Riverdale, Season 1 Episode 3 Review

Last night’s episode of Riverdale has pretty much solidified my love for Veronica Lodge as just about the best friend Betty Cooper has ever had. The show told us in the pilot that this honor belongs to Archie, but he’s basically out for himself right now. In fact, that’s one of the things that’s annoying me about the show - we don’t know why he and Jughead are on the outs, and he’s certainly not hanging with the gang at Pop’s the way we’ve been used to in the books. Kevin had a claim to BFF status with Betty too, but so far he’s a bit too one-dimensional for that to be believable. Newsflash, CW, 1998 called and it wants its “Jack, the wacky gay neighbor” back. 

I’m also going to take the opportunity now to be “that fan”, and complain about how some of the characterizations here don’t match their comic book counterparts. For the most part that’s okay with me; this is pretty much an “elseworld” anyway. But I was dismayed to see that a perfectly juicy plot involving the football jocks had to tarnish the good name of Chuck Clayton. Longtime Archie fans will know him as only the second African-American character introduced to the world of Riverdale. He’s still a football player there too, but also a smart, talented artist who wants to break into cartooning and comic books. This Chuck? He’s said to be on an Ivy League track, but he’s mostly letting the little head do the thinking for the big one, and the only book he’s writing is of the slut-shaming variety.

Now that I’ve complained a whole lot, let me say that I love the contrast in this episode between the trashy tabloid-news angle that Betty’s mom is taking and the earnest, Lois Lane-type reporting that Betty herself is doing with Riverdale High’s school paper. It was extra nice to see a classroom filled with what looked like old Apple II’s; goodness knows that’s about the level of respect that print journalism is getting in American schools these days! I also enjoyed seeing the Pussycats starting to take Archie a bit more seriously, but only after Josie drops a pretty major truth-bomb on him about how easy stuff is for him. And seeing Cheryl’s mom sucker-punch Betty’s mom was quite possibly my favorite part of the whole evening! It’s fairly clear how these two girls have ended up the way they have. And just gonna mention that I totally called the “burn book” plot point in my very first review, although not quite the way it happened here.

That brings me to the final bit of “ick” I have with this episode. As believable as the whole “points for shagging girls” thing is, and as satisfying as it was to see Chuck squirm in the hot tub, the writers may have crossed a bit of a line with Betty and her black wig and maple syrup. (BTW, do *not* Google “sticky maple”. Just don’t. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.) I’m not sure we needed to see her dial up the crazy that much for justice to be served. On the flip side, it looks like we’re about to be done with the creep-tastic Miss Grundy storyline, and I’m glad the preview for next week makes it clear that she’s not who she says she is. 

I would also be remiss if I didn’t note that all of the episode titles released so far are dark/noir movie titles, which I love! References warm my cold, black heart for sure.  And I’m loving that iTunes appears to be putting music singles from the episodes on sale the way they did with “Glee”. I also adore the way the show plays with the fact that Ethel Muggs is played by the same actress who played fan favorite Barb from “Stranger Things”. The wardrobe department even dressed her mostly the same! Oh, and then made her absent parents the owners of the pool and hot tub that was used in Chuck’s comeuppance. I see what you did there, show. Just don’t send anybody into the Upside Down and we’ll be OK. It looks like things are going to start getting even more real next week, and I absolutely can’t wait!