I saw the pilot at SDCC 2016!
I thought I'd toss in my two cents since everyone is speculating. I was lucky enough to see the pilot at San Diego Comic Con. The show does have some promise. It's a Greg Berlanti produced show and he's quite popular right now producing shows like Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Blindspot. It's definitely not the Archie comics you grew up with. The show is kinda dark. Everyone kept saying it has a Twin Peaks vibe. The town of Riverdale in the show looks kinda "dreamy," foggy, Twilight look. It's hard to describe. The dynamic of the characters does feel kind of like Gossip Girl.
Major spoilers ahead. Please..... only read it if you don't mind spoilers. The show starts off with the murder of one of the Riverdale kids on a lake and a gunshot is heard in the distance. From there it goes to Veronica Lodge and her mom moving into town after some kind of financial scandal. They move to Riverdale because that's where she grew up as a child. Her dad, who I remember clearly from the comics, does not come out or is mentioned in the pilot episode. Then you get Archie and Betty who are in high school. They have that on again/off again romance thing going. Betty's mom is really strict and mean with her. Luke Perry plays Archie's dad and he's featured prominently. There's some history behind him and Veronica's mom from the past although they don't get into that.
Veronica heads to high school where she's a bit of a bitch and she somehow ends up making friends with Betty. The main antagonist of the episode seemed to be Cheryl Blossom, who absolutely hates Betty. There's some history there which I'm sure will be explored in the future. She's very mean to Betty. Veronica is asked to join the Cheerleading squad, but will only join if Betty can join to. It pisses off the Cheryl character big time. The show goes off on a few tangents. One of the bigger WTF moments is that Archie was intimate with Ms. Grundy. Yes, you read that right. And yes.... Ms. Grundy is hot and young on the show. **Here's the big spoiler** It turns out they were out on the lake the day of the murder. They heard the gunshot and saw something. However, they fear telling everyone because... well... they were having sex and that's pretty much illegal. It doesn't specifically say, but it really alludes to it. So that's their secret. Also, the murdered kid is Cheryl Blossom's twin brother.
The show ended on a cliffhanger for episode 2 where at the end the body is discovered in the lake. The show features Reggie, Dilton, Moose, and Jughead although in very minor minor parts. Some you don't even recognize because their names are only slightly mentioned. It's primarily just Archie, Betty, and Veronica. You also get to see Josie and the Pussycats. In this version they're African American. They also play a cover of some recent top 40 hit at some dance during the show. I forgot which song it was?
The show seems to have potential. It moves at a slow pace. It's not horrible, but probably not something I want to continue watching. I feel like I've definitely outgrown this genre. I honestly think it'll be a hit though. Like I mentioned.... it has a very Gossip Girl vibe to it. Just by watching it you can definitely tell that they could incorporate Sabrina somehow. The town feels like Salem anyway. Very gloomy, dark, foggy, and dreamlike. Let's all see what's in store with this show.