The first episode of Riverdale promised us a combination of, you could say, The OC and Twin Peaks. It’s high school, and it’s murder. It’s weird but there’s also teen love. Five episodes in and we have neither. Riverdale, who are you?
A small town murder
The very first introduction to the mystery of Jason Blossom gave us the Twin Peaks-esque vibe. A murder in a small town (gasp!) the town is forever changed (or has it?)
Episode 5 no doubt laid down some more layers of insane story plots. Most revealing, Cheryl’s great-grandfather murdered Betty’s great-grandfather while in the maple syrup business ultimately creating a generations long feud. But, insane plots have been done and continue to be done. The Blossom’s old and creepy house with a cemetery, the old and creepy Aunt Rose, and Cheryl’s head-turning entrance to Jason’s memorial – dressed in a white dress that looked a little like she was marrying her dead twin– that’s the unusual we need.
To be worthy of being compared to Twin Peaks, you have to have the guts to go with the weird. Twin Peaks did not dip their toe into the unusual; they jumped right into the deep end with everything plus the kitchen sink (and probably dressed as a goblin, I mean it was Twin Peaks after all).
Riverdale doesn’t need to go to the Twin Peaks level. But starting off the show with the scene of Cheryl and Jason, both dressed from top to bottom in laundry detergent commercial worthy white, on a lake, in a rowboat? That gave us the impression Riverdale wasn’t going to be the run-of-the-mill kind of show. They spent so much effort into creating such a stylized introduction to Cheryl and Jason; to throw it all away by making it another complicated mystery with layers upon layers of overused teen soap drama is disappointing.
Be the unique show we all know exists within you Riverdale! The unusual lurks beneath, don’t be afraid to let it free.
A high school drama
This is where most of Riverdale‘s problems live. The weird and unusual, while lacking, can be introduced as the show progresses. However, you would think Riverdale would easily have the high school drama already set in place.
Thankfully the writers realized their mistake with the Ms. Grundy story and booted her out, but it was too quick and sloppy. The 30 second “investigation” Betty and Veronica embarked on was more of a Disney Channel type material. Besides the statutory rape Riverdale decided not to deal with, the Ms. Grundy mystery was discovered and solved within one episode.
Overall the so-called friendship between Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead feels so disconnected. Betty and Jughead spend the most time together, apparently running the entire investigation of Jason and Polly, while Archie basically stars in a completely different show about music and football, and Veronica becomes the unexpected confidante to Cheryl.
Riverdale is suffering with character development. Betty goes from stepping out of her good-girl self into a badass revenge seeker, to only go back to her good-girl self within a span of two episodes. Kevin started out as being a prominent gay character, to not being featured at all. The list goes on. These aren’t cliffhangers, they are underdevelopment character and story lines.
A show can’t lean too much on the murder mystery if we can’t even get to know the characters. Pretty Little Liars is a good example of having a extremely crazy murder–who knows what is going on – story, but also having a core group of characters everyone gets to know and love.