Who could have predicted just how nuts Riverdale would have become after that rather “normal” first season? Here in the UK, Riverdale is classed as a Netflix original, but I know that is not the case for other parts of the world. I remember hearing that they were going to do a darker more adult version of the classic Archie Comics and I wondered how in the hell that was ever going to work!
How to Download Riverdale
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you’re looking for other great TV series with teenagers, check out Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Stranger Things, or 13 Reasons Why.
Hilarious Hijinks and Heartthrobs: Riverdale’s Recipe for Success – the TV Series Review
Well, for me the main reason that it works so well is the characters. Riverdale has a large ensemble cast, but we have four key and main characters that most things are built around. I liked how the show has this large “world” and each season would build on it a bit, fleshing out side characters here and there.
Betty, Archie, Jughead & Veronica: The Fab Four That Keep Riverdale Rocking
There is Archie who is the all-American boy with an edge that lives with his father, the late great Luke Perry. Living right next to Archie is Betty, Betty is like a master detective and she has quite an interesting relationship with Archie and his friend Jughead. This show was a real breakout for stars AJ Kapa and Lilly Reinhart.
Detective Betty & Gang: Solving Crimes Between Relationship Dramas
The other two main characters are Jughead Jones and Veronica Lodge. Jughead Jones is a writer and his family is part of the Southside Serpents, with his father being the leader. Veronica on the other hand is a rich girl, new to town and her father is the dastardly Hiram Lodge.
The show starts off as a kind of murder mystery-type story where our key players are trying to solve the murder and find out who this serial killer that is stalking the town is. As a murder mystery show, Riverdale’s first couple of seasons are fantastic and I had no clue who the killer was until it was fully revealed, it always made you second guess who you thought it was.
When Murder Meets Mayhem: Riverdale’s Killer First Seasons
As the show would progress, Riverdale would get crazier and crazier. Archie wound up doing some time in prison, there was a drug epidemic in the town, and a cult, Hiram Lodge pretty much become the ultimate supervillain! There was some weird fantasy RPG-type thing going on with “evil” infiltrating the town and more.
From Teen Drama to Supernatural Saga: Riverdale’s Crazy Evolution
Now, those things that I just described that happen during the show’s seven seasons are all kind of crazy. However, they are also kind of grounded in reality as well. For the most part, Riverdale has a very dark, gritty, and grim kind of tone to it and it works very, very well for the stories that they are telling.
Riverdale’s Reality Check: Gritty Tone Grounded in the Surreal
Yet, Riverdale decided to take a pretty sharp left turn as the show moved on. I am not going to go into specific spoilers here, but aliens, superpowers, and even freaking time travel are all things that go down in Riverdale! The crazy thing is, it kind of works and is a lot of fun, even more so when you just go with it.
That brings me to something that I think is either a pro or a con, depending on how you look at it. Riverdale is a show where you have to just take all of what is happening at face value, you do this and you will have fun and enjoy the show. If you try and overthink it and decide that so many things do not make sense, the show is not going to keep hold of you and you will lose interest.
Suspend Disbelief and Enjoy the Ride: Riverdale’s All-In Attitude
The first few seasons here in the UK would see Riverdale airing once a week. Starting with season 3, I waited until the whole series had finished and was able to binge-watch it and it was so much more fun. I enjoyed it week to week, but there were so many different story paths and characters with their own things going on, it was easy to forget things by the time the next episode aired.
