{"id":766,"date":"2016-03-09T05:09:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=766"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:53:48","slug":"riverdale-archie-comics-cw-usa-betty-veronica-jughead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=766","title":{"rendered":"Riverdale: Where Happy Childhoods Go To Die"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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o you remember that scene in Archie\u2018s Pals \u2018n\u2019 Gals<\/em> in which Betty Cooper calls Veronica Lodge a \u201cshallow, toxic rich bitch who ruins everything in her path\u201d? Or that issue in which Jughead ditches his crown for a beanie and his constant hunger for a MacBook? The reason you have no idea what I\u2019m talking about, is because you haven\u2019t seen what the creative director of Archie Comics, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, has done to ruin our childhoods and make a \u201cgritty reboot\u201d of our beloved American love triangle comic book, called Riverdale<\/em>, after he seemingly binge-watched the entire Pretty Little Liars <\/em>series.\n\nThere can be no other explanation for why our beloved, harmless, and overall good-guy characters are entangled in a teenage murder mystery loaded with over-the-top fake intrigue. Featuring Archie Andrews as a struggling musician jock boy, Betty Cooper as a passive-aggressive bitch, and Jughead Jones as a serious hipster who doesn\u2019t flit anywhere near a burger, the new Riverdale<\/em> is now the place where happy childhoods go to die. Why else would they have the spindly, long-nosed Miss Grundy have sex with Archie, and raise some really awkward questions on statutory rape?\n\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m all about updated storylines. I understand that in a brave new world Veronica and Betty can have phases of bisexuality, where they casually make out as friends, so that they can get into a cheerleading team, and that Moose can be gay (poor Midge!), but what I absolutely do not get is the blatant millennial baiting that perpetuates in the name of an update. Only three episodes of the show are out so far, but it\u2019s clear already that the script is all about inane millennial tropes, considering the parents of most of the main characters are in some sort of an unhappy marriage.\n\nMoreover, Mr Lodge is embezzling money; Archie\u2019s dad doesn\u2019t support his music career and wants him to work on his construction site instead. I don\u2019t recall a single story from the Archie Comics<\/em> ever entering real-world zones like construction sites or oil rigs. Or for that matter, bodies casually lying by the side of a river.\n\n\"riverdale-poster\"\n

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Veronica, Betty, and Archie seated in a diner inspired from the original comics.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: The CW<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nThe real world is manifest in this interpretation of life in Riverdale<\/em>, keeping in line with the ever-growing trend of taking a massively popular franchise and converting it into a \u201cnoir film\u201d, \u201cmore reflective of our time\u201d with words like \u201cpurposeful\u201d and \u201cresolve\u201d sprinkled in the description. Christopher Nolan started this trend by making a story about a billionaire superhero, who runs around dressed up as bat, into an \u201canthropologically nuanced\u201d thriller. Then Netflix upped the ante by turning Jessica Jones and Luke Cage into urban poor superheroes, who grapple with existential angst over Starbucks coffee. And then we got Jughead. Instead of being Archie\u2019s best friend, who throws in smile-worthy one-liners, he is a loner, hiding a massive secret and nursing a grudge against his former buddy.\n\nWhy do they have to do this? Why? If scriptwriters are attached to this absurd dramatic storyline, why not come up with an entirely new series, with whole new characters? It\u2019s about time people stopped trying to ruin childhoods<\/a> with this cashing-in-on-nostalgia tactic. When they made Iron Man a teenage black girl<\/a>, it sparked a whole debate about the need for diversity, and people went head over heels with this aww-worthy gesture toward the African-American community. But I\u2019d argue that this would have more impact on diversity, if they\u2019d simply scripted a separate teenage black girl superhero storyline, rather than giving her a role previously occupied by a rich white man.\n\n