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Riverdale is as soon as once more the most effective present on TV. For a collection that has swerved from one wild sequence to the subsequent, Rivervale — the five-episode alternate universe spinoff present, airing now — feels notably audacious, introducing a brand new horror idea every episode with little to no narrative throughline in any other case.
To this point, we’ve had cameos from the Midsommar cult, La Llorona, the Satan himself, and even Sabrina the teenage witch, now returned from the useless (or, at the least, alive). In one other present, all of which may threaten to swallow the narrative complete. However in Riverdale it’s simply one other Tuesday.
To this point this season, characters have died; automobiles have been haunted by ex-predators; pregnancies got here and went; and, apparently, an immortal (extra on that in a second) was simply one of many core solid. Because the five-episode run begins to return to its shut, we’re left reflecting on what we hope will come again with us to the common world of Riverdale, and what ought to endlessly keep within the realm of Rivervale.
[Ed. Note: This discussion contains spoilers (insofar as one can spoil the thrills of Riverdale) for the four episodes of Rivervale that have aired so far.]
Zosha: I feel a very good place to begin that is the place you have been on Riverdale coming into Rivervale. I, personally, can be driving with Riverdale like the top of Dr. Strangelove, which is to say, to both of our inevitable conclusions on this world. It’s fearless simply as usually as it’s nonsensical, which suggests it’s usually my favourite factor on TV. And finally the factor I’m most afraid of is that it’ll in the future bore me. How about you two — what’s your relationship with Riverdale been like?
Petrana: I watched the primary season of Riverdale and loved it rather a lot, however I dropped off across the second season as a result of it simply felt … like an excessive amount of. I feel at that time it had not but reached the extent of WTF that we all know and love at this time and was nonetheless considerably severe (kinda???), so I dropped it and solely absorbed it through popular culture osmosis. I heard more and more unbelievable issues: Betty had a serial killer gene? There was a drug referred to as jingle jangle? Archie fought a bear? Cheryl was making an attempt to ascend to sainthood by faking stigmata?
The promise of a Sabrina crossover is what drew me again in for these few episodes — I like supernatural stuff, so I used to be pleasantly shocked with how enjoyable “Riverdale, however with paranormal parts!” ended up being.
Toni and La Llorona, earlier than Toni takes over because the supernatural entity on the finish of the episode
Photograph: Colin Bentley/The CW
Joshua: What’s one step down from “ride-or-die”? That’s me and Riverdale. I used to be all-in on Day One, however round season 4 my devotion petered out a bit and I began admiring Riverdale at a distance, sometimes dropping in for the odd musical episode or after I caught wind that there have been murderers afoot carrying the faces of those characters’ basic Archie Comics counterparts. I’m a “ride-with-a-reasonable-amount, at a accountable hour” fan. That mentioned, this Rivervale kick the present began season 6 with? J’adore. I are not looking for it to finish.
How about you two? Is it going to be exhausting so that you can return to common previous Riverdale as soon as our spooky sojourn in Rivervale involves an finish?
Petrana: I don’t need it to finish in any respect! Weirdly sufficient, Rivervale is hitting a particular area of interest of TV I didn’t understand I used to be lacking: episodic, paranormal segments, the place every subsequent episode has little-to-nothing to do with the earlier, however nonetheless carries on an analogous thread. On this case, it’s the truth that all of it takes place in the identical city, with the identical characters. They’ve actually leaned into the Twilight Zone of all of it, with Jughead taking up the Rod Serling character. Every new episode has launched some extremely highly effective and damaging plot component — the third one was mainly about an impending battle between angels and demons happening at Pop’s Diner?! — solely to only fully vanish within the subsequent episode. Characters even die and nobody actually feedback on how or the place they go. Nothing is actual, which suggests every little thing will be actual! How can we even come again from that?
Zosha: I’m rather more pleasantly shocked by it than I assumed I’d be! I’m all in on Riverdale, however at first this chunk of the present appeared engineered solely to herald the magical world of Sabrina that I used to be skeptical; I all the time thought that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina felt wobbly, the place Riverdale was nearly overtly steady as a result of the foundations of fantasy demand extra clear-cut guardrails, whereas soaps might shade exterior the traces a bit. Introducing supernatural parts appeared like perhaps the one factor that might pierce Riverdale’s teflon armor.
However I actually ought to’ve given this present extra credit score. Whereas I’m not so in love with how briskly the present drops its plotlines — I want there was a little bit extra connective tissue between the plot factors, if solely as a result of the present has earned the power to handle simply how batshit it’s that this city has now misplaced a number of family members (to change into a ritual sacrifice, or a supernatural entity) or is cautious however not shocked in any respect the supernatural developments. I like when Riverdale threads the needle on self-awareness and absolute Galaxy Mind-developments.
Maybe most bizarrely is how extraneous Sabrina’s complete factor ended up being for this season. She got here in for 5 minutes of display screen time, and some of the complicated reveals within the present’s historical past, and that was it!
Poppy, the Nineteen Fifties iteration of one of many Blossom ladies we observe in “The Witching Hour”
Photograph: Kailey Schwerman/The CW
Petrana: My greatest query going into this was “how is Sabrina alive?” they usually simply … actually handwaved it and didn’t reply it in any respect! She actually simply goes “I used to be useless as soon as,” after which is available in to do some magic spell with Cheryl. Actress Kiernan Shipka weighed in and mainly simply mentioned, “It’s very in contrast to Sabrina to only type of chill within the Candy Hereafter. I feel she would get bored,” which, like, okay go off queen?? However nonetheless, she is available in for 5 minutes as a result of she in some way is aware of Cheryl.
I felt let down by that, even when I really actually preferred the weirdness of that episode, the place Cheryl performs three totally different Blossom ladies throughout three totally different time intervals, who find yourself all being the identical lady. She will get accused of being a communist, makes an attempt to homicide a person, and makes out with Thomasin Topaz (1800s Toni) and Bitsy (Nineteen Fifties Betty) — after which in modern-day, transfers her soul into her dying Nana’s physique in order that … Nana Rose now inhabits Cheryl’s physique? Not sure on how this impacts the next episode of Rivervale, however contemplating that none of them have remotely picked up on the place they left off, perhaps it doesn’t matter?
Joshua: I additionally wouldn’t have any concept how that labored. “Cheryl” a vessel for Abigail? I feel? So is the character the identical and simply, stuffed with 200 years of trivia? Or successfully a special particular person? Am I silly for caring? Will any of this carry over again to Riverdale correct?
Riverdale reveals a cussed insistence to make sure that the present should go on in any respect prices, and I’ll all the time find it irresistible for that. Six seasons in, the present has no scarcity of off-the-wall concepts to strive, and few guidelines it gained’t bend or break. Finally, this makes me surprise why I fell off to start with — was it exhaustion? Do I would like extra guidelines, or much less? Sorry to fill this response with rhetorical questions, however I’m making an attempt to determine if I like Rivervale as a result of I’m uninterested in Riverdale, or as a result of it’s good at one thing that Riverdale correct hasn’t been in a short while now.
Veronica acting on the evening the satan is meant to take her soul. (That is really fairly near par for the course in Riverdale.)
Photograph: Shane Harvey/THE CW
Zosha: Curiously sufficient, I feel one of many strangest factors of Rivervale is that the shine wears off a little bit extra with every episode. The primary was simply totally eerie and bombastic with its reveal; the subsequent a enjoyable, spooky, and type of unhappy meditation. However for an episode the place a person will get axed to loss of life, and Cheryl is taking part in three separate sorceresses, and there’s a Crimson Scare plotline, and two tragic queer love tales, and a cameo from a sister present, I used to be shocked at how dry the entire thing felt. It aired a little bit too carefully to season 5, which went large however might by no means appear to wrangle the tone of the present into one thing that felt as thrilling because it as soon as did. Is it doable when you’ve recognized the epic highs and lows of highschool soccer you possibly can by no means really feel pure pleasure once more?
I don’t assume so; as I discussed earlier than, each time somebody offers up on Riverdale my love grows stronger. However I do surprise easy methods to put the toothpaste again within the tube when that is all achieved. Riverdale season 5 left Betty and Archie in mortal hazard (bomb below the mattress), Veronica and Reggie seeking to flip Riverdale into Large Enterprise (positive), and Cheryl casting a curse in town after discovering her ancestor was killed for witchcraft by everybody else’s ancestors. Apart from a cursory point out on the prime of Rivervale, we’ve largely deserted that, making it exhausting to type out what can be coming again with us once we enter Jughead’s paradox subsequent week.
It appears to me that Nana Rose may keep useless, however Archie and Toni actually gained’t (this five-episode collection has been notably Archie-lite, presumably to offer KJ Apa some paternity go away, however regardless of how a lot folks care about different ships it looks like we will’t write him off in a major, non-ritual sacrifice means)? Whether or not the standard wild exploits will appear fairly as hair-raising after a plunge of supernatural story telling I’ve no technique to know at this level. It’s odd how shortly I’ve acclimated to Rivervale’s plotlines, whilst I battle to make sense of its historical past throughout the present. (If Riverdale was celebrating its seventy fifth birthday within the first season, is Rivervale canonically older than Riverdale?)
Rivervale has invigorated the present in a captivating, multifaceted means. In a way, it feels just like the closest any comedian present is coming to truly emulating the comics. What now we have here’s a restricted collection AU, the place every little thing is topsy-turvy as a method to spotlight totally different elements of the characters we “know.” It’s wildly frequent in comedian books, and even Archie Comics, the place (regardless of his squeaky picture) Archie has fought the Sharknado and Jughead has traveled via time. Perhaps Riverdale will simply have to begin leaning into each single factor its comedian legacy might probably enable it to be. (Although ideally I hope for extra creepy and weird mysteries, à la the Gargoyle King and even the twisty Prep College murders, whether or not its conclusion will fulfill me or not.)
Joshua: Yeah! Rivervale’s kinda-sorta anthology construction has made it really feel extra comic-book than Riverdale has shortly. Going off your level, Zosha, I feel it’s as a result of it pares these characters again to their essence: Archie desires to do the best factor (it will get him killed), Jughead is a author, Betty a cop, Cheryl a … witch? And as goofy as that could be, you don’t must sq. these necessities with regardless of the season-long arc is doing. There’s no pressure between author Jughead and Southside Serpent Jughead. Veronica can change into a pure lady of ambition, and never one which has to nonetheless plausibly facet with Archie ideologically or romantically every now and then.
I feel if Riverdale makes use of no matter shenanigans it must carry us again to the “regular” universe whereas additionally retaining this sort of focus, I’ll be okay. However I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I wouldn’t miss Rivervale.
Petrana: I do hope that this little Rivervale interlude permits for extra transient adventures into speculative fiction. Riverdale has the template and skill to actually embrace that and simply go wild! The closest comparability I can consider is American Horror Story centering on a special story every season, whereas utilizing the identical actors and loosely being in the identical world, however that’s not even corresponding to what Riverdale simply did. The enjoyable a part of Rivervale is that it used the preexisting characters and established relationships of Riverdale in an effort to completely swap genres and have some enjoyable (so… perhaps it’s extra just like the paintball episodes of Group? I digress).
I don’t know if I’ll return to Riverdale correct, but when Riverdale decides to do Afterlife with Archie or one other wild swing exterior of the cleaning soap opera style, signal me up. Extra AUs for Archie and friends! And perhaps subsequent time KJ Apa can be alive for many of it.
Zosha: I simply can’t imagine we didn’t contact on the truth that they performed a slowed-down acoustic cowl of “Nightcall” not as soon as however twice.
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