Recently, Netflix released a new show in partnership with The CW (or that's what I'm calling it anyways, since it's shown on both places) called Riverdale, which is a modern day adaptation of the classic Archie Comics that everyone read as a kid.
This time, though, there's a twist.
This version of Archie and co. is darker, way darker than the comics ever were (to my knowledge, anyways, which is limited). In this version, the main storyline (supposedly) is the suspicious and mysterious murder of a character named Jason Blossom. Jason is only shown alive for about the first minute of the first episode, and the next scene is a local Cub Scout leader named Dilton Doiley finding his twin sister Cheryl sitting soaking wet on a waterfall.
The story, according to Cheryl, is that she and Jason decided to go for a nice canoe ride (dressed in all white, a stark contrast to their fiery red hair and pale skin) when one of her lace gloves fell in the water. He reached in to get it for her, the boat tipped with his weight, and they both got washed away by the current. Clearly, she managed to pull herself out while he continued to be pulled down the river. Originally, his murder is treated as a missing persons case, as they don't know he's dead and begin their case by combing the water for him. Later in the episode, two characters named Kevin Keller and Moose Mason, out on a romantic encounter by the river in the woods (Kevin's gay and Moose is closeted/not admitting to himself that he's gay/bisexual/not wholly straight) find Jason's waterlogged and freezing body washed up on the shore. They call Kevin's dad, who happens to be the Sheriff, and the case is now being treated as a homicide.
You find out later, after the case is changed to a homicide, that Cheryl was actually helping Jason to stage his death and that he was supposed to have drowned and washed away forever because he wanted out of Riverdale and didn't want his parents to ever come after him. He apparently told Cheryl that he would get settled and contact her in a month, and that never happened, obviously, considering that now he's actually dead. The thing is, the autopsy showed that he was shot in the head about a week after he "drowned", so they're not really sure what happened in that week. He clearly never left the woods, since he washed up in the same river he "drowned" in, but no one actually knows what he was doing in that week. Was he kidnapped? Tortured? That's what they have to figure out, and that's the main storyline driving the show. It's also all we know about that storyline, since the two more recent episodes have been basically devoid of any reference or information about Jason Blossom's murder.
Considering this is the maybe the first homicide to happen ever in this tiny town, everyone gets suspicious of who could have committed the crime and why they would have done such a thing. The media has a field day. Alice and Hal Cooper are the editors of the local paper and have a wonderful time digging up information on this very secretive case (this is mostly Alice, including her bribing the ME for the results of Jason's autopsy and then publishing them in the paper, much to Mrs. Blossom's anger - she punches Alice in a later episode). You find out later that Jason and the Coopers' eldest daughter, Polly, were involved in some kind of crazy whirlwind romance that landed Polly in a mental hospital after she suffered a mental breakdown, apparently due to Jason. That would be the reason that Alice is having such a fun time exposing Jason's murder all around town.
Alice and Hal's other daughter, Betty, as well as Archie, Jughead Jones and Veronica Lodge, who moved to town with her mother after her father was arrested for fraud and embezzlement (or some other white collar crimes), are the main four characters of this show. Archie has some kind of weird... romantic relationship (???) with Geraldine Grundy, who is a very young lady on this show, but not that young. She's the high school's music teacher, and she and Archie had their.. thing over the summer, and much to Archie's dismay, she tries to discontinue it when school begins. Much to her dismay, however, Archie actually really likes her and wants to continue whatever it is that they had/have.
All of the core four characters have some kind of personal issue they're dealing with in addition to trying to figure out what the f*ck happened to this town after Jason was murdered. Betty is suffering under her mother being crazy overprotective of her after the situation with Polly and trying desperately to not repeat it with her other daughter. Veronica's suffering under the "she's the new kid AND the rich kid" issues. Jughead's writing a story about the Jason Blossom incident and all its aftermath, and is generally a loner around school. The football players (who are stupid and I will get to that later) are perpetually making fun of him, but he's Archie's best friend (they start the season arguing but fix their issues pretty quickly) and Betty and Veronica are pretty fond of him too.
Basically, the town is messed up. Cheryl's queen b*tch, the mayor is corrupt, Veronica's mom is continuing to commit the crimes that landed her father in prison, Jughead's dad is part of (and may be the leader of) the local gang, and Ms. Grundy, who seems very innocent, is actually very creepy and manipulative and potentially a criminal based on consent laws and such.
There have been a lot of thoughts about this show circulating on the Internet. In the first episode, Betty and Veronica audition for the Vixens, the school's cheerleading team, led by the lovely Cheryl Blossom. Cheryl is less than impressed with their audition, and so Veronica kisses Betty in order to up the shock factor. This doesn't impress Cheryl either, but they end up both making the team anyways because Cheryl wants Veronica on the team, but not Betty, and Veronica goes on this slightly scary rant about how she and Betty are a package deal. Lo and behold, they're both on the team. Many people have been talking about the presence of queerbaiting on the show. Queerbaiting is "a term used to describe the perceived attempt by canon creators (typically of television shows) to woo queer fans and/or slash fans, but with no intention of actually showing a gay relationship being consummated on screen", and can be done in one of two ways (or maybe both): "introducing a character whose sexuality, early on, seems to be coded as something other than 100% heterosexual, or by indicating - be it ever so slightly - that two same sex characters might possibly be attracted to each other" (fanlore.com). Basically, they showed Betty and Veronica kissing, and then a whole lot of other interactions between the two of them that indicate that they may have some romantic chemistry between them that goes beyond their current platonic friendship. Both of the actresses that play Betty and Veronica have come out in interviews (one of which you can read here, but I've seen others) and said that the relationship between them on the show would stay platonic and that there were currently no plans (if any ever come to fruition) to have their relationship advance any further than it is right now.
Hence, the queerbaiting accusations. Getting people who sexually identify as something other than straight to watch the show because of this relationship between these two characters that could be something more, but isn't, and yet still seems to be fueled by a lot of tension between the two of them. I definitely see why this is a valid criticism, and I agree with it. It's really not fair for the showrunners to (intentionally or not) have this relationship between the characters and still make it seem as though there's nothing there, when there clearly is, and they just don't want to pursue it for whatever reason.
There's also been a lot of discourse surrounding the whole Ms. Grundy situation and her relationship with Archie. My stance on it is very simple: it needs to go away. If you're caught up, you'll know that in the most recent episode, Alice finds out about their relationship through Betty (there's a whole story about why she told her mom) and then a huge and unnecessarily dramatic confrontation ensues involving Alice, Betty, Archie, Ms. Grundy and Fred, Archie's dad. Grundy basically agrees to quit her job and leave town forever and never come back (she's probably coming back tbh) if Alice doesn't publish the story in the paper she runs, apparently for the sole purpose of smearing everyone's name in this town that messes with her or her family. Betty also tells her mother that she'll tell everyone she broke into Grundy's car and went through her stuff and did all these horrible things, and then people will think she's "crazy" like Polly is, which will ruin Alice's reputation. So, she doesn't run the story, and Grundy leaves (for now).
Basically, the relationship is illegal. Apparently, they're all sophomores in high school, which makes them about 15 years old, and the age of consent in the US is 16-18 depending on which state you live in, so either way, it's fundamentally illegal, and makes Grundy a criminal considering that this means Archie cannot legally consent to any activities that they partook in, regardless of whether he was consenting or not (and boy do I hope he was). She's also manipulative, and manages to manipulate Archie into keeping the fact that they heard a gunshot on the morning of Jason's supposed murder a secret because they were together at the time that they heard it (it was 6 AM on July 4th), even though Archie really feels like it would be the right thing to do to tell Sheriff Keller and Principal Weatherbee what he heard. Eventually he does, and leaves her out of the story, but she still gets annoyed.
It felt like the one thing that everyone agreed on about this show was that their relationship was gross, Grundy was manipulative and creepy (she's been shown ogling other teenage boys around Archie's age) and she needed to leave/be arrested/both. Now she's left, which basically solves this issue, but seeing as Grundy is an old woman in the comics, I don't really understand why this was an element that was included in the show??? It was incredibly unnecessary and weird, and did not achieve the "forbidden romance" vibe I'm assuming they were going for. It was creepy.
Those are the two main issues that people have with the show and reasons that they cite of why they won't watch it when people are asking/talking about it. I do watch this show, despite these two issues, and I think it's a good show overall. The acting is pretty good (Luke Perry and Madchen Amick play Fred Andrews and Alice Cooper, respectively, and they're basically legends), the dialogue is pretty good, and the relationships that the characters have with each other are fun to watch. It's a fun show to watch, in my opinion, and I like watching it.
Overall, I think it's a good show, and has the potential to go places. Maybe in future they'll actually address the queerbaiting aspect, as that's a major issue a lot of people have with the show, and then it'll be better for it. Hopefully.
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