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Critic Reviews
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It boldly commits to its campy, overcast aesthetic--and it’s here I’ll note that I’m not naturally inclined toward teen melodrama, but can be drawn in if the execution’s great enough (like The O.C., or Everwood, whose creator Greg Berlanti is an executive producer here)--while struggling at times to turn its characters from archetypes into individuals.
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This perversely compelling mystery melodrama has echoes of Twin Peaks and even 90210. [16-29 Jan 2017, p.17]
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Once the novelty of Riverdale--seeing who is portraying each character and how each is written--wears off, Berlanti and crew hopes the mystery will keep you coming back. The trouble is the kids are so off-putting, you won’t care who committed the crime.
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References are not enough to build a compelling narrative, and the show’s central mysteries become less intriguing over the course of the four episodes available for review.
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It’s fun at times to make the comparisons with the original comic, to see just how far Riverdale strays. But that compare-and-contrast can take you only so far in the face of such derivative writing.
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Everyone, it seems, has a secret in Riverdale, and in the first four episodes of the series, some of those secrets are too conveniently revealed as new ones are loaded into the script to keep the momentum going. There’s minimal credibility here, but that doesn’t torpedo the show.
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The tone and pacing are all over the map, so it’s not always clear if Riverdale knows what kind of series it wants to be.
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Riverdale is all-in on its gimmick, and I can admire that.
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The fact that Riverdale is so campy, self-aware, and overwritten will be catnip to some, but it feels like a missed opportunity to tell a strong, high school-set story that is not about kids with adult problems trying to solve brutal murders.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 179 out of 252
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Mixed: 42 out of 252
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Negative: 31 out of 252
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Jan 26, 2017
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Jun 11, 2017This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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Jun 10, 2017