Archie’s 75th Anniversary: Are You Ready for a Dark and Gritty Makeover in New TV Show?

By Shikha Sreenivas

Okay here is the news. Riverdale is a new TV show by the CW based on Archie Comics characters, which is set to premiere on 26^th January, coinciding with Archie’s 75^th anniversary. The trailer is gritty and dark. Wait, a dark and gritty what again?

I mostly consumed Archie Comics one after another while standing in bookstores because the likelihood of my parents buying me a “silly looking comic book about American teenagers” was lower than the likelihood of them allowing me to test my blanket-turned-superwoman-cape from the terrace.

Even then, I never saw what the big deal about Archie was. If anything, it seemed like a whole bunch of girls (who seemed pretty intelligent when they had a story to themselves without Archie) were fighting over him for no reason.

Jughead had more attractive qualities than Archie – he liked to eat, he said pretty deep things every now and then. It always troubled me that the women (Betty, Veronica, Midge, Cheryl, Ethel) seemed to be reduced to Blonde vs Brunette vs Red Head stereotypes (Betty vs. Veronica vs. Cheryl), and one dimensional personalities that were summed up as nice, plain, seductive or sporty.

Ever since we’ve heard the news we’ve been looking forward to watching this because who doesn’t want to see an extreme makeover. We’re also fervently hoping that the new television show will give the women some more character than just them running behind Archie (though all they seem to be doing in the trailer is being sexy, afraid, or kissing Archie), getting him to notice them.

Here is the trailer.

https://youtu.be/8AMiwKhm3uI