#westworld

‘Westworld’ TV Series

The science fiction TV series ‘Westworld’ has become a super-hit TV series. It is about a wild west styled theme park that goes horribly wrong. The park is populated by human like androids and paying visitors can do whatever they want. The series is based on the movie of the same name, which was written by the legendary science fiction story writer ‘Michael Crichton’. Westworld is similar to…

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You should probably watch Riverdale. If you like small town murder, retro aesthetic and trashy teen drama, you should absolutely watch Riverdale. If you don’t have the same appreciation for that combination as I do though, you should still probably watch it. Soon, if you can. Not because it’s flawless (oh, it’s flawed) or because all the characters are complex and nuanced (oh boy are they not) or because the writing is always smart and deft (oh dear me), but because Riverdale has something television could use a lot more of. Style.

I’m not talking about the pseudo-lynchian vibe or the way the town itself feels stuck decades in the past despite a modern setting, though those are both part of it. I’ve heard the show described as both a Twin Peaks-like and a poor man’s Stranger Things, and while neither of those classifications are entirely wrong, I think they do Riverdale’s unique contributions to the medium a disservice. Where these other shows cemented themselves in sci-fi and cosmic horror, Riverdalefeels almost gothic. It never touches the level of John Carpenter nostalgia of the latter, nor the shiver-inducing surreal quality of the former. What it does do is look very, very pretty.

Riverdale’s spectacular use of color shows from frame one, when two red-headed teens in snow-white garb appear on screen and walk slowly towards a shimmering waterline. The whole scene jumps. Pulses. Vibrates. And it only gets better from there. From the neon-lit booths of Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe to the snowy maple woods of the Blossom family syrup empire, the entire show oozes style like sap from a vein. Even simple shots – a house, a car, a bedroom – blast out brilliantly, whites on reds on greens, subtle sepia tints, perfect architectural symmetry. It’s gorgeous.

And the style doesn’t stop at the colors. It reaches from the 80s synth underscoring and the dreamlike flashbacks to Cole Sprouse’s gloomy teenage narration. Riverdale could not have a more appropriate name, as the town itself quickly becomes the show’s most intriguing and dynamic character.

Now it doesn’t all work all the time. The slow motion football plays and cheer squad numbers feel like they fell out of alternate universe where Zach Snyder directs teenage romcoms, much of the dialogue falls painfully short of that beautiful, so-scripted-it’s-perfect high school zen that Buffy the Vampire Slayer played off so deftly, and it can be hard to distinguish when the drama is parody from when it’s just bad writing. Make no mistake, Riverdale does not succeed in all its ambitions. But damn if it ain’t something to look at.

Of course there are other shows that gain major props on behalf of their style, but they don’t quite hit the same marks. For all they’re comic book inspiration, Arrow, Supergirl andThe Flash just don’t leap and dance the way Riverdaledoes.Game of Thrones has incredible production values and a gloriously realized world. No one would argue that. But the goal of that world and that production is to make a fantastical place feel grounded. The same can be said of HBO’s Westworld. This is not a knock against them. I have a strong love for Westworld,and of course these shows have moments of incredible grandeur. But their main objective, at which they succeed, is realism in the midst of total unreality.

Riverdale’sgoal is the opposite. It takes the Archie Comics universe of girl-next-door Americana and makes it feel like some beautiful, wild fantasy world of biker gangs and shady businessmen. It’s ridiculous. Sometimes so much that you’ll laugh. But ultimately, the vision of the storytelling and the talent of the cast make it feel fresh and exciting. So please watch Riverdale. TV’s never looked this good.