Editorial - Catching up with Riverdale

It's been a while since I've talked about this series, because I simply haven't had the time to give it full reviews. But I have been keeping an eye and have skimmed all of the episodes that have aired to date, the rest I've found kind of uncomfortable to watch but I'll get to that.

Just a heads up, I have not rewatched every episode for this, I'm just basing this on my thoughts from initial viewing. I'll divide my thoughts into sections because why not

The mystery

Stretching a mystery out over a long period is not an easy task. You need to be able to drip-feed information so it feels like progress is being made but not reveal too much too early. Here's a list of things we know so far

- Jason Blossom died a week after the incident on the boat
- Jason faked his death on the boat with Cheryl
- Polly Cooper is carrying Jason's child
- There is a blood feud between the Blossoms and the Coopers
- Jason was buying drugs from the Serpent gang, lead by Jughead's father, purportedly a one time deal to make enough money to run away with Polly.
- Jughead's father has Jason's coat and has an informant in the police station

There are other plot details but these seem the most relevant to the case. For me I'm surprised the one in bold isn't more clearly investigated in the story as the killer would either have to have known about Jason faking his death or stumbled upon him after, whilst he was trying to keep a low profile. Means Motive and Opportunity are 3 quintessential questions in an investigation, opportunity is a very limited window.

The fact is, I don't think we know anything yet, a lot of answers seem quite obvious and I'd be disappointed if any of them actually are the killer.

So, the mystery's kind of dry, what about other subplots?

Miss Grundy
Thankfully this icky relationship, made even ickier when you hear Miss Grundy was a victim of abuse prior to leaving and changed her name to that of an old lady more similar to the comics, is cut short within the first 5 episodes. This subplot was awful, it needed to go die somewhere and I think it's dead for the time being. Were there consequences, yes, but it was over after one episode of people finding and that's not enough for a lasting impact. (Aside from Archie moping, which I don't count)

The Drive-in
Perhaps the most prominent subplot at present is the sale and redevelopment of the drive in. There are various threads to this one. The most prominent is Veronica's mother's affair with Fred Andrews, Archie's father. Fred gets the contract for redevelopment of the site, much needed as his business prospects aren't looking good without it. But Veronica's mother had to forge Veronica's signature in order to secure it as Veronica didn't want the two in a relationship. They came to a truce but when work started new problems started to emerge as enemies crawl out from every corner.

Jughead was currently not living with his father, leader of the Serpents who ended up securing the land for Veronica's mother, thanks to a payout from the father. Jughead's briefly gets his father to work for Fred again but it doesn't pan out very long and with Jughead's home at the Drive-in gone, Archie invites him over. Honestly, it's about the only good deed Archie's done in the entire series, well, that and helping his dad over.

Polly Cooper
OK, so Betty's sister Polly is, as stated above, pregnant with Jason's baby, they married in secret, kinda, sorta and were planning to run away together. Polly was caught and is sent to a corrective institute whilst lying that she's unwell, you know, the only rational thing to do if you find your daughter is pregnant. She claims not to have known about Jason's death until Betty told her after her extensive search for her. The most recent episode had a focus on the family in which she'd choose, whilst they try, it's hard to feel sorry for her mother after she fails, even she had quite a good scene after discovering he'd tried to get her to have an abortion (guys, leave the pro-life stuff there, please!) as for the Blossoms, well, they're cartoon villains so maybe the mother is the better choice.

Cheryl Blossom
Her arc is largely tied with getting over Jason's death. That and dealing with the cartoon villains that are her parents. She's deliberately unlikable for most of the episodes so it's hard to muster up much sympathy for her when her parents put their foot down, especially since the arc is resolved in the very next episode.

Other notes
The obnoxious Jughead narration is unfortunately very much present through the series. But by far the biggest weakness this show has is Archie himself. There is only so much you can have a character do whilst remaining likeable. For some, Miss Grundy is too far, even if Grundy herself shares that blame. For me, for every good deed Archie does there seem to be 2 or 3 ill deeds he does to counter. Leaving Jughead without an explanation, not reporting the gunshot (which turned out to be completely unimportant but still) his relationships with just about every other women in the cast, including Cheryl next week apparently. Yet, Archie is the core character of the series, and we're supposed to sympathise with him.

This show has many issues but there are sparks of a good show here, enough to keep me watching, but however bad this gets, join me later this month for something much much worse.