The CW is known for two things. One is delivering pretty revered superhero content for DC, most of which was always better than the movies in recent years. The second is over-the-top teen television. With Joshua Boswell of Toontastic Journeys and Season 2 Season coming through with a crush from The CW that falls into the latter – that’s where I went too. Although, his show was probably less made fun of in the pop culture realm than mine because I have to talk about Jughead Jones from ‘Riverdale.’
Comic books as we know them with the fantastical universes and superpowers were not my cup of tea growing up, but man, oh man – I lived for the comic strips in the Sunday paper, old ‘Family Circus’ books, and the TV Guide-sized ‘Archie’ comics that were usually right by the checkout at the grocery store back in the day. My love of those had to have stemmed from watching ‘Grease’ on repeat as a kid and yearning for that ‘50s life. Of course, I didn’t quite know yet that being Black during that time was not all malt shops and sockhops. I just wanted to wear cute clothes to school and mess with jukeboxes like The Fonz, another show I watched too much via Nick at Nite. So when The CW announced that Archie and Co. were getting a series, I was intrigued.
‘Riverdale’ was a modernized take on the ‘Archie’ comics. Very obvious as the bright world from the 2D world was gone. In its place, a Hot Topic makeover for the targeted Gen Z audience; something I am not, but I watched anyway. I watched despite Archie being the most annoying character that first season when a high school drama turned into a full-on mystery encased in hormonally charged storytelling. I watched because in those first few seasons before Chad Michael Murray was harvesting organs (yup, you read that right), Jughead Jones was the bee’s knees to me. Well, him and Cherry Blossom but we’ll save the HBIC for another day.
Jughead Jones was written to represent the type of boy that you watch and instantly fall for because he’s a little strange, a little unusual. Baby, they tore a page out of Tim Burton’s playbook for this one and tossed a quirky little beanie on him, and called it a day. Jughead is creative (writer), misunderstood (his home life is rocky), and while he’s handsome – he isn’t the stereotypical high school hunk AKA his jock bestie, Archie. He was designed for the emo kids out there, or whatever it is the youths label themselves today. And yes, I fell for it because there’s always going to be a piece of me that wishes they could spend all of their money on new buttons, band tees, and bomb-ass Converse.
Also, out of all the characters – Jughead was never as annoying to me as the others were. Well, the core four. Cheryl Blossom is excluded because she is above everyone in my eyes. I say these things as someone who has not finished the series because again, that Chad Michael Murray business took me out to the ballfield where I was then struck in the head by a homerun, forgotten on the field due to a celebratory win, and left dead. It was strange.
However, not strange and unusual in the same sense as ‘Riverdale’s’ resident weirdo. Something he proclaims very early on. Something that should’ve made me go, ick! It didn’t though because I was old enough to understand Jughead wasn’t necessarily written for me, but I could appreciate him for what he meant to a new crop of fangirls who would look back at him the same way me and those from my generation look back fondly at Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen from The O.C. A formative crush that set the bar way too high for a fictional character.
For a good amount of time, The CW produced a lot of pretty decent shows. Were they for everyone? No. Vampires, superheroes, crime-solving teens from an adapted comic book – perhaps not for everyone but I was excited when Joshua came to the show with a crush from this network because it gave me a chance to spill about a beloved weirdo, as well as think back on some other crushes that came from this realm.
Crushgasm 
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