Archie Andrews is sleeping with Miss Grundy. For those familiar with the original comic, this may take a moment to digest, but Netflix’s new “Riverdale” series offers a very different take on the original. This is Riverdale High for a new generation, one that isn’t interested in the idyllic laissez-faire of the original teenage coming-of-age adventures of Archie and company.
With requisite portions of adolescent angst and a subversive sub-plot, Netflix is turning the Archie universe on its head. Don’t tune in if you are looking for nostalgia; this latest incarnation is sure to shatter any pastoral impressions of teenage life left by the paperback comics.
In the Archie world of yesteryear, Miss Grundy is an old schoolmarm and the polar opposite of adolescent desire. But in the television series she is a young, sultry librarian with a predatory eye for the 15-year-old Archie Andrews. In the alternate “Riverdale” universe, this is just par for the course of young people making very adult decisions.
This Grundy subplot has been described as a “racy” and “forbidden romance,” but there is another phrase more fitting: statutory rape. It’s a term that doesn’t sell nearly as well as “racy” but it is most apt considering the circumstances.
If the genders were reversed in this instance the reaction would be much different and the subplot would carry a more sinister edge. Predatory behaviour perpetrated on kids is something that has long been proven to have lasting, damaging consequences for the youth involved, regardless of gender.
There should be legitimate concern when things of this nature creep into mainstream television—making it seem like a teacher having sex with a 15-year-old is par for the course of growing up. The blurred lines between reality and fantasy are getting harder to distinguish when it comes to the societal influence of our entertainment consumption.
