Riverdale 1.01 Chapter One: The River's Edge

Riverdale 1.01 Chapter One: The River's Edge
My childhood/pre-teen comic book is coming to life at last! My dad would always bring home Archie comics home for me and my sisters if he was ever able to. It was always a fun preppy storyline, so I am glad that the CW decided to pick up on it. That being said, they also added a neat twist to it. I think the network has always had the theme of spooky TV shows, so it seems fitting to have the same follow through with Riverdale.

First off, Veronica Lodge gets to come to town sans Mr. Lodge. It's good they harped on the whole father embezzlement topic. This way, her mom gets to settle back into Riverdale normally. I thought they would make Veronica a poor little rich girl, but it seems like she wants to turn a new leaf in this town. It's nice to see a reinvention of a character.

Betty looks like she has a tough character to carry out. She's suffering under difficult circumstances with her older sister put away in institution and a vengeful mother. I feel the parents are playing more prominent roles in this town, but Mrs. Cooper seems like a dominant one.

Jughead is narrating the town like Gossip Girl! I love this, I hope he gets more character development. I'm sad to see he doesn't have the relationship with Archie as he does in the comics. I wonder if it's because they appear to be in different social groups that they're behaving awkwardly around each other. It's like the opposite of the female friendship structure Betty and Veronica have.

Cheryl Blossom is NUTS. She's the mean girl who has to dominate and bully everybody in sight. I think she totally has something to do with Jason's death. If she was the last person seen with her brother by Sweetwater River, everything points to her.

Josie and the Pussycats are made to be diva-like, but I'm glad they have singing voices. It goes better with the persona and how they want to be up and coming musicians from a small town. Reggie Mantle is asian (I don't know if the ginseng blurb was necessary) and Moose is uncomfortable about his sexuality. I like that they added in Kevin Keller as the fun gay friend. I don't recall him from the actual comic books growing up, but he seems to be a fun one. He must have came along once I stopped reading. My mistake, he was a character in 2010 and moving forward. He's a nice friend Betty can lean on when Archie isn't be around.

Now for Archie Andrews! It looks like he gets to have the music passionate, all-star athlete, popular boy character. At first glance, he's the guy who gets along with everybody and doesn't have much to complain about. I don't know how I feel about Miss Grundy preying on young Archie. I mean, it's interesting the writers set up this story, but SHAME ON HER! It's such a scandal already and I can tell she's manipulating Archie to have her way. I don't like the teacher predator story. We see it every show with a school setting from Pretty Little Liars and I'll even date back to my Dawson's Creek days. They even casted a pretty young looking female actor to play the role correctly, but I can't fully get behind this story. I hope Archie wakes up with this.

Going back to additional characters, I saw we got a sneak peak of Dilton and Coach Clayton. I want to know if Chuck Clayton will appear, or even Midge for that matter (since Moose is going in the direction of pairing up with Kevin). I'm having expectations now for this show since it's something I grew up with and the familiar storylines we know have been modified and modernized to fit the interests of today's youth.