The hit show Riverdale has shown a big change from it’s original silly and light hearted comic, to it’s upbeat and groovy Saturday morning cartoon, before it’s final hit as a riveting, bone chilling murder mystery. Starring KJ Apa as Archie Andrews, he and a slightly typical rag-tag group of friends search through the small town of Riverdale to investigate Jason Blossom’s (Trevor Stines) murder in season one. Season two is set to be released on October 11, and is expected to be just as good as the first.
Beginning 75 years ago, Archie comics was a comic industry that sold stories of Archie and his friends trying to make it through high school. Riverdale is a hollow shell of what the comics were. The comic books provided characters along with their emotional traits, but the dark, demented focus of a high school murder was purely credited to the creator of the new storyline, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
This CW (Columbia Broadcasting System and Warner Brothers) show hit the teenage world with a bang, more specifically after the release of the first season on Netflix in May. Capturing the attention of young girls everywhere through eye-candy such as Apa and Cole Sprouse as “Jughead” Jones, the show follows the individual twisted lives of each character as they attempt to balance high school football games and a murder investigation.
The show, however, does not start off with the largest bang; it is one that takes time to invest in. However past the first episode, the story picks up tremendously, as the star football player, Jason Blossom’s, body is found in the river with a bullet hole through his forehead – a twist after he was believed to have drowned.
While the entire story has a twisted Scooby Doo vibe, the 13 episode season follows the individual lives of every character that portray relatable issues for all viewers. Rather the issues are directly relatable or they have a television drama twist, lessons vary from being a football player crossed musician or dealing with overbearing parents. Girl-next-door Betty Cooper (Lil Reinhart) has expectations pushed onto her to be an academically excelling cheerleader. New-girl Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) has to handle a family reputation as well as her father being in jail. Misunderstood journalist Jughead Jones attempts to lead a normal life with no solid home and a gang member father. Each smaller storyline builds onto another, all leading back to the death of the star football player Jason Blossom.
According to The Verge News, the original age intention for this show was 18 to 34, but due to its relatability for younger teens, it has strayed far younger. Unlike cheesey shows about high school where everyone ends up holding hands and singing Kumbaya, there are real life issues that can’t or won’t be solved. The largest connector in this show of all issues is the very typical small town vibe – everyone knows everyone’s business.
Jason’s twin, Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), plays a tormentor type character, stirring up issues and starting fires – literally. The most attaching part of this show is the love-hate relationship you have with every single character and the overwhelming sympathy felt for characters who may not deserve it.
As said in a panel at Comic-Convention (Comic Con) this past July, more characters are planned to be seen in their darkest moments in the upcoming second season, shifting the building blocks laid for character development in the first season. While the first season follows the death of Jason, the second season is a continuation of a possible murder case left on a cliffhanger at the end of season one to captivate viewers for the months between seasons.
