Riverdale - Season 2 Review

For the entire duration of Season Two of Netflix's Riverdale, one question has haunted me for weeks - what is happening?

After the revelation that Jason Blossom was murdered by his father, the first season went out in true Virginia Andrews inspired Gothic style. Cheryl burned down her family mansion, Archie and Veronica hooked up, Betty and Jugghead's relationship was on the rocks after Jugg joined the Southside and Archie's father was shot by the mysterious Black Hood. Season One had the strongest narrative, it was clearly a mystery-thriller with a clear story goal - who killed Jason? Furthermore, this was not a "Teen Drama", it was a drama with teens at the centre.

However, Season Two has definitely fallen into the dreaded Teen Drama trope - the reason for this is the lack of consistency with the narrative flow. Television writer Shonda Rhimes said in her Masterclass - a season needs to have an overall arc, a defining question that is answered at the end. For Season Two of Riverdale this seemed clear at first, who is the Black Hood? A question that should have been enough to hook audiences, but that was not the case...

Instead there were four storylines that took centre stage, which did not compliment the plot but stirred episodes into completely different directions and left other storylines completely unresolved - I began to wonder what the plot of Season Two was about - was it about the Black Hood being a serial killer (even though most of his victims survived?), was it about Archie losing his innocence, was Betty's underlying darkness the focus, Veronica's morals being tested with her mafia family, or Jughead finding his place between where he was born and where he's been raised. All of these are interesting arcs, but the writing was so inconsistent it lacked any development.

That was another issue I had with this season, there was no real development or consequences. The Black Hood's victims that he successfully killed were unlikeable or very small supporting roles - their deaths had no real effect or impact on the overall plot. Now with the revelation of Betty's father Hal being the BH, the reveal and his motives were crammed into Episode Twenty-One and before this,

Episode Nineteen was the only episode which offered painfully obvious clues HE was one of the Black Hoods (Yes, now there are multiple grown men running around with wholly hoods on their heads. Even that story is still unresolved). There was no mystery payoff, no clues spread out in the previous nineteen episodes that allowed the audience to really THINK and put the CLUES together. There was no indication he was the evil mastermind, his reasons actually contradicted his own character.

The consequences was another flaw with this season. Every time the Core Four (Archie, Veronica, Jugghead and Betty) fought or argued, as friends or in their respective relationships, the conflict was either immediately resolved or just never addressed again. We never got to see the friendship group truly fractured or a relationship on the rocks, which made any tension with these characters pointless. Even with Josie, who at one point was mute - I genuinely was intrigued by an able bodied character who was so defined by her singing voice have a disability where she is without it, but instead the next episode we see her in.... her voice is back. A similar scenario happened with Kevin who in Season One was completely at ease with his sexuality and had multiple love interests pursuing him, in Season Two he was depressed and having random affairs with guys in the woods - which although didn't fit with his character, this actually showed that he was dealing with some form of depression and did build up to him and his father actually addressing it. I was somewhat okay with Kevin's arc, but it still felt flawed.

I will give credit for one character who has not only developed throughout the season, but actually faced consequences of her actions - Cheryl Blossom. As she struggles with her previous suicide attempt, being saved from an attempted rape and her unrequited obsession with friend Josie, Cheryl comes to terms with her bisexuality with a new love interest and becomes more compassionate and selfless as the season progressed. She went from being a fragile damaged child to a much stronger and assertive young woman.

As Season Two reached its conclusion, I initially planned to write character arcs and delve into writing articles based on each character or genre. However, the depths of ridiculous melodrama and nonsensical writing has made those plans meet the back burner for the foreseeable. I am on hiatus from the show, even though it's been renewed for series five...