by Andrew Papalia ’24

When Riverdale debuted its first season in early 2017, it was renowned among viewers of all ages for being a dark murder mystery and having a vast selection of characters with complex backgrounds and personal stories. Although the initial start of the show was well received, user reviews of the seasons since then have greatly declined in their praise. What was once a deep, twisted show has now become a laughing stock due to its empty storylines and failure at encapsulating the mystery genre. 

Riverdale made its first mistake when it changed the episode number from 13 in its first season to 19-22 in following seasons. While this may seem like a good idea, considering it allows for more expansion of the plot of the show, Riverdale takes up the added time with useless filler and shallow subplots that don’t contribute to the show as a whole. 

This also leads to one of the show’s other faults, that it tries to layer multiple unrealistic mini plotlines on top of the already ridiculous one, making it difficult to keep track of everything going on at once. One example is in the third season when the main group of teens are trying to solve the mystery of a board game that drives people crazy,  but also added in are unnecessary storylines such as one of the character’s dads being a drug lord, a club that forces teen boys to fight each other, a mental hospital that makes its residents worship a gargoyle, and a cult with no real core beliefs. 

With the plot of the show already being a mess, Riverdale  makes it worse by having musical episodes every season, which are the cast’s performances of different broadway shows getting tied into the plot. Considering it is a mystery show, musical episodes are useless and have no real relation to any of the show’s events going on at the time of their release. The singing is also clearly autotuned, making the cast sound awful, and is  mixed with mindless choreography.

Riverdale definitely could have been a continued success among viewers with its strong start on TV, but it totally lost its way. It tries too hard to be scary and supernatural, even though it was originally just a murder mystery, and has thrown away its old reputation of being a good show. With Riverdale now on its sixth season, it is safe to say that it is finally time for it to stop its nonsense and come to an end.