{"id":3201,"date":"2017-02-16T08:56:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T18:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workable-level.flywheelsites.com\/?p=3201"},"modified":"2017-02-16T09:49:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T19:49:13","slug":"review-cws-riverdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/16\/review-cws-riverdale\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: CW’s ‘Riverdale’ Reimagines Old ‘Archie’ Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY KAYLA VALERA<\/a> | STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Even if you haven\u2019t grown up a reader of “Archie,” everyone can at least say that they\u2019ve crossed paths with the 75-year-old comic book series at the grocery store near the checkout aisles. Just at a glance from the cover, the “Archie” series show its age with its wholesome, all-American\u00a0characters and light-hearted storyline. However, in\u00a0CW\u2019s revival of the comics, “Riverdale,” it\u2019s safe to say that the TV version of “Archie” takes a great departure from its preceding comics.<\/p>\n

One of the noticeable changes from the TV show is\u00a0the diverse races shown in the\u00a0lineup of actors. The original comics had a majority white cast and had been written that way from its creation in the 1940s, until recent comic adaptations.<\/p>\n

It’s refreshing that the show has incorporated a\u00a0wider range of ethnicities\u00a0in\u00a0the main cast, including an Asian Reggie Mantle (Ross Butler), an all-black Josie and the Pussycats (Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy,\u00a0Hayley Law as Valerie Brown, Asha Bromfield as Melody Valentine), a Latina Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), and although it’s not widely known, a half Samoan Archie Andrews (KJ Apa). These new changes in the actors’ ethnicities create a more modern feel to the “Archie” comics and is a better reflection of today’s\u00a0reality in terms of race.<\/p>\n

In terms of the characters and their new\u00a0storylines, it’s worth noting that the new “Archie” gang is\u00a0quite dark and\u00a0more developed than what their comic strip dialogue and thought-bubbles let on. Bringing to life these timeless high schoolers\u00a0meant delving into the complexity of each characters’ motives and backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Betty Cooper, for example, is known throughout\u00a0the comics as an\u00a0on-again off-again girlfriend of\u00a0Archie Andrews, and rivals for his affection against her own best friend, Veronica Lodge. She is perceived as a dependable friend and is nearly perfect in every endeavor she pursues.”Riverdale” has played true to\u00a0these traits of Betty’s\u00a0personalities and\u00a0at the same time casts them in a different light.<\/p>\n

Considering how she strives to constantly appease her family and friends, we see in the TV show that behind closed doors, Betty has her own inner\u00a0demons as we see her experience feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.<\/p>\n

These darker elements of Betty add an authenticity to the character that makes her all the more real. Other characters in the series also tend to strike a balance between their comic book persona (that most readers remember them by) and the parts of their character\u00a0that strays from the archetype that they’re often placed under.<\/p>\n

The story opens in the town of Riverdale where we are introduced to\u00a0these characters before the beginning of a new\u00a0school year. Our passage into the small town is guided by\u00a0the narration of Jughead Jones, the once burger-loving comic doodle turned jaded, crime-drama writer. His current\u00a0obsession (as well as the subject\u00a0of his latest novel) is the death and disappearance of the town’s beloved high schooler, Jason Blossom.<\/p>\n

Although the premise of the story seems to surround his mysterious demise, Jason’s death only serves as the\u00a0first of many shock factors that the TV series has in store throughout the series. Much like Jason’s death, it feels as though the innocence of the original “Archie” comics has died and given way to a story that, similar to a corpse, feels disturbing and sad to look at. The shell of something that was once vibrant and full of life is\u00a0left cold and unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

At times I found that the show’s brooding attempts at edginess and contemporary flair a bit too desperate. The taboo love affairs (“teacher\/student” and suggested “twin-cest”) and pointless\u00a0queer-baiting (meaningless lesbian kiss scene) are some of\u00a0the few disappointing features of the new series that felt were forced and written in by impulse.<\/p>\n

Despite these minor groans that the show deemed\u00a0necessary enough to keep, I found myself truly invested in the friendships and development between some of the\u00a0characters. I even wished at times that I could sit in as a fixture of the Archie gang at Pop’s Chok’lit Shoppe just to be friends with the brunette new girl, Veronica Lodge, and the blonde girl-next-door, Betty Cooper.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the slang\u00a0that the\u00a0characters spoke\u00a0or the modern\u00a0references that they drew\u00a0from, it felt\u00a0as though the “Riverdale” universe calls back to\u00a0an innocent era in time where drinking milkshakes with your four best friends was just the\u00a0thing to do on a Friday night. The charm of this idyllic scenario is what keeps the characters grounded in the corrupt town that they live in. This sense of identity that the show has is what sets “Riverdale” apart from other teenage melodramas that CW usually showcases.<\/p>\n

While many\u00a0question whether this\u00a0drastic reboot was necessary for such an age-old story, it may not have been the modern update that “Archie” fans\u00a0were looking for, but it’s the one that surprisingly works the best.<\/p>\n

What some critics have to take into account is that “Archie,” unlike other comic book series that are also making the transition to\u00a0TV, lacks the assets that would usually garner a huge following of comic book fans. It doesn\u2019t have a superhero protagonist nor is it set in a post-apocalyptic world (if you don’t count the “Afterlife with Archie” comic spinoff) or even have a main character that is anything\u00a0short of supernatural.<\/p>\n

The story at its core is about the relationships between Archie, a redheaded teenage boy, and his other high school friends as they deal with normal adolescent issues. Though the show could have been true to the comics and\u00a0remain clean and wholesome \u2013 as demonstrated by shows like\u00a0“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” (which was another “Archie” comic\u00a0<\/span>that got an earlier TV adaptation) \u2013 the CW’s pitch for “Riverdale” was just what the “Archie” storyline needed to reinvent itself into the 21st century.<\/p>\n

“Riverdale” airs Thursday nights on the CW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY KAYLA VALERA | STAFF WRITER Even if you haven\u2019t grown up a reader of “Archie,” everyone can at least say that they\u2019ve crossed paths with the 75-year-old comic book series at the grocery store near the checkout aisles. Just at a glance from the cover, the “Archie” series show its age with its wholesome, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","category-reviews","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}