(Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 premiere of “Riverdale.”)
I’m a connoisseur of trash entertainment (read this for reference), so it’s surprising to exactly no one who knows me that I love “Riverdale.” My trash affinity makes it tough sometimes to separate “things I like” from “things that are good” — I wouldn’t argue that “Fifty Shades Darker” or “Transformers: The Last Knight” are Good Movies, but they’re among my favorites of this year anyway.
I don’t usually worry that much about that distinction, content to enjoy what I enjoy without needing validation from others.
“Riverdale” was like that for me during Season 1. I didn’t care if it was “good.” I just knew I had a great time watching it. But as I watched the premiere of Season 2, it clicked in my brain that actually “Riverdale” is actually a great show, not just one that hits all the right notes for me personally.
It starts with the way the main cast interacts with each other — the big four of Archie (K.J. Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) in particular — interact with each other at this point in the show. It took them a while in season 1 for everybody to fall into their current, family-like dynamic. When it began Archie and Betty were best friends and Betty secretly wanted to bang Archie; Veronica was new in town and seemed pretty sketchy; Jughead was just doing his own thing and nobody paid much attention to him.
But the tumultuous events of season 1 forged them into a unit, and they’re all best friends with each other in a very dedicated, “Fast and Furious” kind of way. They love each other! They’re family!
I’m sure they’ll have their issues with each other this year, “Riverdale” being a melodrama and all that — but it’s so good at avoiding the sort of cheap contrivances that usually causes rifts in a group like this on TV. It’s a small thing, but it’s the reason the show works on a number of levels.
The Season 2 premiere gave a great example of that when Archie and Veronica left the hospital so Archie could change out of his bloodstained clothes and get his dad (Luke Perry) something to wear if/when he survived the gunshot that so dramatically punctuated season 1.
Veronica comforts Archie by hopping in the shower with him — solid trash material — but afterward all is not well. Archie gets mad at Veronica because he’s generally in a bad mood because, you know, his dad got shot a few hours earlier. He tells her to leave and that he’ll see her at the hospital when he gets back.
Veronica starts to do just that, and a lesser show would have her walk out the door just to add a little extra drama. But instead she stops, turns around and gives a big speech about how she’s not going to let him be alone in his time of distress and they have a real tear jerker of a moment. It’s great, and it’s real.
Likewise, Betty and Jughead have a big conversation about his tenuous relationship with the Serpeants. Betty really doesn’t want Jug involved with them, but she acknowledges that circumstances are far from ideal and that she can help him navigate these treacherous personal waters. There’s tension, but not a falling out. The way “Riverdale” so deftly handles these relationship dynamics feels so damn good.
In place of the personal melodrama among those four, the show wisely puts the drama were it belongs: on rich people, overbearing parents and corporate criminals, all of whom keep trying to keep our heroes down. And that’s where “Riverdale” delivers the thrills. I don’t know who’s out to murder everybody that Archie loves, but I do know that I’m absolutely terrified of the guy in the hood and whatever vindictive force, whether it be the Searpents or the Blossoms or the Lodges or whoever else, that he represents. Fred Andrews’s messed up dreams, in which he witnesses momentous occasions in Archie’s life only to have those occasions interrupted by the hooded gunman left me legitimately unsettled. And when he showed up at the end to murder Ms. Grundy, I actually screamed out loud. Speaking as an emotionally repressed dude, it takes a lot for, well, anything to make me scream.
I could go on, discussing the show’s lush visual palette and technical craft (ooh, how I love those smoky interiors), but you get the point. This show is as good as TV melodrama gets, achieves maximum bang for it buck in delivering that melodrama without betraying the characters, and also it looks great.
“Riverdale” is no joke, and deserves to be in the discussion when we talk about what the best shows on TV are in 2017.
Bughead: A Timeline of Riverdale's Most Popular Ship (Photos)
Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) are arguably the internet's favorite couple. From Twitter accounts to Tumblr pages, the couple is by far Riverdale's most popular ship. But Season 2 has been anything but smooth sailing for the sleuthing duo, from Juggie's new friend Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) to Betty's "Serpent Dance." Scroll down for a Bughead breakdown.
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Betty starts out Season 1 with eyes for Riverdale High's It-Boy Archie Andrews, who also happens to be her childhood BFF and neighbor. Archie is a boy straight out of a Taylor Swift song: He plays football, guitar, and has the killer six-pack of a Calvin Klein model. But Archie soon tells Betty he wants to stay in the friend zone, leaving Betty single and ready to mingle.
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Betty and Jughead -- who is Archie's other childhood BFF -- start spending more time together as they investigate the death of golden boy Jason Blossom. Juggie also helps Betty find her sister, who their parents have been keeping hidden at Sisters of Quiet Mercy because she got pregnant with Jason Blossom's baby.
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Betty decides to revive the Blue and Gold, Riverdale High's school newspaper, as a place to publish and expose their investigations. She convinces Jughead to join her, meaning the two spend even more time together.
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The Bughead first kiss scene (it's right here if you need to re-watch it) is chock full of teen romance tropes. Jughead sneaks into Betty's second-story bedroom window, then earnestly tells her that they won't end up like their parents before grabbing her face and kissing her, officially starting the Bughead ship -- and maybe those Romeo and Juliet comparisons?
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Veronica notices Betty and Jughead are getting closer, but neither one of the duo quite knows how to label their newfound feels for one another. It doesn't take long until Betty is calling Juggie her "boyfriend."
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Betty's mom, Mrs. Alice Cooper, is not as on board with her daughter's new relationship as everyone else. She doesn't approve of Jughead's dad, F.P. Jones, who she knew back in the day at Riverdale High, and sets up a "family dinner" for the four of them before the school dance, with hopes that she'll be able to get some info out of F.P. on Jason's death. When Jughead finds out this was the reason for the dinner, he feels betrayed by Betty, although she didn't know her mom's true intentions until it was too late.
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Trouble in paradise? When Betty throws Jughead a surprise birthday party that goes awry, he's left feeling very misunderstood.
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Jughead's poor relationship with his dad starts to get in the way of his relationship with Betty when she remains convinced of F.P.'s innocence, but Jughead feels hopeless. He almost leaves town, but luckily Betty, Archie and Veronica find him at Pop's before he gets on the bus.
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When Jughead's dad is taken into police custody for the murder of Jason Blossom, Riverdale's Truman Capote wannabe is forced to live with a foster family and switch schools to Southside High. Betty, Archie and Veronica try to convince him to return to RHS, but he's certain that's where he belongs. We know that in Season 2, Juggie will befriend a Southside High girl, leaving room for rough waters when it comes to Bughead.
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To show gratitude for the solving of Jason's murder, Mayor McCoy asks Betty to speak at the town's annual Jubilee. But instead of what McCoy wants to hear, Betty stands up for F.P. and Jughead, urging the town to do better. Jughead is the first to clap for her speech, and all is right with Buggie again.
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After the Jubilee is solved, Jughead declares his love for Betty, and it's just *so* romantic. They are soulmates, after all (at least according to Veronica). They're interrupted, though, by some Southside Serpents, there to thank Jughead for his dad's loyalty and to invite him to join their group. It seems clear that Betty is less than enthused at Juggie's decision to put on the infamous jacket.
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Heading into Season 2, Betty and Jughead are trying to make things work, despite going to different high schools now--Jughead transferred to Southside High because his dad is in jail. Jughead is trying to make new friends to avoid getting jumped, but Betty doesn't want him getting involved with any Southside Serpents.
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Jughead makes friends with Toni, a Southside Serpent who (at least at first) seems pretty darn thirsty for a certain crown-wearing carnivore we know. In a similar move to Betty's from Season 1, Jughead convinces his lit teacher to let him reopen the Red and Black, Southside High's school newspaper. He enlists Toni to help. They even kiss at one point (gasp!!), but it turns out Toni prefers girls anyway.
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Betty starts to get in way too deep investigating The Black Hood, and the serial killer terrorizing Riverdale convinces her to get Archie to tell Jughead to stay away from her. She's trying to protect Jug, but it backfires.
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Meanwhile, Jughead is dealing with the Serpents--which, yeah he officially joined--and their feud with the Ghoulies, the Southside's other gang. He decides it's a good idea to street race the Ghoulies for territory on the Southside. Betty is sorry about dumping him via Archie, but tells him she'll explain everything later.
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Eventually, the two smooth things over and get right back to their sleuthing ways. The only thing that can distract them is F.P. getting out of jail thanks to an ultra shady favor Jughead did for Penny Peabody aka the Snake Charmer. Which leads to another one of Betty's failed party-throwing attempts...
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Betty and Jughead decide it's a great idea to throw F.P. a retirement party at the Whyte Wyrm. Betty is now okay with the fact that her bf is a Serpent, and wants to become "Serpent Adjacent." So naturally she performs a "Serpent Dance" at the party, in front of everyone (including her MOM), to prove she can hang. Jughead isn't impressed, though, now convinced she's in even more danger.
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While Betty and Jughead are preoccupied with the Serpents, Archie and Veronica are having troubles of their own. Archie confessed his love for Ronnie, but she just couldn't reciprocate, leaving both couples in a are-we-still-together-or-did-we-really-just-break-up state. The eighth episode of Season 2 leaves us hanging with a pretty suggestive ~lewk~ between Betty and Archie, who seems to see the Girl Next Door as more than the Girl Next Door for the first time (and if you'll remember back to the beginning of this post, Betty used to have a thing for Archie). Will Bughead endure or is it time for some new ships to sail?
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In the next episode, that sexual tension materializes in more than just a look -- Archie and Betty kiss!! *Gasp* They end up smooching in the car while hunting down the Black Hood, but pretty much ignore it after that. Technically, they're both broken up with their respective boos, but Bughead fans definitely found this cringey.
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After winter break, Archie and Veronica have patched things up and are back together (Ronnie finally told Archiekins she loves him) and Betty and Jughead are still in limbo. After Jughead's expose about General Pickens, they both get suspended from the Blue and Gold, and end up having a talk about their relationship. Jughead admits to kissing Toni, but assures Betty that nothing else happened. But when Juggie asks Betty if she's done anything with anyone else since their breakup, she doesn't mention the Barchie kiss.
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Fast-forward a bit and Hiram generously offers to give the Core Four the Lodge family cabin for the weekend. Veronica happily obliges, and the two couples head out of Riverdale for a romantic getaway. But thanks to Cheryl's inherent nastiness (and jealousy at not being invited), she calls Jug to tell him about the Barchie kiss. To even the playing field, Veronica decides it'll be a great idea for her and Jughead to kiss. And they do, to the dismay of Bughead and Varchie fans.
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When the Lodges try to get Fred Andrews to run for mayor, it incites chaos in the lives and relationships of the Core Four. Archie sides with Hiram Lodge over his own dad, bringing him even closer to the family, and it causes Jughead and Betty to run for student council -- and oh, Veronica and Archie are opposing them.
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”Hey there, Juliet“
Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) are arguably the internet's favorite couple. From Twitter accounts to Tumblr pages, the couple is by far Riverdale's most popular ship. But Season 2 has been anything but smooth sailing for the sleuthing duo, from Juggie's new friend Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) to Betty's "Serpent Dance." Scroll down for a Bughead breakdown.
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