Review: "Riverdale" Falls Flat

LIKHITA MANCHIKANTI|MARCH 8, 2018|REVIEW

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) —  Every Sunday when I was younger, my family and I would make our weekly trips to our local Publix to pick up groceries for the upcoming week. If my parents were in a good mood, they would let my sister and I pick up the latest “Archie Comics” issue we had been dying to get our hands on. We loved these comics because they provided us with a preview of high school that we trusted, even though in hindsight they weren’t as accurate as we thought. But when compared to the absurd new television show, “Riverdale,” that is loosely based on the “Archie Comics” series, these books were far closer to the truth.

I enjoy melodramatic high school dramas as much as many of my peers, but I cannot say the same for “Riverdale.” Whenever I vainly attempt to sit through an episode, I can’t get over how much effort is put into creating such exaggerated content with such talentless actors, plot devices and story arcs. Is Jughead’s (played by Cole Sprouse) default emotion despair? When will someone put him out of his misery? Also, what is the point of adding diversity to the show by casting Josie and the Pussycats with black actresses if their characters aren’t made more relevant to the main plot? In addition to this, how am I supposed to believe that the innocent and gentle Betty Cooper has a “dark side” if the actress who plays her (Lili Reinhart) only has one facial expression?

Characters aside, “Riverdale” is, as many before me have pointed out, almost too similar to “Twin Peaks.” However, the creators of “Riverdale” claimed to be paying homage to the show’s director, David Lynch. Regardless of how similar the two shows may be, I cannot comprehend why the producers of “Riverdale” thought casting Mädchen Amick, who played Shelly Johnson in “Twin Peaks,” was a good idea. This casting decision only makes the shows seem more alike, which inevitably leads to “Riverdale” appearing as an imitation of its TV parent.

“Whenever I vainly attempt to sit through an episode, I can’t get over how much effort is put into creating such exaggerated content with such talentless actors, plot devices and story arcs.”

My biggest problem with this show is the lack of creativity behind it—is the TV industry so bereft of new ideas that they have no choice but to produce remake after remake? I am tired of watching TV shows that are nearly identical to each other; because of this, “Riverdale” is a series that I dislike by definition. Some may claim that the only aspect of the “Archie Comics” that is transferred to its television adaptation is the characters and the name of their town. But why build up so much excitement around the fact that the series is based on the widely-beloved “Archie Comics” if the show is almost nothing like the source material?

Although I can’t deny that all of this melodrama makes for good television, I still have such a great aversion to this show. “Riverdale” is definitely an entertaining show to watch, but at what cost? Will all teen dramas created post-”Riverdale” be as unoriginal and diluted of substance, serving only as sources of sensational content? I can only hope that upcoming TV shows are better able to effectively capture the high school experience in a way that makes as much sense to me as the “Archie Comics” did to me as a kid.