Riverdale (Season 1)

[number8]

It took me three episodes to realize the episode titles are all titles of film noir or thrillers. So good.

[Irish]

Serious question: Are you watching this ironically / hate watching it? What's the appeal for you, specifically?

I went in really wanting to like it because it seemed like it had a fun premise and it got good notices. But I thought the execution was mediocre and, in parts, obvious. (Much of what "Riverdale" attempts, other nighttime soaps like "Desperate Housewives", "Pretty Little Liars," and "Revenge" did better.)

[number8]

(Just as a general rule, I'm not the kind of person who enjoys watching things ironically, and even less so hate-watching things.)

I have huge affinity for Archie Comics. I've kept up with it over the years and I still read various versions of them now. I'm enjoying them redoing Gossip Girl with these characters. Part of Archie's endurance has always been that the characters are familiar and recognizable archetypes that are just specific enough to be recognizable but still broad enough to be snugly plugged into the various incarnations and genres they've inhabited, which run the gamut from religious tracts to occult horror. After the third episode, it occurred to me that this is molded after those comics, in that it's less trying to be a serialized ongoing mystery and more trying to have fun with plugging those well-worn archetypes into a noir setting (sort of a reverse Brick, I guess). Given that approach, I think the execution is fine. It's handling the central love triangle really well, actually, which is clutch. I think a lot of people tend to misconstrue the "Betty & Veronica" duo as these catty rivals who battle over Archie's affection, but the comics have always made sure to stress that they're actually each other's best friends who more or less begrudgingly agree to share his attention, which is tricky to portray. I'm finding this show's depiction of that to be pleasantly convincing, with some fun inversions in the dynamic because of the twists with Veronica's wealth and Betty's mental state.

Judhead's probably my least favorite part of the show, so far. The lone narrator role makes the most sense for him on paper, but they probably should've given him a better device than being the town Capote who is bewilderingly writing about teen gossip in his novel about a murder.

Bee tee dubs: Let us all agree that it's refreshing to have another addition to the increasing cadre of "small town rocked by death of pretty young thing" shows and have the corpse finally be a boy for a change. On that, it has something over Pretty Little Liars.

[Ivan Drago]

Does the show retain Jughead's love of hamburgers?

[number8]

I can't believe it's only been eight episodes. This show is bananas.

[Melville]

I've been digging the small-town pop-colored luridness of this. But what I really want is more issues of Afterlife with Archie.

[number8]

But what I really want is more issues of Afterlife with Archie.

Yeah, their delays are just insane; clearly Aguirre-Sacasa is doing too much. But they did just release a standalone one-shot last week called The Hunger about Jughead being a werewolf. It's fun.

[Melville]

Yeah, I should pick that up. I see Francavilla also has a Spirit book out, which looks good.

[number8]

Hahahaha oh my god Jason Blossom bailed on his sister incest [

Show Spoiler

to have secret cousin incest

].

Fuck I love this show.

[dreamdead]

Been doing a lot of binge-watching on TV during a state of disinterested film viewing, and so Sarah and I started this yesterday and we're loving how demented and odd this adaptation is. We're through the first six episodes and hopefully the writers continue to invest in Archie being obliviously dumb about his transgressions... the fact that so few of the characters highlighted the inappropriateness of the whole teacher hook-up was annoying, but unless she comes back, the show can move on from that dead end of a narrative opener.

[Peng]

So now that the first season has ended, I'm interested in giving this a go. What are your thoughts? Recommended?

[Melville]

One of my favorite shows of recent years. Maybe only behind Twin Peaks and True Detective season 1. It's a bit sloppy at times, but the pulp Americana is so good. I love the color scheme. And any show that contains the term "daily milkshake" is a win.