How 'Riverdale' Is Revamping the Teen Drama For A Modern Audience
Nora Dominick ‘17/ Emertainment Monthly Executive Stage Editor
Spoilers ahead!
Now eight episodes into its first season, Riverdale has become a fan-favorite addition to the CW’s spring TV lineup. Riverdale is combining the best qualities of successful CW and WB teen shows to create a thought provoking show with interesting character dynamics and storylines. While keeping to the original source material of the Archie Comics, Riverdale is revamping the teen drama that made the network successful.
For a long time, The CW/WB was known for its teen soap operas. From Dawson’s Creek to One Tree Hill to Gossip Girl, the network thrived on showing teens and young adults at their best moments, but also their worst. Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer had some of its best episodes when the Scooby Gang was going through typical young adult problems, while of course battling demons. For years, The CW was the channel all teenagers flipped to, to watch their favorite dramas.
Since Arrow debuted on the network in 2012, The CW has undergone a massive rebranding. The network now has a heavy focus on the sci-fi/superhero genre with their hit TV shows like The Flash, Supergirl and The 100. Even their other TV shows such as Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend put a fresh and innovative spin on the dramas that once frequented the network’s airwaves. For a while, we thought the teen dramas of the early 2000’s may have been lost forever. Then Riverdale swooped in and proved the teen soap opera is not only still relevant, but can be updated for a new and interested audience.
Based on the popular Archie Comics, Riverdale follows Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Cheryl and other comic book favorites in the town of Riverdale. The catch this time around? Not everything is quite as it seems in the picturesque town. The show begins with the vicious murder of Cheryl’s twin brother, Jason Blossom. With a film noir feel, Jughead narrates as the town tries to find the killer. For anyone expecting the wholesome Archie and the gang from the comics, they’re in for a big surprise. There’s murder, teen pregnancy, affairs, and enough high school drama to remind you they’re still just kids. Riverdale uses the Archie Comics as a jumping off point, but creates a unique spin that has viewers tuning in week after week.
From episode one, Betty and Veronica prove to be great friends as opposed to adversaries. Even when Veronica spends “seven minutes in heaven” with Archie, her first priority is to win back Betty’s trust. Throughout the first eight episodes, Veronica and Betty appear to have a stronger relationship than Betty and Archie do. Riverdale does this character building the perfect way. Establishing Betty and Veronica as true friends will open up conflicts and superior friendship moments as the seasons progress. While there inevitably will be a falling out between Veronica and Betty (there’s some teen soap qualities you just can’t alter), seeing them not fighting over a guy right off the bat is perfect. We aren’t backed right into the love triangle corner.
On the flip side, we’ve got Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), the rising queen of Riverdale High School. A character that could’ve totally been the antagonist to Betty, Riverdale allows Veronica to have her vulnerable and cold as ice moments. Mendes balances these moments like a class act. With each passing episode, it’s up in the air which Veronica we’ll be seeing. Like the iconic characters of Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) that came before her, Veronica is the complex female character every teen drama needs. Like Blair, Veronica will soon rule Riverdale, controlling everyone with one hand motion. Then like Brooke, she’s tough when needed, but also knows the value of a good cry. Mendes is perfect to take on this role. A role that is essential for any hit CW teen drama.
Even Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), the resident antagonist on Riverdale, is poised to have an incredible character arc. Instead of simply having the bitchy female foil for our leading females, Cheryl rides a fine line between bad and good. In one breathe, she’s yelling at the cheerleading squad and in the other she’s crying into Veronica’s shoulder. Petsch is tailor made for this role and it’s hard to determine whether we should love or hate Cheryl. Her intentions are good, it’s just her execution that could use some work. Reminiscent of the early days of Lydia (Holland Roden) on Teen Wolf, Cheryl will surely become a confidant for the others. Like with Veronica, Riverdale notices that no character can be black and white. They need to have qualities people will gravitate towards.
Riverdale’s film noir take on Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) gives the show the extra edge it needs to stand out from previous teen soap dramas. The character of Jughead, even pulling from the various comic iterations of the character, will allow Riverdale to do some amazing things. While Jughead maybe starting a relationship with Betty, his sexuality is often a discussed topic among Archie comic book fans. A discussion that Riverdale will hopefully bring to the table as the show progresses. Jughead maybe the loner character, but he’ll inevitably allow the show to stand out amongst a sea of other teen dramas.
While Riverdale’s character development has already allowed modern audiences to fall in love with the teen drama genre again, it’s also the stories that have us ranking it among the best. This show recognizes their audience is smart. They’re going to figure out clues and they want smart characters. Often on teen dramas, audiences have to suspend disbelief, especially when it comes to storylines where teens are pitted against adult characters.
While fewer and fewer teen dramas frequent network television, Riverdale swoops in to capitalize on some of the character formulas that made shows like One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl so popular, while undoing certain storyline tropes. In a landscape filled with superhero TV, especially on The CW, Riverdale creates a refreshing teen film noir-like drama that has audiences hooked. With incredible young talent, intriguing storylines and formidable characters, Riverdale is poised to live among some of the best teen dramas we still discuss.