By Ty Willis
The Mirror Staff
“If it was exactly like the comics, if Archie was the same Archie from the comics, it wouldn’t appeal to a lot of people, but because we’re a lot edgier and that subversiveness and that darkness to each of the characters, it’s a lot more appealing and a lot more attractive to more people.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Archie’s World Turned Upside-Down
March 9, 2017
ENTERTAINMENT: The iconic comic series undergoes huge changes as it debuts on the CW.
The Archie world has been flipped upside-down.
The iconic comic series from the 1940’s has been revived on the small screen, but with a modern twist.
Now called “Riverdale,” the show brings back some of the original characters from the Archie comics such as Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), Jughead (Cole Sprouse), and our favorite ginger, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa).
The show starts off with Jughead narrating about what happened on the 4th of July. Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) is mourning the death of her brother, Jason (Trevor Stines), who is believed to have died in a boating accident.
It is revealed that Archie heard a gunshot in the distance around the same time Jason died. However, he is reluctant to tell anyone because he was having intimate relations with his music teacher, Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel), at the time he heard it.
Now, Archie’s world is getting more and more complicated with Jason’s death on his conscience and an impending love triangle with Betty and Veronica.
Even though the producers of the show took most of the characters in Riverdale from the Archie comics, there were still a handful of changes made. In the comic Jughead was an idle teen who lives with a loving family in a nice home and was known to be one of Archie’s closest friends. However, in the CW’s version, he becomes the narrator with a brooding voice, moody attitude, and antisocial tendencies.
Another character that has undergone a transformation is Veronica, who was a cliché narcissistic “mean girl” with an attitude problem in the comic. On the show, she has an entirely different personality. She has been recast as a nicer person. Her best friend is Betty—formerly her rival in the comic.
Betty no longer has a picture perfect family, and most of the parents of the Archie gang are no longer together.
Even Ms. Grundy, an old woman in the comic, is transformed into a young, sexy woman on the show.
Despite all the huge changes, here are still some familiar elements from the original comic. The Archie, Betty, and Veronica love triangle persists, as does the occasional visit to their favorite malt shop, Pop’s, after school. Of course, Jughead and Archie are still best friends and Betty is the picture perfect girl-next-door.
One of the creators of Riverdale, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, explains how having the show be too similar to the original comic is problematic.
“If it was exactly like the comics—if Archie was the same Archie from the comics—it wouldn’t appeal to a lot of people, but because we’re a lot edgier and that subversiveness and that darkness to each of the characters, it’s a lot more appealing and a lot more attractive to more people.” he said in an interview with AVClub.com.
