Riverdale wrapup.
Jun. 25th, 2019 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyMaybe six consecutive hours, give or take a bit, is a bit much for binging Riverdale. For I have seen some things, let me tell you. o_O
First up, while at work last week my brain went, "you know, the GK is gonna be someone random, right? Like the more they want you to believe in your heart and soul it's Edgar, it's gonna be someone else outta left field, like Alice and FP's kid." And for a full solid ten minutes I was convinced that's what they were going to do.
And then I remembered that the whole reason Chic pulled his con off was because the real Charles was dead.
*anime laugh* Joke's on me, huh? But let's not get ahead of ourselves quite so fast.
I left off with Edgar doing his creepy clap at the end of the musical episode, which was better than it had a right to be, btw. And I was rewarded for not hitting Google to remind myself who they cast as Edgar because of course it was CMM. Of course it was.
I will say that the last six episodes are pretty much the height of batshit crazy and also entertaining as hell. Like even as you ask yourself what the hell is going on, you don't stop for anything more than snack breaks or bathroom runs. I'm not going to stop and analyze each episode because they've all managed to blur together and that might be for the best.
So the Farm thing. That was an awful lot of build up for... that. I think I'd have respected the show a lot more (well, on one hand) if they'd just gone completely OTT and had zombie!Jason needing new parts on the regular. As it was, having Kevin and Fangs so goddamn brainwashed that they didn't realize they were missing vital organs like, say, their kidneys, is just... show, I'd buy a goddamn zombie before I buy that. Kevin deserved better. Ditto to Fangs, honestly.
Betty just sending people into the Farm and none of them making it out safely was both very sad and also hilarious to me. But I do wish that we'd gotten to hear Polly's tapes. Clearly the girl has issues and I'm guessing she drowned Caramel and either made up the stairs thing entirely OR she pushed Betty and I'd care more but really, Polly's Polly. She's had the least amount of sympathetic or compelling storyline thus far in the Cooper family and that includes the stupidly named twins. Still, with that said, I want to hear her tapes. Betty Cooper, deliver the goods, dammit.
The episode with the Jones family playing G&G was actually entertaining though you know damn well they could've found a way to give Pop a head's up so he didn't go shooting FP. But their part of the episode was entertaining right up until the double-cross with Kurtz. Which tracked for Kurtz, but not the GK narrative they'd set up previously, though one could maybe argue that Kurtz went rogue for that one.
Pretty sure the flip to that was the time frame in that episode was alllllllllllll out of whack. Josie's crack about this (the robbery and subsequent shooting) being why she needed to get out of Riverdale ASAP though, that was inspired even if it was just a way to write the actress off the show.
Since I wholeheartedly love Cheryl, I enjoyed them remembering to utilize her again. I liked Toni getting at least a little something to do, though I do not buy her escaping the Farm and running right to Penelope. Not even a little bit do I buy that. Kevin's dad, anyone in the Serpents, anyone other than Penelope I'd buy. Okay, maybe not Penny. But anyone else in town would be a better bet than Cheryl's mother. And I absolutely buy that Cheryl's tipping point was not being able to be prom queen.
Archer!Cheryl continues to be best Cheryl, too.
So prom queen leads us to Betty. I know in S1, I mentioned that Lilli is definitely the best of the younger actors. And she still is. But sweet baby Jesus, enough is enough. I'm not dedicated enough to count screen time, but I'm betting that even with the episode she wasn't in at all, she still had more screen time than everyone else on the show for the entire season, if not the whole series.
So when Hal requested his transfer and was presumed dead, I was torn between wanting Betty to be absolutely sure her father was alive when in reality he was super dead and wanting him to have escaped. Mostly I wanted the escape because at this point, I liked Hal more than the GK and I'd still be cackling if they'd had him have been telling the truth back when he confessed to being the GK. Laughed for days.
There was a split second where I really did wonder if we were getting zombie!Jason as the new GK and then I went nah, Chic didn't die.
But I did not see Penelope being the ultimate GK. I should've, especially with the Maple Club matchbook thing but I did kinda cheer when Penelope explained it all. She's awful and horrible and probably worse than half the people in Riverdale that we never see (see her treatment of Cheryl) but her pulling the strings and the reasons why gave me a tiny moment of yup, this show prefers to have its women pull the heavy lifting.
The one thing I didn't like, and this is before I spend any time trying to poke holes in continuity, is that all season long we're shown and told that the GK plays by rules and honors them. And yet at the end, it's chaos. Which might be the Blossom way, but she also had an easy out for not honoring the quest: the night wasn't over yet. Seriously, the sun hadn't come up. Instead it was just kill them all and a weirdly timed race through the woods.
Are we just going to ignore the likelihood that Archie killed his 'bear'? Like he went psycho on that guy.
I fucking still hate Hiram Lodge and Veronica's weird "family is first and everything" was just... VERONICA. This man is a monster. KILL HIM. Or let him be killed. You should've pulled the plug while he was in the hospital, dammit. While he still breathes, he is going to manipulate everything and everyone and make life hell for everyone in Riverdale just because he can.
Alice working for the FBI totally tracks, as Veronica pointed out. Thing is, if anything that actually makes her a worse mother to Betty and she's just lucky that Betty didn't say that she was visiting Hal because Alice abandoned her. But I absolutely feel better that Alice wasn't taken in by the cult because that never felt right on any level.
The Charles reveal was kinda interesting though I am squicked out by Jug and Betty sharing a sibling.
Also, completely overshadowed by the fast forward implying that the trio killed Jug. Which there ain't no way in hell that's not a fake out of some kind. But also DAMMIT SHOW.
Other random hopes: I kinda liked the lost boys protecting Ethel but her only hope line was just a full body cringe. They make that poor girl say the stupidest things.
Finally, I am still so very sad about the loss of Luke Perry. Doubly so when you consider how little the show used him at all this season, and I do mean well before his death. Literally every other parent on this show is awful in some huuuuuuuuuuuge way and with them having to kill Fred off (there's just no way around it) they lost the only blip of actual morality on the show.
Seriously, FP might've turned around quite a bit, but his drinking helped fuck Jughead up and get him involved in the Serpents. Gladys was worse in that she LEFT Jughead and then came back and made things infinitely worse. Alice Cooper at best was the kind of mother who literally drives her children crazy (they're gonna blame Polly on Hal but both parents had a part in that mess), Hal was a serial killer, Clifford Blossom killed his son, Penelope was an even bigger serial killer than Hal, Hiram Lodge is the absolute worst at all times, Hermione started out okay but was quickly revealed to be a killer (though not great at killing her husband which I cannot forgive), Josie's parents both pushed her to pursue music and then abandoned her, Reggie's father beats him, Mary abandoned Archie when the Black Hood was running around, not to mention when Hiram Lodge was targeting him, and oh yeah, Mr. Keller didn't bother to notice his son was living at the Farm and that it was a goddamn cult.
This show needed/needs someone whose heart is in the right place and is willing to sacrifice themselves to do the right thing. Archie might've been set up to be that guy, but he isn't, nor is it really fair to expect that of him.
That said, Nana remains a delight.
I don't think this is a show I'll ever be able to watch as it airs originally (I managed for a good chunk of S1 but that's about it) but I am curious as to what they're going to do next season.
First up, while at work last week my brain went, "you know, the GK is gonna be someone random, right? Like the more they want you to believe in your heart and soul it's Edgar, it's gonna be someone else outta left field, like Alice and FP's kid." And for a full solid ten minutes I was convinced that's what they were going to do.
And then I remembered that the whole reason Chic pulled his con off was because the real Charles was dead.
*anime laugh* Joke's on me, huh? But let's not get ahead of ourselves quite so fast.
I left off with Edgar doing his creepy clap at the end of the musical episode, which was better than it had a right to be, btw. And I was rewarded for not hitting Google to remind myself who they cast as Edgar because of course it was CMM. Of course it was.
I will say that the last six episodes are pretty much the height of batshit crazy and also entertaining as hell. Like even as you ask yourself what the hell is going on, you don't stop for anything more than snack breaks or bathroom runs. I'm not going to stop and analyze each episode because they've all managed to blur together and that might be for the best.
So the Farm thing. That was an awful lot of build up for... that. I think I'd have respected the show a lot more (well, on one hand) if they'd just gone completely OTT and had zombie!Jason needing new parts on the regular. As it was, having Kevin and Fangs so goddamn brainwashed that they didn't realize they were missing vital organs like, say, their kidneys, is just... show, I'd buy a goddamn zombie before I buy that. Kevin deserved better. Ditto to Fangs, honestly.
Betty just sending people into the Farm and none of them making it out safely was both very sad and also hilarious to me. But I do wish that we'd gotten to hear Polly's tapes. Clearly the girl has issues and I'm guessing she drowned Caramel and either made up the stairs thing entirely OR she pushed Betty and I'd care more but really, Polly's Polly. She's had the least amount of sympathetic or compelling storyline thus far in the Cooper family and that includes the stupidly named twins. Still, with that said, I want to hear her tapes. Betty Cooper, deliver the goods, dammit.
The episode with the Jones family playing G&G was actually entertaining though you know damn well they could've found a way to give Pop a head's up so he didn't go shooting FP. But their part of the episode was entertaining right up until the double-cross with Kurtz. Which tracked for Kurtz, but not the GK narrative they'd set up previously, though one could maybe argue that Kurtz went rogue for that one.
Pretty sure the flip to that was the time frame in that episode was alllllllllllll out of whack. Josie's crack about this (the robbery and subsequent shooting) being why she needed to get out of Riverdale ASAP though, that was inspired even if it was just a way to write the actress off the show.
Since I wholeheartedly love Cheryl, I enjoyed them remembering to utilize her again. I liked Toni getting at least a little something to do, though I do not buy her escaping the Farm and running right to Penelope. Not even a little bit do I buy that. Kevin's dad, anyone in the Serpents, anyone other than Penelope I'd buy. Okay, maybe not Penny. But anyone else in town would be a better bet than Cheryl's mother. And I absolutely buy that Cheryl's tipping point was not being able to be prom queen.
Archer!Cheryl continues to be best Cheryl, too.
So prom queen leads us to Betty. I know in S1, I mentioned that Lilli is definitely the best of the younger actors. And she still is. But sweet baby Jesus, enough is enough. I'm not dedicated enough to count screen time, but I'm betting that even with the episode she wasn't in at all, she still had more screen time than everyone else on the show for the entire season, if not the whole series.
So when Hal requested his transfer and was presumed dead, I was torn between wanting Betty to be absolutely sure her father was alive when in reality he was super dead and wanting him to have escaped. Mostly I wanted the escape because at this point, I liked Hal more than the GK and I'd still be cackling if they'd had him have been telling the truth back when he confessed to being the GK. Laughed for days.
There was a split second where I really did wonder if we were getting zombie!Jason as the new GK and then I went nah, Chic didn't die.
But I did not see Penelope being the ultimate GK. I should've, especially with the Maple Club matchbook thing but I did kinda cheer when Penelope explained it all. She's awful and horrible and probably worse than half the people in Riverdale that we never see (see her treatment of Cheryl) but her pulling the strings and the reasons why gave me a tiny moment of yup, this show prefers to have its women pull the heavy lifting.
The one thing I didn't like, and this is before I spend any time trying to poke holes in continuity, is that all season long we're shown and told that the GK plays by rules and honors them. And yet at the end, it's chaos. Which might be the Blossom way, but she also had an easy out for not honoring the quest: the night wasn't over yet. Seriously, the sun hadn't come up. Instead it was just kill them all and a weirdly timed race through the woods.
Are we just going to ignore the likelihood that Archie killed his 'bear'? Like he went psycho on that guy.
I fucking still hate Hiram Lodge and Veronica's weird "family is first and everything" was just... VERONICA. This man is a monster. KILL HIM. Or let him be killed. You should've pulled the plug while he was in the hospital, dammit. While he still breathes, he is going to manipulate everything and everyone and make life hell for everyone in Riverdale just because he can.
Alice working for the FBI totally tracks, as Veronica pointed out. Thing is, if anything that actually makes her a worse mother to Betty and she's just lucky that Betty didn't say that she was visiting Hal because Alice abandoned her. But I absolutely feel better that Alice wasn't taken in by the cult because that never felt right on any level.
The Charles reveal was kinda interesting though I am squicked out by Jug and Betty sharing a sibling.
Also, completely overshadowed by the fast forward implying that the trio killed Jug. Which there ain't no way in hell that's not a fake out of some kind. But also DAMMIT SHOW.
Other random hopes: I kinda liked the lost boys protecting Ethel but her only hope line was just a full body cringe. They make that poor girl say the stupidest things.
Finally, I am still so very sad about the loss of Luke Perry. Doubly so when you consider how little the show used him at all this season, and I do mean well before his death. Literally every other parent on this show is awful in some huuuuuuuuuuuge way and with them having to kill Fred off (there's just no way around it) they lost the only blip of actual morality on the show.
Seriously, FP might've turned around quite a bit, but his drinking helped fuck Jughead up and get him involved in the Serpents. Gladys was worse in that she LEFT Jughead and then came back and made things infinitely worse. Alice Cooper at best was the kind of mother who literally drives her children crazy (they're gonna blame Polly on Hal but both parents had a part in that mess), Hal was a serial killer, Clifford Blossom killed his son, Penelope was an even bigger serial killer than Hal, Hiram Lodge is the absolute worst at all times, Hermione started out okay but was quickly revealed to be a killer (though not great at killing her husband which I cannot forgive), Josie's parents both pushed her to pursue music and then abandoned her, Reggie's father beats him, Mary abandoned Archie when the Black Hood was running around, not to mention when Hiram Lodge was targeting him, and oh yeah, Mr. Keller didn't bother to notice his son was living at the Farm and that it was a goddamn cult.
This show needed/needs someone whose heart is in the right place and is willing to sacrifice themselves to do the right thing. Archie might've been set up to be that guy, but he isn't, nor is it really fair to expect that of him.
That said, Nana remains a delight.
I don't think this is a show I'll ever be able to watch as it airs originally (I managed for a good chunk of S1 but that's about it) but I am curious as to what they're going to do next season.
