Riverdale

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Chapter 18 verse 22. "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Chapter 20 verse 13."
— {{{2}}}

Riverdale

"In case you haven’t noticed, I’m weird. I’m a weirdo. I don’t “fit in” and I don’t WANT to fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on? That’s weird."

Genre:	Teen Mystery Crime Drama
Running Time:	42-46 minutes
Country:	United States
Release Date:	January 26, 2017 – present
Network(s):	The CW
Created by:	Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Distributed by:	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Starring:	KJ Apa Lili Reinhart Camila Mendes Cole Sprouse Marisol Nichols Madelaine Petsch Ashleigh Murray Mädchen Amick Luke Perry Mark Consuelos Casey Cott Skeet Ulrich Charles Melton Vanessa Morgan
Seasons:	5
Episodes:	86

Riverdale is an American teen drama television series based on the characters of Archie Comics. The series was adapted for The CW by Archie Comics' chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and is produced by Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, in association with Berlanti Productions and Archie Comics.

Plot

Archie Andrews starts the school year with the world weighing on his shoulders. He's decided he wants to pursue a future in the music business, but his recently ended clandestine relationship with the music teacher has left him without a mentor, and his friendship with Jughead Jones is in a bad place. Things look like they might be turning around when Veronica Lodge, a new girl, arrives. Despite the instant chemistry, Veronica is hesitant to risk a friendship with Betty -- who has a crush on Archie -- to pursue anything. Amidst all the small-town banality lurks a mystery: the recent tragic death of Jason Blossom, the twin brother of a beautiful and popular troublemaker, Cheryl.

Why It Sucks

While making a TV series based on an Archie Comics property and aimed at mature audiences could have been a good idea, it was done poorly in this case, as most of the character’s personalities are butchered and it takes itself too seriously (as mention below).
- Keep in mind that there is already a reboot in the comics made for teenage audiences (known as New Riverdale), which is a lot more faithful to its source material than Riverdale.
The show is notorious for its poor writing. Because of this, it comes off as being cringe inducing rather than dark and serious. It also makes it feel like the writers never went to high school or even read the Archie Comics. Most of the dialogue sounds like those cringey Wattpad fanfictions.
Horrendous, unrealistic and straight up laughable dialogue, due to the poor writing, such as the following:
- Jughead's infamous "I'm weird" speech.
- Archie's "Highs and lows of football" speech.
- Every time Veronica calls Archie "Archiekins" or Hiram "daddy" or "daddykins."
- Every time Cheryl calls Penelope "mumsey."
- Josie calling Archie "Justin Gingerlake."
- "No one invited fascist barbie to the party."
- "Listen up, ragamuffins."
- "He overdosed on Jingle Jangle!"
- "A Vughead kiss could save a future Bughead kiss from imploding" (do they realize those words sound exactly the same?)
- "I'm gonna make my bones with you..."
- "We're endgame Archie."
- "I invented red, I am red."
- "I beg your misogynistic pardon?"
- "I might have to punish you."
- "We are generation Z" (The actor who says it it's a millennial)
- "I dropped out of 4th grade to run drugs to support my nana."
- "The serpent queen, is a warrior queen."
- "Shut the hell up, Imposter!"
- "I'd recognize those abs anywhere."
- "I'm the ultimate wild card"
- "The serial killer gene"
- "Listen up fives! A ten is speaking!"
- Mostly everything Cheryl Blossom says.
The characters have now been butchered.
- Archie tries way too hard to be like a badass, but instead comes off as a stooge.
  - There are multiple moments in the show where he acts like a complete jerk. For example, he breaks up with Veronica because she's not ready to say she loves him, but is later seen kissing Betty; in fact, at this point, he has basically been with almost every girl on the show.
- Betty, for some reason, has a dark side where she puts on a black wig and lacy underwear while she has sex with Jughead.
  - Also, Betty has two twin siblings are named Juniper and Dagwood. Who named these characters?!
- Jughead's asexuality, which was present in the comics, was very unnecessarily erased, and he openly has sex on screen, making the show acephobic.
- Veronica has moments where she acts like a stereotypical feminist and a complete hypocrite, especially in one episode where she blurts out a toxic masculinity comment in the hallways.
  - She also snaps "Thank you for mansplaining my business to me!" at someone who promises to help break Archie out of prison in the same episode.
- Cheryl Blossom is the typical spoiled and annoying mean girl who thinks she's above everyone except that she takes it way too far to the point where she gets offended when someone gives her an order. Also, she thinks she owns the color Red just because she likes the color. Seriously?!
Gross moments in many episodes and the show itself:
- The show constantly sexualizes teenagers who are supposed to be around 16-18, making the crew members ephebophiles. There are WAY too many shirtless scenes of the male characters, especially Archie as well as many female characters wearing revealing clothing. Also, the show relies on girls twerking a lot!
- For being in high school, these characters wear a lot of clothing that would get them suspended. Incredibly short mini skirts? We don’t think so. Cleavage-baring tank tops? Definitely not. While we understand that it is a fictional TV show based on comic book characters, there are some aspects of high school life that should still be realistic.
- The show also hinted at an incestuous relationship between Cheryl and Jason, which is illegal in real life.
- Betty's stripper dance; if that doesn't sound creepy enough, she does it in front of her mom.
- When Archie, a minor, had a sexual relationship with an adult teacher, which is illegal.
- When Archie was in prison, Veronica and the Vixens arrive in their cheerleader outfits and start to sing and dance to "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley, which is inappropriate as the girls are minors, wearing short skirts, and are dancing suggestively as the boys aggressively shake the fence. Also, the guards do nothing about it.
Like 13 Reasons Why, it takes itself way too seriously.
It is not faithful to the original comics at all.
Many unlikable characters, such as: Penelope Blossom, Hiram Lodge, Reggie and Hal Cooper
- Archie and Cheryl can be unlikable characters at times.
The show's attempts at having funny moments come off as cringe and stupid due to the bad writing and dialogue.
Most of the characters barely have any chemistry with each other, especially Archie and Veronica as the latter constantly says unnecessary and stupid things that visibly annoy and irritate Archie.
Honestly, nothing in this show makes sense anymore. Especially (spoilers) the trend in season four where they keep revealing that characters have secret siblings. What is up with that?
Another odd choice they made was to have the big bad of last season, Edgar Evernever, have his master plan be that he wanted to build a ROCKET.
Poorly written LGBT characters such as Kevin, whose only personality trait is being gay. The way in which the show depicts queer people and even drag queens is honestly offensive.
- Also, the show has been accused of queerbaiting its audience. For example, there are instances where Betty and Veronica kiss, but the show never fully acknowledges their feelings for each other.
  - They've done the same thing with Joaquin and Archie.
They ruin perfectly good musicals with their horrible musical episodes, which make no sense in the context of the show.
- The singing and choreography is very dreadful and sounds like the actors aren't even trying.
Awful acting all around, particularly from Madelaine Petsch.
The way season 4 concluded is just nonsensical and terrible, they literally decide to kill their principal and then to get him fired solely because they don't like him and all he did was cancel their school's variety show and cancel their yearbook and prom (the whole season makes it clear that they hate him but in this episode, they took it too far); And when he confronts them after getting fired, they justify themselves saying it's normal for them because they're in Riverdale, how are we supposed to root for this characters?

Redeeming Qualities

The first season is better than the later ones.
It can be considered "so bad, it's good," especially with the third season.
Although Veronica is now Latina, she's consistently treated like an important, fully-fleshed character and not just a token, unlike the other minority characters in the series.
It was nice that the show paid tribute to the late Luke Perry (Who played Archie's Dad), who sadly passed away from a massive stroke early March 2019, by dedicating the first episode of the fourth season to him and his character.
Jughead, Betty, Kevin, Toni, Fred, F.P. and others are fully developed character and are quite likeable.

Reception

Critical response

Riverdale received a generally positive response from critics but was panned by audiences and fans of the original comics. On Rotten Tomatoes, first season has a fresh rating of 88% based on 62 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.22/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Riverdale offers an amusingly self-aware reimagining of its classic source material that proves eerie, odd, daring, and above all addictive." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Dave Nemetz of TVLine gave the series a "B+" saying that it turned out "to be an artfully crafted, instantly engaging teen soap with loads of potential."