After much anticipation, Riverdale, the supposed lovechild of Gossip Girl and Twin Peaks has arrived. The pilot premiered on the 26th of January and has lived up to its hype with 1.38 million views already. After just one episode, viewers can tell the show is a refreshing progression from the original Archie Comics it was derived from. Here’s a summary of why you need to tune in if you haven’t already:
- No more women pinned against each other! The original storyline focused on the love triangle between Betty, Veronica and Archie. Now, that’s been pushed aside and the audience is seeing the blossoming strong friendship between the two girls. Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper) recognised the importance of this shift as an adaptation to the modern audience: “Our show does not focus on the rivalry and on the love triangle. These girls have other things going on in their lives besides Archie. There’s definitely a friendship there, and the friendship is strong at the end of the day. They aren’t frenemies, they aren’t rivals; they’re best friends, and they do truly care for each other.” How good is it to see two young women in an American high school situation not being catty towards each other over a boy? Ah, the sweet smell of progression!
- All characters already appear strong and complex. Nothing makes a series more entertaining than wanting to know more about each character from the first episode. Archie, Veronica, Betty, Jughead and Cheryl each possess their own unique traits and quirks as well as refreshingly non-cliche yet relatable issues as teenagers (think unrequited crushes, controlling friendships, decisions for the future). Betty Cooper in particular is a far cry from the once two dimensional “girl next door” who’s existence was based on being the love interest of Archie Andrews. Of course there’s more to discover, but I’ll leave that up to you.
- Cole Sprouse is starring too, meaning a return of a childhood favourite and an important fight for representation. Cole Sprouse is sticking around on our screens for a while as the series continues to air on Netflix, and frankly it’s been too long. But even better, Sprouse is aiming to represent asexuality through his character Jughead Jones. It was revealed in the comics that the character was asexual (not sexually attracted to people of any gender). However, Sprouse told Hollywood Life that Jughead will have “romances with women…and burgers” but he will keep “fighting for this pretty heavily”. He also added, “Asexuality is not one of those things in my research that is so understood at face value, and I think maybe the development of that narrative could also be something very interesting and very unique and still resonate with people, and not step on anyone’s toes. I think sexuality, especially, is one of those fluid things where often times we find who we are through certain things that happen in our lives.” Hopefully this means we’ll see more diversity in an already successful series.
So picture all this, and add a murder mystery… enough said. A new episode of the series is available every week on Netflix internationally. Do yourself a favour and check it out.
