Join us for the second Weird TV lecture in 2025!
Olga Gajek (University of Warsaw)
„I’m weird. I’m a weirdo.” The Allure of Unhinged Teen Television Drama Series Riverdale (2017-2023)
Thursday, January 23, 2025
4:45 pm
*3 OZN*
Where?
Dobra 55, room: 2.118
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)
What?
Teen TV programming by The CW Television Network in the last 20 years has been a wildly successful blend of soap opera, generational saga, crime, the paranormal, and erotica. This paper argues that the drama series Riverdale (2017-2023) is the last show of this kind due to its week-to-week broadcasting format, as well as its convoluted, absurd, weird, and addictive storytelling. In the span of 6 years and 7 seasons, Riverdale explored various themes and topics: serial killers, occultism, time traveling, parallel universes, superpowers, folk tales, witchcraft, and many, many more. On a purely visual level, the show does take its inspiration from the grand tradition of horror/thriller genre storytelling, BUT is it camp, pastiche, or pure kitsch? This paper attempts to situate Riverdale within a broader context of both cult cinema/TV, and teen film studies. Finally, Riverdale’s weirdness and ridiculousness would be nothing without the show’s internet discourse, fandom, and critical reception, which are part of this analysis.
Who?
Olga Gajek is a BA and MA graduate of the ASC, and is currently doing her PhD at the University of Warsaw. Her academic interests include film, especially horror genre and exploitation cinema, popular culture, disability studies and mad studies. She is a member of Pracownia Gender/Sexuality, as well as its Student Chapter at the ASC.
