Riverdale Season Two Thoughts (2017-8)
So, uh, I regret to announce that
Riverdale and I have broken up. The 13-episode first season started well, built to being very good, and the second season, picking up immediately where it left off, at first maintained that upward momentum, culminating in the series' high point to date, the three-part Season Two, Episode 7 "
Chapter Twenty: Tales From The Darkside". The first season had dealt with the mysterious murder of Jason Blossom, and the second season at first focused on a new threat, a serial killer called The Black Hood, which the show heavily based on - I kid you not - the Zodiac Killer, specifically as portrayed in David Fincher's
Zodiac.
Alas, the very next episode, "
Chapter Twenty-One: House Of The Devil" was an unmitigated fiasco, a dreary, unpleasant story in which all the bubbling inconsistencies in the series' characterizations and world-building exploded in a horribly wretched and exploitative of an underage character sequence. Its follow-up, the Christmas-themed "
Chapter Twenty-Two: Silent Night, Deadly Night", was a huge quality leap back into decency, but it also wrapped up the Black Hood storyline in contrived and unsatisfying fashion, and, for me, the series' spell was thus broken.
As I'd feared, its incredibly delicate balancing act of campy teen romance melodrama and
Twin Peaks-inspired darkness and murder storylines, first broke in "Chapter Twenty-One" and, judging by
reviews of subsequent episodes, this Humpty Dumpty hasn't, and very possibly
can't, be put together again. The writers tossed lots of paint-filled balloons in the air to juggle, which was thrilling, but once one bursts, the others followed, and have made a damned mess of things.
So, for the record, my viewing suggestion is to watch the first twenty episodes, and then either pretend the series abruptly ended on a cliffhanger high note, or else skip "Chapter Twenty-One", go directly to "Chapter Twenty-Two", and end things there. Even
if the writers suddenly embrace self-discipline, and keep their characters consistent and storylines rational and coherent while at the same time maintaining the delightfully delirious zaniness of its pre-"House of the Devil" run, I for one doubt this ship can be righted without something truly drastic, as in a massive, permanent, genre-changing alien/werewolf invasion or something of the like (and no, I'm not joking -
I'd really like to see that). In the meantime, I 100% stand by my love for those first 20 eps, and enthusiastically recommend them to any and all with an interest in "Archie Comics meets
Twin Peaks."
Riverdale
's first season is currently on US Netflix, and the second season will likely arrive around June.