By the way, Riverdale High has the same school colors as my high school, blue and gold. Except our school paper wasn't named after them (it was -- and still is -- the Chatterbox).
I finally caught up and I think I really like this show. I wasn't sure what to think of it after the first one, because I didn't know what to expect and how close it'd be to the comics. It actually feels closer to the comics than I thought it would be, while also being a re-imaging too. I wonder if every season will be a new murder mystery? Or if they'll drag this out for a while? In any event I'm enjoying it and will be following it at least for the first season.
Maybe they'll go in other directions in future seasons. Worth noting that the showrunner did a very dark comic called Afterlife with Archie, in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch inadvertently unleashed the zombie apocalypse...
I'd like to see them "reboot" the series each year -- one season, Jughead's Time Patrol (Jughead as Doctor Who); another season, Archie's Weird Mysteries (Archie and the gang fight werewolves and vampies, and Veronica is essentially Buffy). That would be bonkers, but I'd love it.
So, one minute into this week's ep, Jughead refers to Betty as a "Hitchcock blonde." What is it with this show and its vintage pop cultural references? Is every teen in Riverdale hooked on TCM? (I'll give them a pass on all the James Dean stuff in this week's ep because it fit with all the bittersweet nostalgia about the old drive-in movie theater.)
^Since you're reposting from Facebook, Greg, I'll repost my response: Until this week, all the movie references were from Veronica, and most of them still were this time. It's clearly her own character quirk. The fact that Jughead worked at a drive-in explains why the other characters *got* her references, because presumably they went there to support their friend. And we saw that V isn't exclusively about old-movie references, because she also referred to Cheryl as "a stock character from a '90s high school TV show" or words to that effect.
Actually, it was the other way around. I posted here first, then decided it might make a fun Facebook post. And, without rehashing that entire thread, it's not just a Veronica thing.
I just think of the old-film references as the equivalent of the '40s cars and black-and-white TVs in Batman: The Animated Series. It's their way of creating a timeless alternate world that appeals to nostalgia while still being nominally set in the present.
I'm probably the only person on this BBS who has never read any of the Archie comics (but thanks to Wikipedia for the quick orientation). I was surprised it took them long enough to do a TV adaptation of this series. If this was any other teen drama, I probably wouldn't be watching it. One of my Facebook contacts, a classmate back in high school, was remarking how her one-time teenage crush "Dylan McKay" was now playing a dad of a teenager on primetime TV. Last night we got to see more of the interactions between the parents, especially Jughead's father whom Hermione had contacted earlier on. With Ms. Grundy resigning, is she still going to stay in town?
I'm pretty sure part of the agreeement was that she leave town.The actress is a guest star, not a regular, and IMDb doesn't list her in any upcoming episodes (though that isn't necessarily definitive).
I think this weeks episode really earned the "inspired by Twin Peaks" designation I've heard other reviewers get it. I really liked seeing how all the adults are messed up in their own ways and have shady dealings going on (Veronica's mom dealing with the bikers to reduce the property value of the drive-in so her incarcerated husband could buy it was devious). I suppose Archie's dad is still relatively innocent, but it was interesting to see that he was the one who fired Jughead's dad (and who saw that coming? That Jughead's dad would be a biker too!) I really can't get enough of this show. I wish in an alternate reality I never got into it, and then stumbled upon it on Netflix one day, cause I wish I could binge watch the whole season now.
You're not, and I didn't even bother with Wikipedia, my only foreknowledge comes from Guy's descriptions on the first page of this thread Anyway, caught up on the last two episodes over the weekend. So what's the deal with sisters on this show? First there's Polly who's "away", and now Jughead has a sister who's also missing? Where's Jellybean? Presumably she's not with her father since he cares so much about his kids he consciously made an arrangement that made his own son homeless... Not that the other parents are particularly stellar, with the exception of Archie's and Kevin's dads. How come nobody noticed Jughead's homeless though? Since everybody in this town seems to be prying into other peoples lives, it'd be tough to keep something like that a secret for long. I'm guessing Miss Grundy will be back, unless broadcast TV has progressed so far that child predators can be shown walking away into the sunset chasing other unsuspecting ginger twits... Speaking of Archie, he almost feels like a side character on the show so far, always doing his own thing, not interacting much with the other kids, even Cheryl has been more integral to group dynamics on the show than he was. Capes aren't just for crimefighters anymore So that's why they mentioned Salem and witch trials in this episode...
Who says Veronica isn't a crimefighter? She brought down the jocks a couple of weeks ago and helped expose Ms. Not-Grundy last week. (Although both arguably involved Betty actually committing crimes in the process, including assault, B&E, and stealing a gun.)
The lower part with the points needs to be higher. Otherwise, it's a fair imitation. I guess it depends on what they've been brought up with and what they've been exposed to in school. I was raised by my grandparents, and my grandmother loved 1950s movies. So I've seen The Ten Commandments more times than I can recall. Back in the '70s I read the Trixie Belden juvenile mystery series, and even then it didn't ring true to me that two of the characters were enthusiastically reading Dickens novels... for fun. These were kids 13 and 15 years old. (Okay, I read Oliver Twist when I was a teenager, but only because I love the musical and wanted to read the book it was based on.) I have trouble fathoming young teens reading a lot of that sort of thing "just because." Mind you, the setting for that series is even more bucolic than Riverdale. Betty used fake-Google to dig up dirt on Miss Grundy (and found a photo of an elderly woman who looks just like the comic version!). And one of the characters mentioned Netflix (nod, wink). Some schools just aren't enlightened. There's really no reason to dissect frogs (or anything else) in junior/high schools anymore, with 3D models available. Mind you, at least the kids in the show wore gloves. We didn't when I was in Grade 10. And Rose was horrible in that Doctor Who episode (well, she was horrible in others as well, but especially snippy to Sarah Jane). There's a story in the comics in which Betty and Midge are having a heart-to-heart about teenage love and how scary growing up is, and Midge explicitly states that she is 16 years old. Leroy did graduate (apparently off-screen) because he came back as Lydia's teaching assistant. It's Danny I couldn't fathom. Carlo Imperato was on every season of that show (that I recall), and in the reunion finale, Bruno asked, "Are you STILL here?". I binge-watched Riverdale over the last couple of days, and holy crap. I will need to scrub my brain out before going back to my stack of Archie comic digests (yes, I still read them). It's like a train wreck that's so fascinating that it's impossible to look away. So I've got some questions: 1. What happened to Archie's mom? 2. Why is Betty's mother such a bitch? She's so nice in the comics, and approves of Betty and Archie dating (Mr. Cooper doesn't as much because he disapproves of Archie treating Betty as "second best"). 3. Indeed, where are Jellybean, Jughead's mom, and Hot Dog? 4. If Mr. Lodge is in prison and Mrs. Lodge has to work as a waitress, who's paying Smithers' wages? How are they still able to live in luxury, for that matter? A final couple of comments: I hate looking at Cheryl. The actress's lips are humongous. Shallow comment? Yes. But it's my opinion. As for "Miss Grundy"... it's shown in the episode that she's got all her stuff in the back of her car, and she's in a new place, noticing a couple of attractive teenage boys. So apparently she's in a new town, and will just continue on with her inappropriate ways.