I finally got around to watching season 7 of Riverdale.
All good things must come to an end, and after seven seasons Riverdale is no exception.
What started out as a darker take on Archie Comics turned into one of the wildest rides on TV, a ride which, in my opinion, captured the spirit of the comics almost perfectly. Much like how the comics did pretty much anything you can think of during their 80+ year run, the Riverdale TV series was just as varied in its stories. Serial killers, superpowers, wars in Uzbekistan, even time travel, this show did so much crazy shit in its seven season run that by the end of it even the actors were fighting back laughter during scenes. Many viewers found the variety off-putting and preferred the dark but still simple tone of the early seasons, but as someone who’s read Archie Comics since I was a kid I appreciated the efforts of the actors, writers, and show runners to pay proper respect to the legacy of the source material while still keeping the show its own thing.
With this being the final season of Riverdale, I’m going to have to find another series to do WIT. And this time I’m going to make sure to do every season, unlike what I did with Stranger Things. I’m still not sure what show I’ll be doing next, but I’ll figure something out. Worry not my dear readers, WIT isn’t going anywhere.
So without further ado, here’s what I thought about season 7 of Riverdale.
1. Julian
They switched out Cheryl’s brother rather than give Jason’s actor any real speaking roles. I guess I appreciate the callback to the “missing triplet” thing, but I still feel kind of bad for Jason’s actor. Seven seasons and the guy’s had maybe five lines.
2. They changed Midge’s actress.
Speaking of changing out actors, why did they change Midge’s actress? The original Midge (the or-MIDGE-inal? Get it?) was hot. This one is just… plain.
Which I guess by Riverdale standards is still pretty hot, but still.
3. Where’s Moose?
Speaking of Midge, where the hell is Moose? You can’t just suddenly make Midge a recurring character and not have Moose. The Midge/Moose relationship was one of the most important relationships in Archie Comics, probably second only to the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle.
This is obviously part of a ploy to screw Kevin over YET AGAIN.
4. Everyone laughing and smirking when Jughead tries to explain to the group that they’re actually from the future.
I guarantee that this wasn’t part of the script. Even the actors have realized how absurd the series has gotten.
I still fucking love it though.
5. Jughead and Ethel
Ethel’s unrequited desire for Jughead is one of the lesser known things from the comics that I’ve always found kind of funny. I’m glad they finally included it.
I also should have mentioned this in one of the previous articles, but I also find it hilarious that they made Ethel’s appearance the exact opposite of what it is in the comics. Comics Ethel is tall and lanky, Riverdale Ethel is short and pudgy. No doubt this was intentional.
6. Betty’s dad
Between last season and this one, Hal Cooper sure has been getting a lot of screen time. Always glad to see Lochlyn Munro make an appearance, even when it’s in the most random of places sometimes, like a quick appearance in Bosch, or in White Chicks.
7. Vughead?!
How kind of the writers to throw even the most stupid of fans a bone. I’m not one of those Vughead degenerates (Team Varchie/Bughead for life, vato) but I appreciate the sentiment.
8. Dr. Werthers is definitely a pedophile.
Creepy old fuck sure cares a lot about Betty’s sex life. Dude’s a total fucking pederast.
Also, cool to see Malcolm Stewart back as another villain (he was the Stonewall Prep teacher from season 4).
9. Where the fuck is Reggie?
I get that the Korean War just ended, but come on, we’re like a third of the season in and still no Reggie Mantle. You can’t just ditch a main character like that.
10. Oh there’s Reggie.
A Korean farm boy in America in the 50’s might actually be less believable than the superpowers arc from last season.
But not as unbelievable as Reggie’s supposed “stats”. 6’3 my ass, Charles Melton is 6’1 at best. Alan Ritchson is 6’3, and there’s no way in hell Reggie Mantle is the same size as Jack Reacher.
11. Dr. Werthers has a copy of Lolita.
Fucking called that shit. What did I say? Total fucking pederast.
12. My girlfriend was right.
This show is softcore lesbian porn at this point. Especially whenever Cheryl is involved. I’m about 99% sure that Madelaine Petsch has a career in porn ahead of her.
And that’s okay with me.
13. That Marty McFly cameo at Fangs’s concert
Nah, that didn’t actually happen, but it would have been cool af.
I’m not sure why they didn’t show us the concert, not even a single song. It’s not like the show’s averse to doing musicals. Before this season’s over I want to see an Elvis-style concert with Fangs. We already know that Drew Ray Tanner has the musical chops for it.
15. The return of Mark Consuelos and Marisol Nichols
Nice try guys, but you can’t escape the grasp of Riverdale.
Lol at “Videl Maestro”. What, they couldn’t get the rights to use Fidel Castro’s name?
Lol at Marisol Nichols: “After seven long seasons I’m ready for something new, which is the truth.” And Veronica’s ever-so-subtle reply “I can imagine.”
15. The return of Mrs. Grundy
Holy shit, Sarah Habel aged 15 years in the span of six.
But at least they didn’t have Archie banging her this time.
16. The musical episode this season sucked.
I’ve actually grown to enjoy the musical episodes every season, but this one just seemed phoned in and weak. You’re in the 50’s, an era with some of the best musicians and one of the most distinct musical styles. How do you fuck that up?
17. I fucking love Dr. Curdle Jr.
This is the last time I’ll be able to say this.
I’ve gotta find out what else this guy is in. Let’s hit IMDb real quick:
…
18. Cheryl’s parents being Soviet sleeper agents
Suddenly all that red makes a whole lot of sense.
19. The second-to-last episode
It was highly satisfying to see Principal Featherhead get what he deserved in the end. Even if that fucking pederast Dr. Werthers got rewarded with a promotion to Washington DC. Also happy to see the return of Weatherbee, even if it was only for a moment.
Angel Tabitha: “I realized it would be impossible to untangle all the various timelines, so I wove them all into a single timeline.” Looks like someone on the writing team was a fan of Loki. I was half-expecting the TVA to show up.
Angel Tabitha has everyone learn the truth… by watching Riverdale. Well then.
Julian not wanting to watch Riverdale because he was a doll in the earlier seasons was great.
20. Goodbye, Riverdale.
I’m glad the show actually took the time to explain the fates of the characters. I won’t break down every single character’s fate here, but some of the more interesting ones:
- Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica having a “quad” relationship for senior year of high school was… interesting.
- I’m glad Betty made up with her mother by the end of the series, and Alice got to at least somewhat pursue her dream of traveling the world as a stewardess.
- At first I found it kind of silly that Reggie would be playing for the LA Lakers in the 60’s, but apparently there was already an Asian-American basketball player as early as 1947. I wonder if Reggie played in the Lakers’ inaugural season in 1960.
- I was very satisfied to see that Kevin Keller, after six seasons of getting screwed over, finally got the happy ending he deserved. It wasn’t with Moose as I had hoped, but Clay was cool enough. I never thought I could care this much about what happened to a fictional gay guy on a primetime soap opera, but here I am fucking ecstatic that Kevin died a peaceful death in his 80’s after spending his entire life with Clay. Thanks Riverdale writing team for giving Kevin Keller a happy ending and allowing him to find love in the end. I fucking love you guys. No homo though.
- Frank and Sheriff Keller may have been assholes, but they didn’t deserve to be killed, especially not by Chic of all people.
- Fangs didn’t deserve to die the way he did either. At the very least they could have made him die in the same plane crash as Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. Hell, Fangs almost kind of looks like Ritchie Valens.
- Cheryl becoming a professional painter was surprisingly fitting, considering it was always one of her passions throughout the entire series. Aside from being a nymphomaniac.
- Julian dying in Vietnam was a fitting end. I suspect he was killed by his own troops just like Neidermeyer from Animal House.
- I’m happy that Jughead didn’t end up becoming some pretentious douchey writer and instead founded what’s supposed to be Mad Magazine.
- Archie moving to Modesto, CA seemed a little random, but alright I guess. At least he became a construction worker.
- Veronica becoming a film maker wasn’t as random, but I feel like she could have done better. Why did half of Riverdale move out to California anyway?
- Betty visiting Pop Tate’s grave made me both sad and happy.
- Even in the afterlife poor Jason Blossom isn’t allowed to speak and is instead reduced to being a door man.
21. My final thoughts on Riverdale
When I first started watching Riverdale, I honestly didn’t expect to make it more than a few episodes before dropping it. At the time, a lot of people compared it to Degrassi, a teen drama that I never got into because, well, I’ve just never really cared for teen dramas all that much. But after watching the first episode, I was instantly hooked. Teen drama or not, Riverdale was good, and every cliffhanger and plot twist left me longing for more. I never knew I could enjoy a teen drama soap opera so much.
I also didn’t have a high opinion of Cole Sprouse after being forced to sit through many episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. To me Cole Sprouse would always be that annoying little shit from the Disney Channel. It was only after watching a few seasons of Riverdale that I realized Cole was actually a pretty good actor. While I didn’t like his portrayal of Jughead Jones in the first season, the character grew on me, and so did Sprouse’s performance. I’ve come to respect him now as a legitimate actor, and it’s safe to say he’s definitely grown beyond his days as an annoying Disney Channel brat.
Another thing I always appreciated about the series was that all of the actors can sing. When they do the musical numbers, that’s actually them singing and dancing. The show could have taken the lazy route and simply dubbed the musical numbers over with actual singers, but instead they took the time to cast talented individuals who could not only act well, but also sing and dance. This is something that’s not easy to do, especially when you consider how large the cast actually is. These people had to be able to act, sing, dance, and work well enough with one another to carry a show for seven whole seasons. That takes a level of ability that I don’t think enough viewers truly appreciate. Major props to the casting team.
The casting of Riverdale was stellar. Everyone worked very well together, the interactions felt genuine, authentic, and realistic (well, as realistic as the silly plots would allow). It felt like every actor and actress took the time to research their role and learn the roots of their character, even if some characters ended up straying from those roots. And that’s no big deal, after all this show wasn’t supposed to be a tit-for-tat copy of the comic franchise. The cast brought a new depth to these characters while still paying the right amount of respect to their legacies. These are all very talented actors, and I hope to see more of them in other shows.
Like I said, there were some changes from the comics, some good and others bad. For example, I’m glad they didn’t lean too hard into the Archie-Betty-Veronica love triangle from the comics. On a TV series that would have gotten old real quick. And, while I was at first apprehensive about changing Jughead, I’ve grown to realize that this was necessary. The Jughead from the comics just wouldn’t have translated to a live action character, especially not in a drama series. Comic Jughead was largely apathetic about anything that wasn’t food or comics. Seriously, I can’t applaud Cole Sprouse enough for his portrayal of Jughead. Sprouse took the changes and made them work, and I think he still remained as true to the character as one could have given the circumstances.
So many people gave this show shit for how outlandish it got. Even if you put aside the fact that Archie Comics was often just as outlandish (I’ve covered this multiple times already), these people forget that, while predominantly a teen drama, the show is also part soap opera. Soap operas often get silly and do crazy stories. How many times did Stefano DiMera die and come back to life on Days of Our Lives? There was an entire story arc where the devil possessed Marlena. I’m sure people familiar with other soap operas can come up with even more crazy examples, Days of Our Lives is just the one I’m most familiar with. The crazy plots are what set Riverdale apart from other teen dramas and made the show so enjoyable.
Some of it did get a little annoying though. It got kind of tiresome seeing Alice flipflop between being good and bad every few episodes. I’m not hating or anything, Mädchen Amick is a decent actress and pulled it off, but it was annoying as hell seeing her just do a random heel turn out of nowhere. I was also done with Hiram Lodge being the main villain by the end of season 4, and they took too long to actually do away with him. Mark Consuelos is a talented actor, and I’m glad he got to break away from the show, even if it was to host a morning talk show.
While I enjoy a lot of different shows, not many have gotten me as invested and attached to the characters as Riverdale did. After watching them grow for seven seasons, I actually cared what happened to these fictional people. I’m genuinely going to miss this cast of colorful characters and the insane storylines the show brought forth.
Goodbye, Riverdale.
Last Updated on September 14, 2024