Hi, my name is Jonathan Denard McNeair and I grew up in Lexington, North Carolina, also known as Pig City...Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha...The town is mostly known for its barbeque where they often throw barbeque festivals every October. In my chosen career, I am a self-published author of fiction.
Promotional
Use for Manhattan Girls and A Change Would Do You Good. Books Written by J.D.
Fitzgerald.
Lexington,
North Carolina-J.D. Fitzgerald is the author of an ongoing book series titled Manhattan
Girls. Two Books are now available for release. Manhattan Girls,
which is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, and various online
retailers, and Manhattan Girls: A Change Would Do You Good, which is
also now available. The series is mainly targeted to the YA audience. It is a
contemporary coming-of-age story focusing on a group of friends going through
the ups and downs of life at a New York City prep school.
“Life is a
journey. Make of that what you will.”
AUTHOR BIO:
J. D. Fitzgerald
Born and
bred in the Triad of North Carolina, ever since he was a child, Fitzgerald
always had a vivid imagination. Drawings on notebooks became ideas in written
form. By the age of fifteen, he realized his passion. He wrote his first novel,
Christine: The Strawberry Girl, along with two short stories inspired by
singers Tori Amos and P.J. Harvey. Christine: The Strawberry Girl,
unfortunately, never came into development, but elements of it can be found in Manhattan
Girls, his very first fully developed novel during his sophomore year.
Through the end of high school and his adult years, Manhattan Girls had
gone through plenty of revisions to become the novel that is now. Not only does
Fitzgerald focuses his time on novel writing, he also has two screenplays in
development. His other hobbies include studying film and television, learning
the basics of astrology, and practicing the graceful movements of interpretive
dancing. He is an avid fan of late-night ’80s primetime soaps such as Knots
Landing and character-driven teen dramas such as My So-Called Life,
which is an inspiration for Manhattan Girls. Currently, he is taking
classes at The Los Angeles Film School to learn more about the organic flow of
storytelling in film and television. You can check out his blog here: https://thestoriesofjdandivy.blogspot.com/
Synopses
Manhattan
Girls:
WELCOME
TO HAMILTON ACADEMY, THE FINEST OF THE FINEST OF PREP SCHOOLS FROM ALL AROUND,
WHERE OPULENCE DWELLS AND SECRETS ABOUND…
Fifteen-year-old
Gwen Stevenson gets a chance of a lifetime. Escaping from the depths of
small-town boredom, she finally sets her sights of embellishing the wonders of
New York City. While entering the halls of the prestigious Hamilton Academy,
she meets reserved bookworm Kyle, aspiring filmmaker Vera, Valley girl Shawnie,
and gets an unexpected reunion from her two childhood friends, Maxine, a
southern belle who plans to take over the popularity food chain, and Mona, a
reclusive rebel who dreams of becoming a rock star.
Gwen soon
realizes that she is no friend of honor society president Bianca Walworth, who
doesn’t appreciate her longtime boyfriend, Chace, making flirty eyes with Gwen.
Having a new
life in the city has never been so complicated but in the end…
Will there
ever be solace in the city?
A Change
Would Do You Good:
A NEW
DAWN AND A NEW DAY BESETS THE CONCRETE STONES OF HAMILTON ACADEMY
It is the
eve of September and a new student has arrived at Hamilton. Anita Deveraux, an
aspiring singer-songwriter from Louisiana, has set foot in New York City.
Trying to find her place in the world, she joins in with Gwen Stevenson and her
friends. They soon become enraptured by her natural vocal abilities and wistful
tales of her hometown down south. Meanwhile, Gwen is still having an identity
crisis. Worst yet, it’s only a few weeks until her sixteenth birthday. She soon
realizes that life is about taking risks, so she decides to finally fulfill her
transformation by gaining a new sense of style. Gwen’s childhood friends have
other plans. Maxine is organizing a party to impress popular senior Rain
Bosworth while setting her sights on the newly single Chace Fairbanks. Mona
Margulies and her new gal pal suddenly break the barriers of the friend zone,
which brings back what she lost in the past. Kyle Durmsdale is enjoying the
perks of being a newly ordained honor society secretary by wooing the new
president Jared Milton, but, unbeknownst to her, there is a certain someone who
wants to take Bianca Walworth’s empty nest. Upon getting prepared for the
Annual Short Film Contest, Vera Hudgens is confident with her finished project
and her new beau but Vera’s new boyfriend may not be as honest as he seems, and
when the truth comes out, it goes into a suspension of disbelief. Maxine’s new
BFF Shawnie Jenkins faces a dilemma in her love life. Being duped by who she
thought was her Prince Charming, Shawnie vows to take revenge upon Blake
Kingston…by making him jealous, of course. But as she rekindles with an old
flame, those familiar feelings makes the lessons of the past come back to the
present…
For the
girls at Hamilton Academy, change is a one-way street …
A Review
from Chick Lit Café:
“Manhattan Girls by J. D.
Fitzgerald is a story about growing up, adjusting to change, and the strength
of true friendships. The story starts with Gwen, a teenager growing up in North
Carolina. Her home life is troubled with an alcoholic father, so when her
mother gets a job opportunity in New York City working for the New York Times,
Gwen and her mother move to the big city and a new life. Gwen enrolls at
Hamilton Academy and is nervous about making new friends, having left her two
best friends back in North Carolina, but she needn’t have worried as there is a
grand reunion, and making friends is not as difficult as she anticipated. Soon
there are five firm friends, all with different characters and life stories,
but the girls blend together well as their lives unfold and they evolve and
adapt to city life.
The author, J. D. Fitzgerald, has crafted a great coming of age story, where
the characters and the situations of the girls help them to cope with their
changing roles. Take Gwen, for example, a shy girl embarrassed by her braces
and dull clothes, who blossoms into her true self with the help of her friends.
Each of them realizes their dreams as life takes them on their journey. The
author has done an excellent job molding the individual styles, home life,
experiences and characters of the girls to turn the story into a mix of Grease
meets Friends in a novel that will excite and empower every young adult reader.
J. D. Fitzgerald has skillfully written the transition from country girl to
city girl and painted a vivid and candid picture of life at a city academy,
with all the stresses of growing up and relationships, to style and personal
achievements. With a little touch of humor and personalities that will excite
and frustrate, this true to life story will have you engaged from the beginning
and satisfied at the conclusion. There is no doubt that many readers will be
able to relate to the situations the girls find themselves in, from the
makeovers to the stirring of attractions to finding one’s true identity, this
book has it all. Get ready to immerse yourself in life at Hamilton Academy and
New York City and marvel at the resilience of the girls as they set out on
life’s journey. Manhattan Girls is a great read and hopefully, the author will
have more tales to tell of the intrepid five as they continue their adventures.”
–Jewel Hart, chicklitcafe.com
A word from
J.D. Fitzgerald:
Let me be
honest with you. My chosen path of self-publishing has not been an easy one.
It’s been like two years since I’ve published my first novel and the marketing
of it was a very hard task, indeed. I’ve put my heart, my soul, every bit of my
hard-working money into this project. I’ve scoped out reviewers, promoters, and
websites just to get my work known. It was exhausting. So, I decided to put
more of my time into writing my next novel, which again took me about a good
year to get finished. I haven’t been putting my time into marketing like I should
have, but hopefully, I’ll get back in the game. Like I said in my opening quote,
“Life is a journey. Make of that what you will.” And boy, is it a journey. I’ve
dealt with a lot while focusing on my writing, but I don’t want to get too
personal. It wasn’t all bad, though. I found it exciting, putting my words into
text. Creating stories from my imagination for the world to share. I met a lot
of amazing people during my writing journey and I have no regrets. Right now, I
feel like I’m on the right path. I am getting the resources that I needed for
so, so long and I’m finally looking at the bright side of things. It’s never
too late. I’ve always realized my passion and now I’m looking forward to making
it happen. Just like the characters in my books, my life is going through a
metamorphosis. I have good moments and I have bad moments, but there is always
a balance to things. And I think I found my balance. My life is only just
beginning.
My first
book, Manhattan Girls is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, and other online retailers[vv1].
It has now come to this. They finally went through with a Craft Reboot of sorts. Well, it's not really a reboot, it's more of a spiritual sequel in a way. It's hard to explain.
So, the trailer starts off with the main character, moving into a new town to live with her mom's new boyfriend and three sons. It's very identical to the original where Sarah moves to Los Angeles at the start of the movie.
How the main character meets the three girls is actually through an embarrassing experience. The scene implies that she has her period in front of a classroom of students. Everyone is laughing except the three main girls, identifying as our coven in the movie. Right off the bat, they accept her, showing a surprising amount of empathy. Okay, that's one thing I do like about the trailer. It's comparable to the cold reception Nancy and the three girls in the original film give to Sarah when she first meets them but I guess that's supposed to demonstrate their sudden betrayal in the climax.
As the trailer continues, they give the girl a ceremonial bath, christening her as their fourth. This suddenly enhances their magic, the main character being the most powerful of them all. But with great power comes with great irresponsibility as the main character's thirst for dominance becomes too hard to handle.
Okay, at least I do see that they do things differently this time. When I heard the announcement that Blumhouse was going to remake The Craft, I cringed. Okay, I would say they did an okay job with the Halloween Reboot, not the best but way better than the sequels and the Rob Zombie remakes. But this is also the same studio who made the second Black Christmas Remake, which I have not heard good things about. I really wasn't looking forward to it. I always felt that the Craft worked well on its own, particularly in the time period it was set in. It's one of those lightning-in-the-bottle types of movies that didn't need sequels or remakes. Is it perfect? No, but it's still entertaining with a charming cast of female leads.
But in this day in age, we are getting an influx of year-gap sequels and reboots. So due to the cult following of the 1996 film, a second movie was in the works.
The first thing I noticed was that David Duchovny, of all people, was in the movie....as the dad character, no less. We also have Michelle Monaghan, who I haven't seen in a while, as the main character's mom. I don't know if their roles are significant or not, but we'll see.
The main girl is sort of a mix of Sarah and Nancy. One clue is that she is the new girl in town, starting off shy and repressed. But as the trailer progresses, she gets more powerful and becomes a bit arrogant. She even recites one of Nancy's classic lines. Yeah, let me talk about that. That was one thing about the trailer that threw me off, which makes me think that this is a sequel disguised as a remake.
They somehow include a photo of Nancy in the trailer (which doesn't look real by the way) but it never entirely explains how much of importance she has in the story. Is she related to one of the characters? Is she a distant cousin of the main girl? I'm scratching my head here. In my opinion, I wish they would've left this out to be a surprise in the movie. This is what annoys me about these trailers because they want to constantly shove in easter eggs to remind the audience of the original film. The callbacks just makes the sequel seem like a cash grab and that's a shame. In the first few seconds of the trailer, I was actually invested in what new ideas that would bring into this movie.
For instance, we have the coven leader played by Lovie Simone. The difference between her and Nancy is that she actually comes off as caring and intentive. She also guides the girls with full knowledge of the craft, kind of like the character of Lirio. She could be put into a position where warns the main girl not to take advantage of her powers.
But as soon as the main girl gets corrupted, the coven leader must do what she can to stop her wrath. That would be an interesting enough twist. If the trailer just left it like that, I would be singing a different tune right now. I'm not sure how the other two girls would be portrayed in the movie but let's hope they have more development than how Bonnie and Rochelle were handled, in which by the end of the 1996 film, they are no more than cackling minions to Nancy.
Though my question is: are the four main leads believable as outcasts? I"m sort of in the middle with this one.
While the girls in the original movie were beautiful, they were also believable as outcasts but with this version, the girls look a bit...polished. And that's what I was afraid of. That this version would strip away any edge the original had.
As demonstrated in this photo here, the girls look like they're posing in a photo shoot for Seventeen magazine. Maybe the performances will tell otherwise, but again, they look a little too prim and proper by comparison.
So now I am down to my final thoughts. Will I watch this? Maybe, but not right now. It's not the type of movie that I will go rush to see. If something like this was done a couple of years earlier, I might. But since there are so many of these year-gap sequels, I might have to sit and wait for this one.
A NEW DAWN AND A NEW DAY BESETS THE CONCRETE STONES OF HAMILTON ACADEMY.
It is the eve of September and a new student has arrived at Hamilton. Anita Deveraux, an aspiring singer-songwriter from Lousiana, has set foot in New York City. Trying to find her place in the world, she joins in with Gwen Stevenson and her friends. They soon become enraptured by her natural vocal abilities and wistful tales of her hometown down south. Meanwhile, Gwen is still having an identity crisis. Worst yet, it's only a few weeks until her sixteenth birthday. She soon realizes that life is about taking risks, so she decides to finally fulfill her transformation by gaining a new sense of style. Gwen's childhood friends have other plans. Maxine is organizing a party to impress popular senior Rain Bosworth while setting her sights on the newly single Chace Fairbanks. Mona Margulies and her new gal pal suddenly break the barriers of the friend zone, which brings back what she's lost in the past. Kyle Durmsdale is enjoying the perks of being a newly ordained Honor Society secretary by wooing the new president Jared Milton, but, unbeknownst to her, there is a certain someone that wants to take Bianca Walworth's empty nest. Upon getting prepared for the Annual Short Film contest, Vera Hudgens is confident with her finished project and her new beau but Vera's new boyfriend may not be as honest as he seems, and when the truth comes out, it goes into a suspension of disbelief. Maxine's new BFF Shawnie Jenkins faces a dilemma in her love life. Being duped by who she thought was her Prince Charming, Shawnie vows to take revenge upon Blake Kingston...by making him jealous, of course. But as she rekindles with an old flame, those familiar feelings makes what was known again...
For the girls at Hamilton Academy, change is a one-way street...
The creation of Riverdale all started with the publication of Afterlife with Archie, released in 2013. It was sort of a darker, edgier take on Archie and the gang set during a zombie apocalypse.
During that year, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who wrote Afterlife with Archie, alongside director Jason Moore was working on two pitches involving the Archie characters. One was a teen comedy in the vein of a John Hughes film. The other involved time travel which would star Louis C.K. as an older version of Archie. My money is on the former. However, those projects stalled and they decided to pitch it as a T.V. series instead. From 2012-2015, teen shows such as Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars were fading out and I guess the CW wanted a new teen hit. So that's when Riverdale was made.
To start the show in progress, they decided to go for a murder mystery in the vein of Twin Peaks, which seems to be popular nowadays. So the creators of the show had to kill off a major character who happens to be Cheryl Blossom's twin brother Jason. Okay, here's my take. This kind of concept isn't new. I just wished they would've tried something different. Maybe, build up the character before his death? One example of this is in the British T.V. series Night and Day where it focuses on the disappearance of a local popular girl, very much similar to Twin Peaks. But unlike Twin Peaks where it introduces the Laura Palmer character through flashbacks and dream sequences, in this show, the girl is the one who narrates the events of the story and therefore becomes a lingering presence among the main characters.
Now what they should've done with Riverdale could be equally as clever. Furthermore, let's talk about marketing. Let say, during this process, the makers of the show would have it as a mystery as to who would get killed off in the show.
This is where the pilot hits. Of course, Jughead being the aspiring writer narrates everything and introduce the characters as the show plays out and Jason is introduced as a typical arrogant jock but around this time, his demeanor changes as he anxiously informs his sister to meet out in the lake. Then before everything plays out like it should...Boom! The end of the pilot. Jason is found dead. I just thought that would add a little more flow to it and keep everybody invested in the show.
So, much like the show Twin Peaks and Night and Day, Jason's death is interconnected into the main character's lives.
Which will be my next focus.
Here's Archie Andrews played by KJ Apa. Archie's kind of meh. I didn't think KJ Apa was bad at his performance and he's good for what he's working with but Archie is what I call the Generic Male Lead. Of course, there is always a Generic Male Lead in teen dramas, however, Archie is a very vanilla protagonist. From what I gather, most of these types of male leads had a character to them, had a flair about them. But there's just not anything relatable about Archie or at least the writers didn't put any effort of trying to make him relatable. I know this show is trying to do its own thing and it's impossible to compare it to the comics yet the thing about Archie is that he was this shy, kind of geeky guy evolving into his true self. He's suddenly popular, has two girls pining after him, he's on the football team, he's a reliable leader, etc. But the point is, he's still his geeky, awkward, self.
Now I know it was inevitable for the makers of this show to cast a hunky male lead for the character of Archie. Unfortunately, his character doesn't ring true. I guess they're trying to make him into sensitive brooding type like Luke from One Tree Hill but it just doesn't work for me. Part of his story arc involves whether he should play football or play music. The result is terribly predictable. To be honest, I don't think his music is even that good.
But here is where things get really disturbing. There is another story arc which involves Archie's affair with Ms. Grundy. I repeat. Archie has an affair with Ms. Fucking. Grundy. It's like some bad fan fiction has come to life. Granted, that she is not the real Ms. Grundy but it's still wrong on so many levels. Everything about this just seems...so forced. As if it was a way for the creators to try to make it edgy and sexy. "Oh no", they would say, "this isn't your grandma's Archie. We're gonna make this hot! We're gonna make this sizzling!" That makes it even more wrong and plus, isn't Archie supposed to be 15 or something? I mean gross! I don't even want to put that in my head. But I guess it's a way for the creators to give Archie a storyline since he was basically coming close to becoming a background character in his own show.
Like I said, KJ Apa's acting is good enough but he has nothing to work with. Archie doesn't have a personality. He doesn't have that spark, that wit, he had in the comics. In this show, he is anything but the typical generic, brooding, teen hunk.
Now let's get to Betty Cooper played by Lili Reinhart. I find Betty to be way more interesting than Archie. I think Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and his team put more thought into Betty by giving sort of an edge to her. Though, unfortunately, it's a rather cliche trope I've seen in too many soap operas. They give Betty...get this...A split personality. How typical. I never really got the whole Dark Betty thing but I'll get to that soon. I would say that Lili Reinhart does a solid performance as Betty. She often is able to give the Betty character more depth through her acting abilities than the writers do with their pens and their pads. To my surprise, I found Betty to be very relatable in the comics. She was way beyond this perfect girl next door archetype, she had a bit of spunk to her. Hell, there was that one time where Betty was dressed as a goth. I would often picture Betty as a cool, laidback, tomboy compared to the more sophisticated and glamorous Veronica.
With Riverdale's approach to things, they write Betty as a typical "Mary Sue" type and she is, as I would call, PPB. Prim, Proper, and Boring. They even go so far as dressing her in these retro 1950's outfits with the ponytail hairstyle. I don't know. Some part of me wanted her to play off as this laidback rocker chick like Watts from Some Kind Of Wonderful or spunky and independent like Joey from Dawson's Creek. Instead, they give her the trophy for Generic Girl Next Door, in which the writers are so quick to point that out. But at least they give her better storylines.
One of her story arcs involves her sister Polly. The story goes like this: Polly was in a secret relationship with Jason Blossom and *spoiler alert* Polly is suddenly pregnant. So Jason and Polly decide to run off and get married but it's too late. Polly is sent to a convent by her parents. It isn't long until Jason goes missing and, therefore, is found dead. It's not so much of Betty's storyline than Polly's but at least the writers give Betty something to do, branding her as a pseudo "Nancy Drew," while uncovering some family secrets, which involves *again, spoiler alert* Betty possibly having a third sibling out there (which for some odd reason, she's perfectly fine with).
Her second story arc is about her dealing with her dark side known as Dark Betty. Yeah, I don't really get this. I think giving Betty a split personality is such an asspull to me. It's like the writers would say, "Quick! We must give this Generic Girl Next Door something to do!" other than just developing Betty as an actual, fully realized character. The writers try to make her into a normal teenage girl but I guess that wouldn't make her interesting enough. So here we have Dark Betty. We only get a few and between when it comes to this split personality but in contrast to "Light" Betty's Peggy Sue getups, Dark Betty dons a black bobbed wig and wears sexy, dominatrix outfits. This whole concept comes off kind of cheesy to me. We're never given a chance to explore Dark Betty other than just being treated as Betty's alter ego who would come out during Betty's emotional outburst. If they're going on this route with Betty, the creators should at least treat it with more care.
So, overall, Betty is...okay. I wish the writers did more justice by utilizing her but considering how elevated Lili Reinhart's (and how she's better than this show) acting, Betty becomes better through her performance.
Now let's get to Veronica, who is my favorite interpretation of this character. The thing is, Veronica has good character development, you know, there's more to her. She is used to be this snobby rich bitch akin to the universe of Gossip Girl, but somehow between the downfall of her father's empire and subsequent arrest including bullying a girl to the point of exile, Veronica reinvents herself by gaining a new reputation at Riverdale. I like that. It makes her flawed but human.
However, there is the good and the bad with this character. Now Camila Mendes does a splendid job with Veronica. She definitely has a presence about her and a wit to match. But the problem is, the writers keep giving her horrible dialogue. It's like they're trying to make her sound woke to add through her witty oneliners, it comes as incredibly forced. Besides that, Veronica is actually one of my favorite characters on this show. She goes on sort of this redemption arc similar to Jen from Dawson's Creek (there I go with the Dawson's Creek comparisons but how can I help it?) and it works for her, garnishing the character with much more dimension than Archie and Betty.
Camilla Mendes was delightfully cast, blending in the fierceness and also the vulnerability of Veronica.
Here we have Jughead Jones played by Cole Sprouse. Oh boy, what a misguided character. The Jughead I know is the quirky comic relief who couldn't let go of childhood things and whose favorite food is hamburgers. But that's not what the creators went with the Jughead character. Instead, they made him into a brooding bad boy, the typical greaser. This doesn't work for me. I just don't see Jughead as a bad boy type. I wish they could've placed him off as the quirky comic relief like he was in the comics, similar to Seth from The O.C. or Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But no, he's now a mopey dopey outsider who's on the wrong side of the tracks. Jughead also serves as the narrator as he is writing a novel based on the events of Riverdale. It was somewhat interesting, though, it got a bit grating whenever I kept hearing his voiceover in every minute of the show.
So in addition to making Jughead more darker and edgier, the writers give him a tragic backstory. In this version, they turn his father F.P. into an alcoholic and a leader of a biker gang called The Serpents, which prompts his mother to leave off with his sister. This leaves Jughead in a predicament. While his father is out binge-drinking and indulging in a life of crime, Jughead is left homeless, usually living at a broken-down drive-in and crashing at the janitor's closet from school. Sure, this kind of storyline would make him sympathetic but I still wonder why the creators have to go this route with him. In conclusion, there is another issue I have with this character.
As the season progress, Jughead joins Betty in the investigation of Jason's murder while helping her run the school newspaper. This soon leads to a...romance. To be honest, I don't really see Betty and Jughead together and how it was done was really rushed. It would've been interesting if Betty was dating Reggie but oh well. Considering the chemistry between the two actors and how they're dating in real life, the matchup was bound to happen. But everything isn't all roses with Bughead (lol, really?), which leads me to one of the weaker episodes of this season, The Lost Weekend.
It goes like this: It's Jughead's birthday. So, Betty does a nice gesture and throws a small get-together at Archie's pad. But soon word gets out about the party and half of the school arrives. Jughead. Is. Not. Pleased. Which leads to one of the worst monologues I ever heard: Clip Here. It's cringy yet self-aware at the same time, breaking the fourth wall to the audience. It's like the writers just gave up at this point. Eventually, Betty and Jughead work things out once they see that they're both damaged.
Jughead's characterization is zig-zaggy. He's a cross between badass biker boy and quirky best friend, which is a weird mix. Cole Sprouse is...okay. He hits some places and then he misses it. I don't know, his performance is usually what strength the script gives him and the majority of his acting is mediocre at best.
Let's just say, I don't particularly gravitate towards Jughead on this show.
We have Cheryl Blossom played by Madeline Petsch. The writers seem pretty consistent with her character but then her personality always switches back and forth. I never can quite figure her out. Yes, I like underneath Cheryl's high-strung nature, she's actually in grief over brother's death. Though once you take a glimpse at her family life, Jason seemed to be the only that truly cared about her. I'll talk about the parents later. Oh boy, that's gonna be a lot.
Anywho, Cheryl's personality switches back and forth through her grieving. But it just comes off weird sometimes. Her emotions are all over the place. She's perky, she's sassy, she's mad, she's sad. It kind of makes me think she has some sort of mental disorder but judging from what kind of family she has, yeah, it's a possibility. Cheryl is sympathetic in some places but the creators frame her in a way where she comes off like a typical schemer. Let's not forget that she is grieving over her brother, getting involved in high school shenanigans would be the last thing on her mind.
Madeline Petsch's acting is a mixed bag. She hits the right notes when she's vulnerable but when she's sassy and high-strung, it's forced and robotic. Cheryl's dialogue is even worse than Veronica's, in which the script really wanes down her performance.
Although the portrayal of Cheryl was accurate to the comics, I wish the writers could've given her proper development.
Not much to say about Reggie Mantle played by Ross Butler. He didn't have much of a bigger role than I anticipated but like I said, the show would have given him more to do if he was dating Betty or somehow he was best buddies with Jason and they had a spat with each other which ties him to the investigation. He gets more screen time in the second season, though I wish they would've put more work into him in this season.
There's Josie McCoy played by Ashleigh Murray, who gets out of focus as the show goes on. She's introduced as a bit of diva at first but it stems from having an overbearing stage mom who happens to the town mayor and her jerkass dad who walks out on one of her performances. Other than that, Josie's storyline usually gets entangled with everybody else's, particularly Archie's, who wants to pursue music. Therefore, she mainly fades to the background for the rest of the show.
Special mention goes to Valarie Brown, who begins to date Archie in the middle of the season. Their relationship didn't feel organic to me and then out of nowhere, they just break up, mainly because Valarie felt uncomfortable with Archie escorting Cheryl at a dinner reception. It seems to me that they have been dating at least two weeks. All of this felt really rushed and I think it was the only way for the creators to set up Archie and Veronica together.
The biggest letdown of character accuracy is Chuck Clayton's played by Jordan Calloway. Considering that he was one of the few black characters in the Archie comics is turned into antagonistic, misogynistic jerk jock, raises a lot of red flags for me. In the comics, he is an aspiring comic book artist and all-around nice guy. Hell, he could've been Jughead's remaining friends after Archie ghosted him. But no, that's not what the creators choose to do. It was pretty jarring to see Chuck portrayed in such an unlikeable manner. By episode 10, he's almost pushed close to the point of being an actual villain of the show. I hear Chuck gets better later on in the second season but I still didn't think the creators made a wise decision.
Lastly, we have Kevin Keller played by Casey Cott. Kevin in the comics gained a lot of attention by being the first gay character in the Archie series but I get the feeling that the makers were going on the comic relief route with him and I just don't picture him like that.
Of course, he does have some storylines to work with as he is the sheriff's son and also has a relationship with one of F.P.'s gang members but the show never really utilize him well. For example (get ready for a Dawson's Creek reference), Jack Mcphee from Dawson's Creek was used sparingly. He wasn't the comic relief, he didn't have cringy one-liners, and he was portrayed as a self-actualized human being. So I wish the creators of this show would've taken a little more time to develop Kevin's character as his role in the comics was a very important one.
Now let's talk about the parents. Oh lord, this is going to take a while.
The only normal parents on the show are Archie's parents, Veronica's mom (for now), and Sheriff Keller.
Special mention goes to both Luke Perry (R.I.P.) and Molly Ringwald, who catapulted their fame as teen idols of the '80s and '90s, now in the central roles of Fred and Mary Andrews. Although they're divorced, Fred and Mary are still good parents as they want the best for Archie with good intentions.
Hermione Lodge played by Marisol Nichols is just trying to keep things together after dealing with her husband's arrest due to alleged mob connections. When it comes to her relationship with Veronica, they seem to be on the right track. Although there are some roadblocks here and there, they have a strong bond (for now that is).
Sheriff Keller played by Martin Cummins gets equal points for accepting his son's sexuality and also being a firm protector of his town.
There's F.P. Jones played by another '90s teen idol Skeet Ulrich is somewhat stable when sober but let's not forget, he's an alcoholic leader of a notorious biker gang that wreaks havoc amongst the town. So he's in the middle ground here.
But here are the bad apples of the bunch.
First, we have the Coopers. There's Alice Cooper played by Madchen Amick, who happens to be a Twin Peaks alum and Hal Cooper played by Lochlyn Munro.
Let's start with Alice. Woah, boy. Alice starts off as cold, controlling, and emotionally abusive at times. I can accept her as an overbearing mom but they made her be extremely unlikeable. But as the show progresses, her character gets better.
Though the real culprit in all of the Cooper family drama is Hal. At first, he comes off as a henpecked husband but that soon cracks through. Since he has a long family feud with the Blossoms, it was his idea to put Polly in an institution and even so far as to force Polly to get an abortion, which didn't go through. So yeah, Betty's parents are nuts. But they are angels compared to the Blossoms. That family is another bag of insanity.
We have Penelope Blossom, who is extremely emotionally and psychologically abusive towards Cheryl, and Clifford Blossom who seems to be emotionally unavailable and only cares about his maple syrup business. I don't want to dwell on the Blossoms too much as it will lead to clues in which I will discuss later.
Like I said, the writing is all over the place. There are times when there is a flow but then it stops and becomes clunky. Relationships are rushed, storylines are wrapped up out of nowhere, and certain situations are left unresolved. And let's not forget the cringy dialogue. It's getting worse in seasons 2 and 3.
The directing is actually quite sleek and sets the tone for the show. I especially like the colors in the cinematography, particularly the lake scenes.
Speaking of tone, that's one of my main problems of the show. The creators are trying their damnest to make this show edgy and it comes off jarring. It's dark, dour and depressing. When it comes to the comparisons of Twin Peaks, that TV series was able to have lighter comedic moments to balance out the show's more disturbing moments. Riverdale tries that but not only the humor doesn't work, but it also comes in at the most inappropriate times. That also goes for the darker elements, in which the creators take it too far. This all leads to the final moments of the last two episodes.
*Major Spoilers*
So, it turns out that F.P. was the one who killed Jason since his letterman's jacket was found in F.P.'s closet. But it's actually revealed that F.P. was framed and he knew was framed. When Archie and the gang go into the evidence locker with Kevin, they start to examine it. Betty puts on the jacket and finds a flash drive hidden under the left pocket. To any wonder why the police didn't examine the jacket while it was in custody is anyone's guess. Oh well.
Once they uncover that it's actually video footage, it shows Jason being beaten and tied to a chair, presumably by one of the serpents gang who was found dead by drug overdose. But he suddenly leaves and the real culprit turns out to be...
Clifford Blossom himself! Turns out, he was actually running a drug ring to cover up his maple business while the serpents did his bidding. It's unbelievable. It's like they're trying to make this guy into a supervillain. But here's the real kicker. Once he appears in the video, Clifford pulls out a gun and shoots Jason in cold blood. Woah! That's when I thought the show was going way too dark. I knew when I read the Afterlife with Archie, it had a lot of blood, gore, and violence but this was way more out of bounds. Clifford kills his own son with no remorse. It's like the writers are trying to make the Blossoms into sociopaths. WTF! This would work if this was its own thing but not in the world of Archie. It's just too surreal.
So once the mystery is solved and as the police come to arrest Clifford, he is found hanging in his maple farm barn from an apparent suicide.
This leads to the last episode where everything is supposedly back to normal. Betty and Jughead are together, Archie and Veronica are together. Everyone's happy and light, blah, blah, blah. This episode was kind of drag and was just there to wrap things up.
But just wait! There's a cliffhanger in the end. Yes, a cliffhanger just comes out of nowhere. What happens is Archie and his dad are hanging out at Pops' when suddenly an intruder comes in with a gun. Once the intruder fires his gun at Fred, Archie races in to block his way and...boom! end of episode.
Okay, here are my thoughts on how the two episodes should've played out.
What if the killer turned out to be Hal Cooper. Judging from the intense animosity he has for the Blossom family, what if Hal was the one who knew about Clifford's drug cover-up and his connections to The Serpents, in which he uses to frame F.P. Then when it comes to the murder of Jason, it makes sense that he would have him killed because Jason, of course, had Polly impregnated and was planning to run away with her. Therefore, that also leads to Hal framing Clifford because of his criminal connections, which leads to Hal killing him by hanging and writing a confessional suicide note. Case in point, nobody knows where Hal is. And then, that leads to the cliffhanger. Now that would've had the audience enthralled. Just my suggestion.
Now here are my final thoughts.
Riverdale is okay for what it is if you ignore the fact these are Archie characters. I'm not trying to take this seriously or anything, I know it's a guilty pleasure. But the thing is, this would worked as its own original show or better yet, a remake of Night and Day. I don't think the first season of Riverdale is terrible, I mean it does have it's cheesy moments, but it's not god-awful. However, it is pretty run-of-the-mill for a teen drama, though not without potential. Unfornately, that potential gets wasted in the final few episodes, leading to the second season.
Oh boy, that means I have to review the second season. Yikes!
I'll see ya there!
