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As Season 1 of CW’s Archie Comics television show Riverdale comes to a close, one thing is obvious: this show is classic Archie yet very different. When Archie Comics re-launched, the characters were fundamentally the same but storylines were reset. The tone was funny with light-serious emotional matters scattered throughout to provide depth. The show took the opposite approach.

Much of the humor originating from ridiculous and absurd incidents was stripped out, Archie was made more serious, and the problems of high school life were made more “real.” The Archies were transported into a classic teen drama, and they faced a world that began with a murder. It was a darker take.

Although Archie Comics explored “darker” and “mature” storylines before, the show pursued something very different. In essence, the world was developed around one question: what would Riverdale look like if all of the characters came from broken families?

This article will have only light spoilers in discussing generalities regarding the events of the show.

The Importance of Family

Every family in the town of Riverdale is broken, but they are all disrupted in a different manner.

Archibald “Archie” Andrews (KJ Apa) lives with his father, Fred (Luke Perry), who is construction worker facing hard times. His mother is not present, yet the actual details are unknown. Fred is tough but forgiving, experienced in drama and struggles, and he tries to protect Archie as much from the world as from himself. He doesn’t want his son to make the same mistakes he did. Both dabbled in music, had girl issues, and had a tense relationship with a childhood male friend.

Elizabeth “Betty” Cooper (Lili Reinhart) experiences a very different situation. Her mother, Alice (Madchen Amick), is domineering and protective, adopting both a classic 50s housewife demeanor and the aggressiveness of a 70s liberated feminist. Betty’s father, Hal (Lochlyn Munro), is quiet, yet a bastard. Much of the parental drama revolves around Polly (Tiera Skovbye), Betty’s pregnant teenage sister who botched a Romeo and Juliet runaway plot.

To complete the triumvirate of disrupted families, Veronica “Ronnie” Lodge lives with her rich mother, Hermoine (Marisol Nichols), while her father, Hiram, is rotting in jail for embezzlement and defrauding investors. To exacerbate matters, Hermoine pursues Fred in a disastrous manner, which unites the various characters in misery.

The secondary characters suffer just as badly. Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) is from a rich, controlling and drama-prone family and her brother’s murder informs much of the series. Loveable Forsythe “Jughead” Jones (Cole Sprouse) is semi-raised by his drunk, gang-leader father (played by Skeet Ulrich) who is semi-employed yet not enough to prevent his wife from leaving with his daughter. Kevin Keller’s (Casey Cott) father is the Sheriff, who is caught up in the drama and politics of the community. Even Josie (Ashleigh Murray) , the talented singer, must deal with a dramatic mother and an extremely talented yet condescending father who will never approve of her.

All of these characters are brilliantly played by actors who are able to fully embrace the intense roles. Though each character embodies classic Jungian archetypes, they are not caricatures. Instead, they are fully drawn out and emotionally charged, and the show is able to avoid the melodrama that has destroyed other teen dramas before.

It might seem absurd to have so many problems happening at the same time in one little community, but the focus is not on the problems but how they are overcome.

Riverdale as Microcosm

The town of Riverdale is a microcosm of America, and every dynamic is represented on the screen. The show is a summary of real life, and the community has to deal with the problems that we all face: teen pregnancy and abortion, drug dealing, murder, business fraud, gangs, homelessness, and many more serious issues. The only difference is that these problems are all happening at the same time and in a small community, so they cannot just be ignored.

The show is not a “Afternoon Special.” These issues do not define the characters, and they are only temporary obstacles. The show is dark, but it is only dark enough to allow the light to shine forth: each character is uniquely strong, and they are able to overcome every problem thrown their way.

Archie is still Archie, even though he lost his mother and is wrapped up in other people’s drama. Betty is still Betty even though her family was torn apart by her sister’s experience. Veronica is still Veronica even though her father is possibly the devil incarnate. They are each deeply caring individuals who have their own approach to life, but they do what they can to help others.

None of the characters have a healthy family situation. However, they don’t need a health family because they have each other. They have substituted what they are missing at home with their school family. Often, the characters confide in each other long before they talk to their parents.

This approach has strengths and weaknesses. Archie is able to do a lot to help others, but his father has to bail him out on many occasions when he gets too reckless. The same can be said for Jughead, but it is often Archie’s father more than his own, which has led to some intense confrontations regarding parenting and responsibility. Often, both fathers have to remind the other of the struggle of raising a son on their own, which emphasizes both how much they care and how much they are missing without their spouse around to help.

On the other side, Betty and Veronica often dispute with their mothers in a passive aggressive manner. Only rarely do they enter into direct confrontation, and only to express how the situation has deteriorated. The drama of their characters revolves around the emotional aspects of a broken parental unit with a strong sexual component added to the mix.

The Sins of the Parent

While the show is very dramatic, the problems are placed squarely upon the parents. Each parent has a fundamental flaw that prohibits them from being fully responsible and emotionally fit. They are often selfish, thinking only how to satisfy their own needs and pursuits. They rarely consider the emotions of their children except after being confronted with just how disastrous their actions have become.

The intensity, however, is reversed for inter-parental disputes. Often, verbal and physical confrontation takes place between adults, and the Archies are left to stand by as confused witnesses. They were ignorant of much of the drama seething below the surface. There was hate aplenty in the town, yet they were kept ignorant.

Only rarely does violence take place with the kids, such as the original murder, a sex-gossip scandal at school, and one being attacked at a construction site. For the most part, the parents go out of their way to protect the children, even those who aren’t their own, from what is taking place.

With the support of their friends and only indirect exposure to the real problems affecting the town of Riverdale, the Archies are able to find their way through life. They desperately want to be involved and to fix the problems that plague their parents. They want their families to be restored so they can enter the ideal established in the comics.

It is doubtful that Riverdale will ever depict the perfect life of the comics, and the writers included little nods and clever jokes that playfully poke at its comic counterpart. But the point is not to fix problems and allow the characters to experience perfection. It is to show how people can overcome any difficulty because they have the will to succeed. It is to show how “family” is not defined by biology but by those who care for each other and try to help them succeed. It is to show that we are not defined by our struggle but how we overcome our struggle.