Riverdale

The underground clubhouse in the woods (“the bunker”) where the characters in Riverdale go for secret meetings, for hiding from their enemies, for romantic privacy, for pizza night, even for marathon homework sessions. 

Yes, I would like one of these under my lawn. And a town full of dangers and intrigues to hide from. And friends as loyal, intelligent and serious-minded as Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead. This TV show is very different from the comic. Darker, more real, more exciting, more intellectual. Some very good musical episodes with the actors doing their own singing, and doing it more than well enough. The actress who plays Betty is always interesting as much for her body language and expressions as for her lines. I don’t think a script can specify, “Make this funny, richly communicative gesture with your shoulders and hands while making such-and-such a face.” The credit for that must all go to Lili Reinhart—she seems to have a bottomless bag of fresh, delightful behaviors. Have been bingeing on this show for a couple of weeks. This Riverdale is both bright and  dark, both highly colored and full of gray lines, both a swamp and an oasis—of psychological monsters and of teen dances, sweet romances and chocolate malts at Pop’s. And an Archie who sometimes crosses over to the wild side, a vigilante with a baseball bat and bloody fists, but who calls older men sir, even the ones who have tried to kill him. It’s a comic book gone native. It’s over-the-top and impossible in some ways, but very real in others. A long study in friendship, in the scariness of being a teenager in a world of horrors, of people having to find optimism again and again, and doing it. ~ Oct. 27, 2021 / On Facebook (1) 

1. Riverdale (Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse, Camila Mendes; TV Series, 2017-2023)