ICONIC SHOTS of an American SMALL TOWN. Beginning with: A “Welcome
to Riverdale” sign. Its faded motto: “The Town with Pep!”
A Male Teenager’s VOICE-OVER narrates:
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
There is an idea of Riverdale...
WE SEE: Nondescript SUBURBAN STREETS, anonymous, mysterious.
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
...of what kind of town it is, what sort
of families live there...
WE SEE: Riverdale’s MAIN DRAG. Store-fronts, local businesses.
People, different ages, sizes, races, walking...
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
...a notion that it exists unchanged and
unchanging, as if frozen in a time-capsule...
WE CYCLE THROUGH IMAGES OF: City Hall, Pickins Park, the Bijou
Movie Theatre, the Fire Station, the 24-hour Diner, POP’S...
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
...that it must be exactly how it presents
itself to the outside world. Safe. Decent.
Innocent. So that if you were looking at it
from the window of a train, rushing by, you
might wish you lived there...
WE SEE: A DERELICT BUILDING, with boarded-up windows, brick walls
covered in graffiti; a couple of skinny, possibly methed-out KIDS
stumbling into the building’s dark DOORWAY...
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
...but that’s only one aspect of it, and
only on the surface...
IMAGES OF: The High School, the Police Station, the Comic Book
Shop, the Train Station, the Liquor Store...
UNSEEN MALE TEEN (V.O.)
...the truth is, if you really want to
understand Riverdale, and what kind of
place it is, I have to tell you about its
shadows, the town beneath the town...
EXT. SWEETWATER RIVER - EARLY MORNING
A beautiful, slow-moving RIVER, eternal, hypnotic.