Entertainment

Archie Comics Are TV Industry’s Latest Crutch

"Archie" joins a long list of comic books to get a live action TV show, which makes it seem like the TV industry might be out of ideas.

Archie Comics Are TV Industry’s Latest Crutch
Michael Vance1 / CC BY NC SA 2.0
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These days it seems the TV industry doesn't have a creative leg to stand on, and it looks like it's more than content to use comic books as a crutch.

Further supporting that idea was Thursday's announcement the "Archie" series will be getting a live-action adaptation on Fox called "Riverdale." 

A press release reads, "'Riverdale' offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring the surrealistic twists of small-town life plus the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale's wholesome facade."

A writer for Uproxx was none too impressed with that concept and said with words like "bold" and "surrealistic twists," "We were just one 'gritty reimagining' away from hitting Reboot Buzzword Bingo."

Fox has enlisted none other than Greg Berlanti and his production team to bring Archie and his buds to television.

Lately, Berlanti seems to be building a career around adapting comic books. He has "Supergirl" somewhere in the pipeline, and "The Flash" and "Arrow" are currently on air and scoring pretty good ratings too. But "Riverdale" will probably have a very different tone from his other projects.

"If we don't stop him, he is going to kill Oliver and his whole family."

Yeah, this new show seems to be more centered around high school drama and fiction's longest-running love triangle. 

Which will make Archie and the Riverdale gang stand out from their comic book contemporaries on television. Most of the other ones feature someone with superpowers or quite a few disgusting zombie kills in every episode. 

Still, Comics Alliance points out the press release makes the show sound "more like 'Twin Peaks' than 'Leave it to Beaver.'" So that's something.

Regardless, the sheer volume of comic adaptations has to make some wonder if TV and movie execs are simply out of ideas.

This video includes images from Getty Images, Michael Vance1 / CC BY NC SA 2.0 and XMORLTARX / CC BY SA 2.0.