Riverdale: The Complete Second Season

I didn’t know what to expect from Riverdale. I have been an Archie Comics fan since I was a wee lad (10 years old) and excitedly/disappointedly sat through the made-for-television live-action Archie special in the 80s/90s. I have had a clear picture of what the Archie world is in my mind, so color me silly when I heard that a show called Riverdale was heading to the CW, and it was going to be dark. That last word in the previous sentence is what I had a point of contention with, as Archie Comics has never intentionally been painted as a dark storytelling machine. The darkest I’ve seen the comic is when Archie and the gang thought that the principal was having some major health issues, after several fainting spells, but found out that he needed sweat pants to help alleviate the blood stoppage between his large belly and heart (yep, that story was told in the comics). Technically speaking, sure that was a dark moment in Principal Weatherbee’s life because he needed to lose weight, but it never addressed that, so it’s not exactly dark.

So, anyway, Riverdale is a thing now and apparently a pretty good thing. While certainly a departure from the comics of yesteryear, the show does take the original source of the series and does a good job of translating it to modern times. I think Jughead is a bit edgier than he needs to be, he is essentially a single kid living on his own while his father is in jail for murder, but as a whole the character translation isn’t too terribly bad. There is still high sexual tension between Archie and Veronica (less with Betty in season two, but ya know, it works), Jughead eats a lot, Pop’s restaurant is still the place to be, and everyone else falls in line. The creators of the show did a good job with translating an old comic style to new digs.

Shifting gears to season two, the season starts on a cliffhanger (and why wouldn’t it???). Archie’s father has been shot in Pop’s diner by a man in a black hood (we’ll call him Blackhood), whom is trying to erase Riverdale’s past one sin at a time. It’s a very odd plot point for the entire season, but it has a lot of connections that work and don’t work. Regardless, the motivation is interesting and the fact that you don’t get to figure out who this person is, the story does a great job with keeping that on lock down for the majority of season two, means that the writing is well done. Is a single killer hiding in a small town really something that should last the majority of a season? Probably not, as it does feel like Pretty Little Liars a bit (minus the unnecessary jargon/chatter), but it does work.

Getting back to the killer’s motivation, there is a lot of sinning going on in Riverdale. The season meticulously goes through the lives of each Riverdale-ian, showing their flaws and their sins. In one episode, we see Archie finally giving in and opening up to Veronica after Archie’s father’s incident. Archie and Veronica get it on several times, sometimes oddly enough in the middle of a crisis/murders. Continuing the sin route, we find Veronica’s family coming back together to re-spark the Lodge business with some sinister undertones accompanying the sentiment. There is another episode where Jughead joins and leads the South Side Serpents, a gang his father formerly ran, in hopes of bringing it back to where it used to be, minus the drug distribution, and proving they are a worthwhile commodity to the Riverdale community. Betty Cooper leads another story, where she has to deal with helping out the Blackhood to prevent more murders, while at the same time severing friendships (that doesn’t last long). Everyone tends to fall into the ‘sinning’ category, including the lone protector of the community Sheriff Tom Keller, who is also finding out that his son, Kevin, might be gay. Long story short, lots of ‘sinning’ going on in the eyes of Blackhood, which makes all residents a target, and keeps feeding the plot from episode to episode. It reveals the dark underbelly of a dysfunctional community that has a lot more to hide than what is on the surface. Honestly speaking, you could take this and translate it perfectly into the comic series, though you would be killing the innocence of the comic. Eh, who needs it, right? Certainly not the CW.

Ultimately, things get going and all the wheels above, including the Lodge’s storyline, which is the slowest of the bunch, gain some traction. The story towards the end of the season gets far more intriguing than it probably deserves, again credit the writing for it, and the season ends — well, we’re not going to tell you how it ends. It just does.

Overall, season two of Riverdale hangs its hat on a weak driving plot point that ends up with some strong legs by the season finale. It hits and misses with some related moments, including a gang that Archie tries to drum up to lead Blackhood out in the open, but for the most part Riverdale: The Complete Second Season is really quite solid. I know I have mentioned this twice before, but you have to credit the writing, as it does a great job with keeping the viewer engaged on the big reveal. It doesn’t work all the time, but it does work for the majority of season two.

I might have to give Riverdale another look after watching this season.