In his afterward to Archie: Collector's Edition #1 (a digital-only reprint of the first three issues of Archie Vol.2 with art by Fiona Staples, colorists Andre Szymanowicz & Jen Vaughn, and letterer Jack Morelli), writer Mark Waid explains his and Archie Comics' approach to starting a new era for comics' oldest teenagers. "All the term 'updating' meant, to me, to us, was digging a little more deeply into the kids and their personalities. It meant allowing actual, permanent conflict between them so that there's a greater, more dramatic sense of consequence to their interactions and their choices."

Waid and Archie's angle in rebooting one of the oldest settings in American comics is similar to what governs the CW's hit TV series Riverdale (whose first season is available on Netflix and returns on Wednesday, October 11 at 8 PM EST).

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What's fascinating about Riverdale is that, for all the out-there dramatic turns it throws at Archie, Jughead and everyone else -- from "Archie's sleeping with a much younger Ms. Grundy" to "The Coopers and Blossoms have hated each other for generations but they're secretly related and also the Blossom's maple syrup empire is cover for a drug ring" -- the show is honestly doesn't stray far from what 75+ years of comics have established for these characters. Betty's committed to doing the right thing for herself and everyone else; Veronica isn't above being a shallow rich kid but strives to be more; and Archie is naively well-meaning to a fault.

All these qualities are amplified in Riverdale. Here, Betty is a determined truth-seeker determined to uncover the truth about what happened to her older sister Polly. Veronica is struggling to be a better person now that she knows how corrupt her father is, and Archie is someone who believes in absolute right and wrong...but still can't see how he ruined his friendship with Jughead and how abusive his relationship with Ms. Grundy is. The core of these characters are still there, but now amped-up to match the series' knowingly melodramatic tone.

That word "knowingly' is key to understanding this show. The show's staff -- from showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa on down -- and cast understand perfectly that this show is, in one sense, an elaborate joke. How could "It's Archie, but all the parents are goddamn terrible and also there's murder" not be? But the important thing is that, while the show knows its premise is silly, it plays it perfectly straight, which is the best way to do it. For as goofy as it is to have a survivalist Dilton Doiley or a Cheryl Blossom who's eternally recreating Cruel Intentions and Crimson Peak, for the show to acknowledge this, be it through one of Jughead's oh-so-perfectly melodramatic voiceovers or some other method, would tip the balance and kill the tension.

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Gotham Is Also In On the Joke

A similar tension -- knowing the core concept is silly and playing said concept perfectly straight--is also at the core of Fox's Gotham, which just wrapped up its third season. When the show -- which follows the trials and tribulations of a young Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and a young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz)--was first announced in 2013. many were skeptical but the hope was that it could be a grounded take on Gotham City ala the much-loved Gotham Central comic. The finished product -- which Fox's then-Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly described as an "operatic soap" at the Television Critics Association press tour before its debut -- was nowhere close to that.

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And that was the smartest decision creator Bruno Heller and his crew could've made. Granted, if you go back and watch the show from the beginning, it's very rough. While Riverdale knew exactly what it was right out of the gate and only doubled down as it continued, Gotham took a bit longer to find its footing amidst too many characters and plots that didn't quite click. Still, the seed of what the show would eventually become was there in its third episode, "The Ballonman," where Gordon and his partner, Harvey Bullock (played wonderfully and hilariously by Donal Logue) deal with a serial killer who ties his victims to weather balloons then watches as their frozen corpses tumble to the ground and explode.

gotham annoying plot holes

With its second season, Gotham took a more freewheeling attitude. It's almost as if Heller and his writing staff -- which includes The Tick creator Ben Edlund -- took a moment and said to themselves, "This is a prequel to a comic about a gazillonaire dressing up as a bat and beating up murder clowns. That's pretty silly." They then worked some silliness into things, from Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) murdering the evil mayor-turned-Azrael Theo Galavan (James Frain) with a rocket launcher to Penguin and Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) being trapped in giant bird cages by the Court of Owls. This gave a ton of fuel to the compelling fan theory that Gotham is actually the dramatically overwrought prequel to Batman '66.

Still though, both Gotham and Riverdale have a lot of actual heart amidst the hootenanny. Cheryl breaking down after seeing Archie take the field in her dead twin brother's football jersey; Betty striking back against her horrible, domineering mother; Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) finally confronting her absentee mom over abandoning her; Penguin discovering his long-lost father (Paul Reubens) and joyfully reconnecting, only to have him brutally snatched away: these are all moments played big, sure, but there's palpable pathos at the heart of it all. It's hard not to be affected.

Of course, it's those big moments that make these shows discussion-worthy: take, for instance, the fun coincidence that both season finales happen to involve the lead character punching a block of ice. But, at their core, both of these shows are paying tribute to different, equally melodramtic eras of their source material. Riverdale has its roots in the Bronze Age Archie page-turners about Veronica being kidnapped or Archie & Betty careening down rapids. Gotham is taking notes from Frank Miller, Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo and every other Batman era in-between and playing it to the hilt. But they both do it out of love, not cynicism. And that's why they work: even with the silliest idea, if you have a creative staff that loves what they're doing and their source material, you've got a show that earns its jerky parents or its many Joker imposters.