The CW’s New Archie Comics Show Is the Year’s Darkest, Sexiest Drama

For a brand new show with a cast full of unknowns, the opening shots of Riverdale feel awfully familiar. Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, Riverdale High School, a boy with a lopsided crown hat on his head. Yes, we’ve seen this all before.

It’s the Archie Comics you know and love, completely reborn: live action, chockablock with good-looking millennials, and airing on The CW, which means plenty of drama. Not the kind of drama you’d expect from those wholesome Double Digests you used to borrow from your sister, though. Sure, Archie still can’t decide between Betty and Veronica. But how many cold-blooded murders do you remember cropping up in sunny ol’ Riverdale?

This is, believe it or not, the darkest, sexiest, most fun show on television right now. Prepare to let your inner fangirl run rampant.

I grew up a huge fan of Archie. Embarrassingly huge. Okay, fine: totally friggin’ obsessed huge. So I was understandably worried when it was announced that a live-action show was in production. What if The CW ruined everything that I held dear? Classic CW, amirite?

I went in expecting a silly, cartoonish take on the gang and their ongoing struggles to decide who to take to homecoming. What I got instead was a dead body, a student-teacher affair, and so. Many. Abs. Fine, CW, I love you.

Opening on the mysterious death of a character that even diehard fans won’t miss, Riverdale takes off like a shotgun, introducing viewers to the most well-known Archie players in hilarious fashion (“Archie got hot!”) and sneaking in secondary characters with barely-veiled excitement. I won’t spoil which one might secretly be gay and which got a seriously sexy upgrade.

Since this is The CW we’re talking about, there are still plenty of over-the-top lines that would sound more at home on Gossip Girl (“You wanted fire? Sorry, my specialty is ice.”), but don’t hold it against them. The casting is great, the acting is decent and Luke Perry plays a dad fed up with his son’s rebellious streak. Yeah, that’s right: Dylan McKay is all grown up.

Fans of the comics will love this show — which, I should mention, debuts tonight at 9 — for what it is: a scandalous, much-needed update on a timeless classic. People unfamiliar with the original will come to see Betty and Veronica make out and stay to see if Cheryl Blossom is a psycho.

And some of us, myself included, will be sticking around for both.