romances. The epic love triangle of Archie Betty and Veronica here have been replaced with a constant status quo , moreover to attract todays teens. Betty and Jughead have this cute one while Archie and Veronica have the wild steamy relationship. Till the end the best friendship between Jugs and Arch quite wasnt shown or felt. Well the relationship between the different parents and children was carefully handled. This was something never done in comics as its always the children who are in the main focus, the parents are never quite shown or explored only being used as a backdrop, But in season 1 theres a stark contrast between each family and everything was shown clearly. Alleigances were clear as day here. 

This might be a bit controversial but yes, further late I have been having a bit of an issue with the way characters are changed to promote diversity instead of introducing new ones. But in Riverdale I didn’t have any problem at all. In fact it felt natural and no forced diversity or anything of this sort in a teen drama, feels a welcome change in some time.

Overall. Riverdale is a pretty good show. Now I wont go deep or critical into it but its because you dont need to. Fans of Archie comics over the years are going to enjoy this wild romp and while it might change a lot from the source material, I think the deviation os for the better. I went into the show with expectations and yes while sometimes the drama is off putting, over-acting, cheesy lines and making a mole out of anthill. Its ok.  And Honestly, I loved this show. Watching it as a long term Archie fan, I loved the subtle references and easter eggs. This show has its fair share of issues and I think its mostly with dragging on things where not needed. I loved Riverdale and I am excited to see in which direction it can go , even the cliffhanger ending did seem to point it out. This show can go in  the right direction or will fail, only time will tell. But as for now. Its time for another part of watching Archie and his gang descent into the gloominess that is Riverdale.