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Spoilers Riverdale

I came here to see if anyone picked up on a nice reference to the comics. Riverdale in this episode was celebrating it's 75th anniversary: Archie comics is also celebrating it's 75th anniversary. I thought that was a nice touch, especially since I just picked up the Archie comics 75th anniversary digest.

A major story arc for season 2 seems like it will be Jughead's continual removal from the core group and Archie trying to pull him back in. I'm OK with that, it's something they've been working to all season, he's always been presented as the outsider, now he's finally putting himself on the outside.

Since I got to read several comics from the series over the years (thanks to the aforementioned digest) I'm glad they're introducing Betty's brother into the show, Chic Cooper. The only comic I saw him in though was Lil Archie, where he was Archie's camp counselor. I'm sure he'll be quite the different character on the show though ;)

I'm kind of hoping for a longer season next time around, while this one was nice and taut, I think more episodes can explore the character's themselves more. For instance I bet we at least get a lot of background into Blossom's drug operation, and of course what becomes of Cheryl: is she in control or going crazy?

Also, I want to give a shout out to @Christopher, thanks for highlighting how the core characters are genuinely good while the people around them are the crazy ones, I think it's one of the reasons the show has pulled me in so much. The character's feel true to their comic book roots, even if the stories are far from what we'd see in the panels.
 
Aldo said:
I came here to see if anyone picked up on a nice reference to the comics. Riverdale in this episode was celebrating it's 75th anniversary: Archie comics is also celebrating it's 75th anniversary. I thought that was a nice touch, especially since I just picked up the Archie comics 75th anniversary digest.
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They've been seeding that since the start of the show, with signs saying the school was established in 1941 and so on. (Which I guess means that the show is set late last year, which would explain the winter weather in the finale.


A major story arc for season 2 seems like it will be Jughead's continual removal from the core group and Archie trying to pull him back in. I'm OK with that, it's something they've been working to all season, he's always been presented as the outsider, now he's finally putting himself on the outside.
Click to expand...

I had the thought the other day that it's interesting how Jughead was barely even a presence in the pilot, aside from narrating, and yet he ended up being central to the finale. There's a progression through the season with Jughead starting out at a remove and becoming more deeply involved -- which is appropriate for an outsider like him, someone it takes time and work to get to know. I'm not sure if that was what they intended, but it worked out nicely, now that I think of it.


Since I got to read several comics from the series over the years (thanks to the aforementioned digest) I'm glad they're introducing Betty's brother into the show, Chic Cooper. The only comic I saw him in though was Lil Archie, where he was Archie's camp counselor. I'm sure he'll be quite the different character on the show though ;)
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Oh, I should've known he was a comics character. There haven't been many characters on this show who aren't -- I think Joaquin is original, but I can't think of any others.
 
Speaking of the finale taking place in winter. Was the show meant to air in the fall? The changing of the season would have lined up with real life in that case.

Also good job on pointing out that Jughead was absent from the pilot, I had forgotten about that. I remember wondering who was doing the narration and also wondering where Jughead was.
 
Aldo said:
Also good job on pointing out that Jughead was absent from the pilot, I had forgotten about that. I remember wondering who was doing the narration and also wondering where Jughead was.
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We did see him briefly at the end of the pilot -- Archie came to the diner to speak to him, but things were tense between them because (as it later turned out) he was mad that Archie had skipped out on their plans so he could be with "Ms. Grundy."

And I don't know when the show was meant to air, but your hypothesis is plausible. In any case, since the story began at the start of the school year, it had to be in the fall.

Really, now that I think about it, I don't get this modern obsession with setting shows in real time, pretending they take place on the very day they air. I mean, logically, a story being told today would most likely be about events that have already passed, with enough intervening time to prepare the story. So there's more verisimilitude to a story that's set in the recent past than one that we're supposedly watching more or less as it happens. But maybe that's just my old-fashioned mentality. To the Internet generation, I guess that immediacy feels more natural.

And of course most of the stories I watch, read, and especially write are set in the future anyway... :D
 
I know broadcast is still a thing, but with more and more shows premiering on streaming apps, setting shows in real time is of course a pipe dream. Actually thinking about that, that's one thing I'll miss if broadcast goes away completely.

I had forgotten that Jug did appear at the end of the pilot, I think at the time I wondered if he was going to be a minor character. How wrong I was ;)
 
Christopher said:
Really, now that I think about it, I don't get this modern obsession with setting shows in real time, pretending they take place on the very day they air. I mean, logically, a story being told today would most likely be about events that have already passed, with enough intervening time to prepare the story. So there's more verisimilitude to a story that's set in the recent past than one that we're supposedly watching more or less as it happens. But maybe that's just my old-fashioned mentality. To the Internet generation, I guess that immediacy feels more natural.. :D
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Well, it's probably, mostly just about trying to avoid the cognitive dissidence of having a Christmas episode air in May, or seeing people cavorting on the beach when it's snowing outside in real life.

And teen shows, revolving around high school, are going to naturally follow a Fall to Spring sequence, conveniently lining up with your standard network TV seasons.
 
My big problem with shows purporting to unfold in real time is that it's an insanely improbable coincidence that the season-long story arcs always come to a climax in May or early June, once a year like clockwork. Arrow even lampshaded it last year, with a character mentioning that the city always seemed to get nearly destroyed every May. The Berman-era Star Trek shows had the same problem -- they weren't serialized, but the biggest, most epic and cliffhangery stories always seemed to happen right when the stardates rolled back around to 000.
 
Teen Wolf doesn't obey the calendar year per season rule.

Season 1: January - March 2011
Season 2: March - April 2011
Season 3: Fall 2011
Season 4: January 2012
Season 5: Fall 2012
Season 6: April 2013 (I believe)
 
Christopher said:
My big problem with shows purporting to unfold in real time is that it's an insanely improbable coincidence that the season-long story arcs always come to a climax in May or early June, once a year like clockwork. Arrow even lampshaded it last year, with a character mentioning that the city always seemed to get nearly destroyed every May. The Berman-era Star Trek shows had the same problem -- they weren't serialized, but the biggest, most epic and cliffhangery stories always seemed to happen right when the stardates rolled back around to 000.
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I know it seems odd if you consider what occurs within television shows as a sequence of events unfolding for actual people. But really, it's all fictional. None of this is actually taking place; the events are the contrivances of a group of writers, whose work is then performed by actors in front of sets that are constructed and lit to appear dramatic rather than reflecting the reality around them. (As an aside, most television shows film in specially constructed studios, so for much of the screen time you're actually seeing an environment without all four walls that was only constructed temporarily! Even so-called "standing sets" are eventually torn down at the end of a series run.) So looking at it from that perspective is really an incorrect way of thinking.

But if I may engage in your flight of fancy for a moment, is this any more odd than something interesting happening to the characters every week for long stretches? Many of us go for months, years even, just going to work, coming home, eating, and sleeping. Even the notion of romantic relationships, which is something you see a lot of on television, is not a universal human experience. And don't even get me started on how many TV cast members have prominent cheek bones--this is a genetic feature that is rare enough that it's considered exceptional and therefore attractive by casting agents, yet it occurs to an unusually high degree in the people populating television shows. Very strange.

TC
 
Riverdale is moving to Wednesdays for Season 2, swapping time slots with Arrow, which will air its sixth season on Thursdays following Supernatural.
 
Since this show is basically a soap opera, we could still follow his story if they sent him to the Moon.
 
The "Joaquin is a Cooper" thing doesn't work because he's not that much older than Kevin, whereas Betty and Polly's brother would be in his mid-to-late 20s.
 
As the article points out - we don't actually know how old Joaquin is. In real life, Raco is 4 years older than Cott - so not unbelievable that Joaquin could be slightly older than Kevin and the rest of the gang.
 
tenmei said:
As the article points out - we don't actually know how old Joaquin is. In real life, Raco is 4 years older than Cott - so not unbelievable that Joaquin could be slightly older than Kevin and the rest of the gang.
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Except, as I pointed out months ago, Kevin is supposed to be 16 years old, so if Joaquin were more than three years his senior, the relationship would be statutory rape. (The age of consent varies from state to state, but I went with the assumption that the show's Riverdale is on the West Coast or the Pacific Northwest, and Washington, Oregon, and California all define it that way.) Not only would that be an unfortunately criminal slant to put on the show's main gay relationship, but we've already been through that whole mess with "Ms. Grundy" and Archie.
 
I would agree. But it does present the possibility that Joaquin is actually Chick, incognito and hard at work. Canonically in the comics, Chick is an FBI agent, after all.
 
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