‘Riverdale’ employs the iconic characteristics of film noir, while managing to remain on the edge.

By Joshua Balicki
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The characteristics of film noir are interwoven into the CW TV series “Riverdale.” With the début of the second season coming up, be ready to settle in to another round of femme fatales, hard-boiled detectives, and fatalistic drama. These concepts promote the noir aesthetic in which “Riverdale” thrives.

Chief creative officer and writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa restructures the retro *Archie Comics* into a sentimental journey we can all relate to. The vintage costumes and neon iconography transforms Riverdale into another supernatural, place.

“Riverdale” takes worn clichés and revives them. Whether it is a jock who loves to sing, a virgin who takes Ritalin, a bisexual son of the sheriff, an existential misfit, or a girl turning insane from the death of her brother, “Riverdale” addresses many issues during the first season.

The mysterious murder of Jason Blossom, the heir to the throne of his family’s maple-syrup dynasty, turns a once idyllic Riverdale into a town fated for tragedy.

Jughead, a dark narrator, writes a novel inspired by the murder. He earns the coveted hard-boiled detective role in the first season. His voice-overs are another common characteristic of noir. They act as a reflection on and introspection into the chaos pervading Riverdale.

Often, Jughead emulates famous noir characters such as Sam Spade in *The Maltese Falcon* and Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep.

In no way is Cole Sprouse the next Humphrey Bogart, but he tries. Jughead has a sense of ruggedness and confidentiality that is alluring. However, his obsessiveness and ambiguity often makes him hard to understand.

Once his father, ringleader of a local gang, becomes the prime suspect in the murder case, Jughead is forced to decide between his dismal past and promising future.

The plot slowly unravels the murder case throughout Season 1. Each episode builds on the previous, creating a deadly momentum that crashes in the finale.

The characters become both victims and suspects. Along the way, alliances are formed, backs are stabbed, and romances are kindled.

These relationships in Season 1 are unstable. Veronica Lodge, sweet on the outside and manipulative on the inside, moves from New York City when her corrupt father lands up in jail.

She immediately catches the attention of Archie, the heartthrob jock who is in a secret relationship with his music teacher. Betty, a secret admirer of Archie, develops a crush on his best friend, Jughead. This love “penta-mess” is at the heart of the comics.

The barrage of teenage love may be seen as nothing more than a distraction. However, excessive romance is used in noir to lure the audience away from the case. It is hard to tell the real femme fatale in the season.

Each character has a motive to hide the truth, exploit the truth, or find the truth, often at the expense of whom they “love” the most. This is where the fatalistic element of noir hits the hardest.

It is not so much the literal death in “Riverdale” that hurts the most but the imprint it leaves on each character. The disappearance of Blossom acts as the inciting incident to a much larger tragedy.

Fatalism is conscious in all aspects of Season 1. The finale exposes the truth behind the death of Blossom. It also poses the inevitable and often unanswerable question of “Why?”

This question will be addressed in Season 2 but not without a voyage through what noir has been and will be in a new era of television.

If you cannot get enough of “Riverdale,” the original Archie Comics can be found in the University of Iowa Main Library archives.