Same hair, new atmosphere
July 26, 2016 9:17 PM Subscribe
Over the past year, the Archie series of comics has been receiving acclaim for efforts to rethink its classic characters. This fall, that continues onto the television screen, with the forthcoming series: Riverdale [Facebook Link]. Early reports about the show claim, "More Twin Peaks than Dawson's Creek", and that the show will focus on a darker side of the iconic characters, "As a new school year begins, the town of Riverdale is reeling from the recent, tragic death of high school golden boy Jason Blossom — and nothing feels the same." As bizarre (and, perhaps, terrible) as this may sound, the pilot episode is reviewing well.
Is this the one where they decided to make Jughead gay?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:14 PM on July 26, 2016
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:14 PM on July 26, 2016
So when do the zombies show up?
posted by Etrigan at 10:22 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 10:22 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
"One batch, two batch... Archie? You've seen life on my side. I made you watch. I'm sorry. I'm not going to do that to you again. My friends, Matt and Jess, they'll be here soon. If they fail, do not fear. One batch. Two batch... everything will work out right. That Jughead, he makes me chuckle, KEEP AN EYE ON HIM."
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:29 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:29 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is this the one where they decided to make Jughead gay?
They made him explicitly asexual.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:39 PM on July 26, 2016 [11 favorites]
They made him explicitly asexual.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:39 PM on July 26, 2016 [11 favorites]
Archie is sleeping with Mrs. Grundy? Didn't he notice that she was Jughead with a wig?
posted by benzenedream at 10:41 PM on July 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 10:41 PM on July 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
PRETTY disappointed to see that Jughead is being played by Cole Sprouse. Jughead was always my favourite loveable goofball and Cole Sprouse is, as far as I can tell, unbearable and pretentious. But I'm glad to see they're switching Archie Comics up otherwise!
posted by thebots at 10:50 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by thebots at 10:50 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Pardon the stupid question, but won't he be acting?
posted by ODiV at 11:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ODiV at 11:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Haha, yes. I suppose I mean it will be hard for me to let go of my distaste for him, particularly because the character he's playing is a lifelong favourite. You ever have actors you just can't stand?
I am also skeptical he'll be able to act beyond his unbearableness, but maybe I'll be proven wrong!
posted by thebots at 11:45 PM on July 26, 2016
I am also skeptical he'll be able to act beyond his unbearableness, but maybe I'll be proven wrong!
posted by thebots at 11:45 PM on July 26, 2016
Yeah, it's interesting. I've got actors I really dislike on a personal level, but who consistently put in good performances. There have also been actors I haven't been impressed with at all, but who later really blow me away when they're in the right project.
posted by ODiV at 11:54 PM on July 26, 2016
posted by ODiV at 11:54 PM on July 26, 2016
Hopefully there will be a intervention for Midge regarding her dysfunctional and somewhat unwilling relationship with Moose.
I remember it being a constant gag that he would beat up anyone she wanted to date.
posted by boilermonster at 11:56 PM on July 26, 2016
I remember it being a constant gag that he would beat up anyone she wanted to date.
posted by boilermonster at 11:56 PM on July 26, 2016
I saw the pilot at Comic Con and loved it. It was soapy and trope-filled (which I am totally there for), but with flashes of something darker and deeper. Veronica especially had more to her than rich mean girl. It was like Twin Peaks lite (some of the cinematography plus the mystery/rotting underbelly of a small town), mixed with Dawson's Creek (the girl next door pining away, too many literary/film references for a 15-year-old), mixed with Hidden Palms (a CW summer show that I keep trying to convince friends to watch, and which was Palm Springs teenage film noir and totally bonkers).
The Archie comic reboot is pretty great, too, but way more all-ages and wholesome.
posted by loulou718 at 12:41 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Archie comic reboot is pretty great, too, but way more all-ages and wholesome.
posted by loulou718 at 12:41 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've read and enjoyed some of the new Archie comic and may well watch this, but I'd also be totally in for a series based off the new Sabrina reboot, which I really enjoyed what I've read of so far.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 4:52 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 4:52 AM on July 27, 2016
The Sabrina Comic is amazing.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:44 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:44 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Could you make this animated and have Fiona Staples do the storyboards and character designs? Thanks.
posted by signal at 5:54 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by signal at 5:54 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Jason's dead - wrapped in plastic."
posted by Going To Maine at 6:07 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 6:07 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
A television show is a much higher-profile proposition than even a best-selling comic book, so I wonder how this is going to play to people who only know the Archie characters from the digests they use to sell in grocery store check-out lanes back in the 70's.
The actual comics, for those not in the loop, have been really interesting for the past several years, because the publisher has approached the characters as something like the colorful bits in a kaleidoscope. One title sees Archie and the gang trying to survive in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. Another sees the characters in their 30's, trying to navigate marriage and career failures. The one where they ran into the Predator ended up with about two thirds of the cast decapitated. They're all going to meet the Ramones later this year! And none of these storylines have any continuity with any of the others, except that they all feature the same cast of characters. It's genuinely odd.
And great! I shouldn't leave that out. It's been an enormously successful series of experiments, yielding some really awesome comic books.
So, in that context, having the characters refracted through a David-Lynch-does-Dawson's-Creek lens isn't all that exotic a decision. But TV audiences approaching this show may not be positioned to really get that this is just another attempt to interrogate the premises, to see what these characters are really about by imagining them in a wildly different type of universe.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:34 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
The actual comics, for those not in the loop, have been really interesting for the past several years, because the publisher has approached the characters as something like the colorful bits in a kaleidoscope. One title sees Archie and the gang trying to survive in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. Another sees the characters in their 30's, trying to navigate marriage and career failures. The one where they ran into the Predator ended up with about two thirds of the cast decapitated. They're all going to meet the Ramones later this year! And none of these storylines have any continuity with any of the others, except that they all feature the same cast of characters. It's genuinely odd.
And great! I shouldn't leave that out. It's been an enormously successful series of experiments, yielding some really awesome comic books.
So, in that context, having the characters refracted through a David-Lynch-does-Dawson's-Creek lens isn't all that exotic a decision. But TV audiences approaching this show may not be positioned to really get that this is just another attempt to interrogate the premises, to see what these characters are really about by imagining them in a wildly different type of universe.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:34 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
the digests they use to sell in grocery store check-out lanes back in the 70's.
They still sell those in the grocery checkout lanes. They're still the wholesome ones as far as I can tell. The other titles are only in comic shops.
posted by emjaybee at 6:48 AM on July 27, 2016
They still sell those in the grocery checkout lanes. They're still the wholesome ones as far as I can tell. The other titles are only in comic shops.
posted by emjaybee at 6:48 AM on July 27, 2016
"OK, Betty, take your clothes off." "Take my what off?!"
-- Betty & Me #40 (1972)
"Jason's dead - wrapped in plastic."
Just let me know when they air the one where Veronica ties a knot in a cherry stem.
posted by Herodios at 7:17 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
Is there a trailer?
Apparently nothing official, but I found this low quality copy of it.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2016
Apparently nothing official, but I found this low quality copy of it.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2016
I'm getting a lot of Brick off that trailer, which isn't a bad thing at all
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:51 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:51 AM on July 27, 2016
Archie got some washboard abs going on.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:21 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:21 AM on July 27, 2016
Archie is sleeping with Mrs. Grundy? Didn't he notice that she was Jughead with a wig?
Maybe that was part of the thrill.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:27 PM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe that was part of the thrill.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:27 PM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
i just realized that i had cole sprouse confused with cole escola, a/k/a matthew from Difficult People, and I was trying to figure out how on earth they'd think he'd be a good jughead
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 9:35 PM on July 27, 2016
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 9:35 PM on July 27, 2016
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posted by infinitewindow at 9:53 PM on July 26, 2016 [3 favorites]