Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers.
I used to love Riverdale once. But now, I am a very disappointed fan. The show had something unique about it that we had not been exposed to before. Sure, 13 Reasons Why and Gossip Girl also had the same premise of high schools, jocks, and cheerleaders, but their approaches were vastly different.
Riverdale used to be this breath of fresh air that we could turn to for a real as life reenactment of our beloved Archie comics characters. It knew what it was throughout the first season: a teen drama with a sprinkle of mystery and a dash of craziness. The characters were well thought out. They had quirks, they had a reason to exist, and even as they piled on one supporting actor after another, the core cast of the four lead actors was rock hard and the chemistry between them was palpable.
If I sat down to write about all that was good, there would be tons to write about because it was a show that really was enjoyable at a point in time. Then came seasons two and three and as the show runners began to forget what the series was really about, I began to lose touch with the reasons why I loved the show.
Season two started out strong with the introduction of the menacing “Black Hood”. Then it brought in the character of Chic and all other subsequent mishaps that befell the mother-daughter duo of Alice and Betty had an agonisingly poor execution. On the other side of the small town, Archie struggled with his loyalty towards his girlfriend's father, and his friends and family, which frankly should not have been a topic of discussion since Hiram Lodge is a convicted criminal, but I guess love does make one blind.
Let's not even go into all the other subplots throughout the show, but that brings me to my second point: there is no one true plot to focus on. It starts off with the Black Hood and then diverges so extensively that the whole mess spills out into season three. The most horrid part of season three had to be the storyline of Archie; take him out of the picture, like pluck him right out of Riverdale, and it would not make any difference whatsoever to whatever is happening in the town. Perhaps, they should have done just that—an Archie spinoff on how he fought off and escaped from a bear, and maybe he would have also won an Emmy, who knows?
Just like season two, this new season has far too many things happening at once. They want to bring in supernatural elements, mystery, romance, and forceful character arcs, and so at the end of the day, they have more mess to resolve than resolved messes. The biggest question for me personally, how did Veronica, who was so crazy for Archie that she literally helped mastermind a jailbreak for him, move on without so much of an episode showing her shedding tears from him? I mean, kudos to her for being so strong but it really begs the question—were they even in love?
And it is questions like these that keep me awake at night while I have exams to study for.
Subaita likes cats and dogs and everything that hops. Send her your favourite animal pictures at subaita.fairooz@gmail.com
