Riverdale: yay or nay
Jan. 27th, 2017 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI'm going to go sleep very, very soon (I didn't sleep well yesterday and unlike last night, I do not have the backup option to just go home if I don't feel well. Not that I did go home, but I could have) but first let's take a moment to discuss Riverdale.
I went in pretty on the fence with a toe on the "this is going to be so bad" side of things. Annnnnnnd... apparently I have not fully outgrown my love of trashy teen TV just yet. I'd say if it looked interesting at all to you to give it a whirl. It could still really go either way at this point, but I'm thinking the good has a chance to outweigh the bad.
Spoilers may abound. Duh.
First up, I thought I'd be more interested in the ~mystery~ of the show: what happened to Jason? I... don't really care at this point in time. This is definitely weird for me since I really thought this was going to be what sucked me in and kept me held hostage. And it might as the season goes on, but right now it's pretty far down on my interested list. Possibly because we're going to run into our first bad thing.
Cheryl. Look. I know comic!Cheryl is painfully over the top at times, but when done right she is fantastic. Nothing that makes Cheryl an interesting character is present so far. She is the stereotypical mean girl who talks in hashtags and is so over the top in her bitchiness and weirdness that I don't buy it for a second. She is the sort of popular girl who would never actually be popular or even exist as is in reality. Which can work if your show acknowledges this, but Riverdale doesn't. Cheryl and Jason are pretty much set up as having fallen straight out of a bad VC Andrews novel (I mean really) and that alone would get you ostracized from just about everywhere because twins are allowed to be close but there is a line, people. There is a line. And without a word at all spoken between the two, the line is broken within seconds of the show starting.
Annnnnnnnd before you argue that maybe their closeness was just behind closed doors (or out on a lake at the asscrack of dawn), Cheryl has the Pussycats play the song the twins were allegedly conceived to. Like... the line, guys. It's presented as crossed and no one in school is like "ummmmmm...no, no you don't get to be our queen, k."
That's a lot of coverage of the Blossom twins. But when Cheryl is set up as the villain (and Jason as well), well... I do like that the show has chosen to have Cheryl be the most colorful character (her signature red glows when she appears since the rest of the show is so moody) but they're going to have to dial her way back to make things work with her.
Might as well continue the bad. Any universe that has Archie and Ms. Grundy having sex. I was going to add "in the back of a car" but really, having sex at all is just no. It's just as cringe worthy as I feared it would be and I could have lived the rest of my life quite happily without it ever being a plot point. Ever.
Betty/Veronica kissing. There was no reason for it to happen, even in the context of the show. Like Cheryl yawns and tells Veronica she's like twenty years too late for that to be shocking and it didn't even get Veronica what she wanted. If the show hadn't commented that B/V was not going to happen, I'd be less vocal about it because it's at least a step towards that but it's not. It's just "look, the trailer needs a thing and this will be that thing even though we all know it's just bait."
I'm not really sure how I feel about Jughead, but he's also not really in the episode as much as you'd expect, but he is narrating it. I think it could work, but the voice overs need some work.
Also not really sure how I feel about the parents and how they're portrayed although Fred Andrews is the best by far, but the bar is pretty low so... but still. His dynamic with Archie is surprisingly good. Also, I feel old that Luke Perry is the dad but not as old as I suspect some will feel. :p
Betty's mom is the worst, although I suspect the Blossoms must also be pretty bad. Clearly Mr. Lodge is guilty as sin but I think I'd have rather the show stay true to Veronica and her dad being the pair you see most instead of us getting her mom so that she can flirt with Archie's dad and we can have the Lodges being poor like Cheryl was in the comics, sorta anyway. It works, it's just rather see the father/daughter dynamic. It could still happen though so I'll bide my time.
My favorite thing is the Betty/Veronica friendship. The emerging triangle of doom is definitely a thing, but Veronica actively looking out for Betty is a bright spot in the show. I cannot even really put into words how happy it makes me, but it does.
I'm not as sold on Veronica as is, but I'm hoping this is a case of the pilot trying too hard and that Veronica will sound less like what an adult thinks a HS sophomore sounds like these days and will just be... Veronica soon. Her Archiekins worked even when it shouldn't, her takedown of Cheryl worked, and her attempts to be a better person are interesting. Hell, even her flirting with Archie is interesting, so it's really a case of bad dialog. Unfortunately, she and Cheryl get the worst of it.
Betty, on the flipside, is better than I dared to hope she might be. From what little I'd seen/heard, I had the bar set pretty low but tv!Betty works fairly well. I could do without the family drama, but also I accept this is the price we pay for the type of show and the network.
And the scene toward the end of the dance/party with Archie letting Betty down was him saying everything I've ever thought about Archie and his shot with Betty and it still made me want to shake the character and tell him she doesn't want him to be better than he is, she wants him just the way he is, dammit.
So... there's that.
I suspect that TV!Archie and comics!Archie will be similar in that they are interesting to me based on who Archie is interacting with. Comic!Archie works well with Reggie, but Reggie here is flat and bland and I'm assuming will be more interesting as time goes on. If not, Reggie should sue. (I mean, he's pretty, but good lord is he even more 2D than his comic counterpart.) Tv!Archie works well with Jughead (I want to know what happened), Betty (I like the idea of them as friends, I want to see more of that, dammit) Veronica (duh), and his dad. I don't see Tv!Archie and Cheryl being a thing or interesting annnnnnnnd I'm going to gag each time there's a flashback to the Grundy/Archie tryst.
Kevin is pretty much the stereotype I thought the comics tried to keep him from being, but he is entertaining and his scenes with everyone were highlights, even if again, the dialog was cringe worthy at times. Kevin and Veronica encouraging Betty to tell Archie how she felt was cutely amusing.
Overall, I really wish this was something on Netflix so I could binge watch.
I went in pretty on the fence with a toe on the "this is going to be so bad" side of things. Annnnnnnd... apparently I have not fully outgrown my love of trashy teen TV just yet. I'd say if it looked interesting at all to you to give it a whirl. It could still really go either way at this point, but I'm thinking the good has a chance to outweigh the bad.
Spoilers may abound. Duh.
First up, I thought I'd be more interested in the ~mystery~ of the show: what happened to Jason? I... don't really care at this point in time. This is definitely weird for me since I really thought this was going to be what sucked me in and kept me held hostage. And it might as the season goes on, but right now it's pretty far down on my interested list. Possibly because we're going to run into our first bad thing.
Cheryl. Look. I know comic!Cheryl is painfully over the top at times, but when done right she is fantastic. Nothing that makes Cheryl an interesting character is present so far. She is the stereotypical mean girl who talks in hashtags and is so over the top in her bitchiness and weirdness that I don't buy it for a second. She is the sort of popular girl who would never actually be popular or even exist as is in reality. Which can work if your show acknowledges this, but Riverdale doesn't. Cheryl and Jason are pretty much set up as having fallen straight out of a bad VC Andrews novel (I mean really) and that alone would get you ostracized from just about everywhere because twins are allowed to be close but there is a line, people. There is a line. And without a word at all spoken between the two, the line is broken within seconds of the show starting.
Annnnnnnnd before you argue that maybe their closeness was just behind closed doors (or out on a lake at the asscrack of dawn), Cheryl has the Pussycats play the song the twins were allegedly conceived to. Like... the line, guys. It's presented as crossed and no one in school is like "ummmmmm...no, no you don't get to be our queen, k."
That's a lot of coverage of the Blossom twins. But when Cheryl is set up as the villain (and Jason as well), well... I do like that the show has chosen to have Cheryl be the most colorful character (her signature red glows when she appears since the rest of the show is so moody) but they're going to have to dial her way back to make things work with her.
Might as well continue the bad. Any universe that has Archie and Ms. Grundy having sex. I was going to add "in the back of a car" but really, having sex at all is just no. It's just as cringe worthy as I feared it would be and I could have lived the rest of my life quite happily without it ever being a plot point. Ever.
Betty/Veronica kissing. There was no reason for it to happen, even in the context of the show. Like Cheryl yawns and tells Veronica she's like twenty years too late for that to be shocking and it didn't even get Veronica what she wanted. If the show hadn't commented that B/V was not going to happen, I'd be less vocal about it because it's at least a step towards that but it's not. It's just "look, the trailer needs a thing and this will be that thing even though we all know it's just bait."
I'm not really sure how I feel about Jughead, but he's also not really in the episode as much as you'd expect, but he is narrating it. I think it could work, but the voice overs need some work.
Also not really sure how I feel about the parents and how they're portrayed although Fred Andrews is the best by far, but the bar is pretty low so... but still. His dynamic with Archie is surprisingly good. Also, I feel old that Luke Perry is the dad but not as old as I suspect some will feel. :p
Betty's mom is the worst, although I suspect the Blossoms must also be pretty bad. Clearly Mr. Lodge is guilty as sin but I think I'd have rather the show stay true to Veronica and her dad being the pair you see most instead of us getting her mom so that she can flirt with Archie's dad and we can have the Lodges being poor like Cheryl was in the comics, sorta anyway. It works, it's just rather see the father/daughter dynamic. It could still happen though so I'll bide my time.
My favorite thing is the Betty/Veronica friendship. The emerging triangle of doom is definitely a thing, but Veronica actively looking out for Betty is a bright spot in the show. I cannot even really put into words how happy it makes me, but it does.
I'm not as sold on Veronica as is, but I'm hoping this is a case of the pilot trying too hard and that Veronica will sound less like what an adult thinks a HS sophomore sounds like these days and will just be... Veronica soon. Her Archiekins worked even when it shouldn't, her takedown of Cheryl worked, and her attempts to be a better person are interesting. Hell, even her flirting with Archie is interesting, so it's really a case of bad dialog. Unfortunately, she and Cheryl get the worst of it.
Betty, on the flipside, is better than I dared to hope she might be. From what little I'd seen/heard, I had the bar set pretty low but tv!Betty works fairly well. I could do without the family drama, but also I accept this is the price we pay for the type of show and the network.
And the scene toward the end of the dance/party with Archie letting Betty down was him saying everything I've ever thought about Archie and his shot with Betty and it still made me want to shake the character and tell him she doesn't want him to be better than he is, she wants him just the way he is, dammit.
So... there's that.
I suspect that TV!Archie and comics!Archie will be similar in that they are interesting to me based on who Archie is interacting with. Comic!Archie works well with Reggie, but Reggie here is flat and bland and I'm assuming will be more interesting as time goes on. If not, Reggie should sue. (I mean, he's pretty, but good lord is he even more 2D than his comic counterpart.) Tv!Archie works well with Jughead (I want to know what happened), Betty (I like the idea of them as friends, I want to see more of that, dammit) Veronica (duh), and his dad. I don't see Tv!Archie and Cheryl being a thing or interesting annnnnnnnd I'm going to gag each time there's a flashback to the Grundy/Archie tryst.
Kevin is pretty much the stereotype I thought the comics tried to keep him from being, but he is entertaining and his scenes with everyone were highlights, even if again, the dialog was cringe worthy at times. Kevin and Veronica encouraging Betty to tell Archie how she felt was cutely amusing.
Overall, I really wish this was something on Netflix so I could binge watch.
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Date: 2017-01-28 05:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-01-28 12:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-01 07:52 pm (UTC)