Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are debunking the romanticization of America's 1950s heyday

Slate

The CW and Netflix teen dramas, both from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, "are built on a similar retrograde aesthetic," says Elizabeth Skoski. "But unlike their ’70s and ’80s counterparts, the shows use it not just to create setting, but as a vehicle to address deeper contemporary issues. Their surfaces ooze with the best memories of vintage purity meant to make them feel untouchable, secure, and wholesome. But just as underneath their veneers, the towns of Riverdale and Greendale are actually filled with secrets, murders, and lies from serial killers to literal witch hunts, the harkened-to time period itself, that late 1950s/early 1960s heyday that conservative America loves to portray as 'great,' is a lie that ignores its true history. The longing for a romanticized past ignores the era’s segregation, sexism, and homophobia (or maybe it longs for those things, too, but never out loud). Instead of ignoring these issues, Riverdale and Sabrina lean into them—hard."