When news broke yesterday that FOX had invested in a one-hour live-action teen drama based on the Archie Comics, much was made of Riverdale‘s emphasis on the “surrealistic twists of small-town life plus the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.” Well, damn fine news, everyone: if you thought that description hinted at the obvious similarities between Archie’s home and a certain eccentric Northwest town, you were right. The sock hops are not what they seem.
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Riverdale writer and Archie’s Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa [Editor’s note: who also wrote the delightful first issue of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, by the way] said Twin Peaks will have a big influence on the FOX show:
Something we talk a lot about is, “Imagine if Riverdale were like Twin Peaks” and was a really weird small town. But Twin Peaks had some very funny black humor stuff to it; obviously it was very serious as well. So that kind of balance is what we’re going to try to strike with the show.
[…] Riverdale is “Archie Meets Twin Peaks.” You know how we’re doing “Archie Meets Predator”? This is “Archie Meets David Lynch.”
You have my attention, sir!
Aguirre-Sacasa also revealed in the interview that Riverdale will be an origin show, much like FOX’s Gotham. The series will follow the beginning of Betty and Veronica’s friendship, as well as “how all these kids, from very different backgrounds, with very different interests in different social circles, come together to become the most famous group of high school friends that the world has ever known.” Josie and the Pussycats will feature heavily:
We’re going to use them to tell band stories. One of the biggest responses we’ve gotten to comic stories is Archie dating Valerie — I think it would be crazy to not do some version of that story on Riverdale. So they’ll be a big part of the show.
In addition to David Lynch and girl-power garage bands, Riverdale will also have zombies:
[…] If, god willing, this works out the way we all want it to work out, every Halloween we’ll be doing an “Afterlife” episode of Riverdale.
Sure, right now Riverdale might sound like an overly ambitious project, and Aguirre-Sacasa could be setting fans up for disappointment by throwing Lynch’s name out there. But as far as “eccentric small town” tropes go, Archie’s home and Twin Peaks are already pretty much one and the same. Each show has a universally beloved Cooper, chocolate shoppes with a mean pie game, a fabulously wealthy and beautiful brunette, and, uhm, Black Lodges! (“Detention” can be a Black Lodge of the mind, no?)
Of course, if you really want to analyze intrinsic similarities in the two towns, then we’re going to have to pin down Twin Peaks’ Jughead equivalent. Log Lady? Bob? GOOD GRAVY, COULD HE BE DIANE?
(via Uproxx)
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