Riverdale: Season 5, Part 2 – A Review

Hey guys!
We’re back with Riverdale, taking a closer look at the second half of Riverdale’s season 5. I wasn’t too impressed with the first half, but maybe they manage to redeem themselves?

The Plot:

Okay, so the timehop has happened, we are still in Riverdale. Archie is still over the place, Betty is on the hunt for a serial killer, Jughead needs to get a grip, Veronica tries to get back to being her old self, while I don’t even know what the heck is going on with Cheryl…

Riverdale on RT

The Rating:

What. A. Giant. Clusterfuck.
I don’t have words for how freaking bad this season was. There were moments that has so much potential, this could have been great but overall, I think this is the season I dislike the most so far. This review will feature a lot of spoilers because, believe me, there are *a lot* of things we need to address.

The sheer craziness of some of the plot developments is nothing short of ridiculous. Some episodes were so cringe-worthy, I actually had to stop halfway through to stop halfway through to take a deep breath and a break before finishing. Let’s talk about some of that after the *read more*.

Okay, as I said Archie is all over the place. The PTSD thing could have been interesting. I mean, it might have helped Archie if he knew which war he was fighting in. The design of the war-scenes look like it’s WWI or something. He’s also a firefighter in this season. Oh, and a miner. Apparently, everybody is going crazy of Palladium this season and Archie and the bois dig somewhere in Cheryl’s mines, which also don’t look up to date in terms of equipment and security. Talking of Cheryl. She started a ministry (?!) and Kevin was helping her to perform some wonders (!?) to establish her as Saint (?!). You still with me? As I said, what the fuck was going on in this season? Especially that part with Cheryl didn’t seem to have literally anything to do with the rest of the plot. Well, until the final episode. Petsch is a stunning actress and she definitely stole the show in that last episode. Considering that they’re setting up some witchy stuff and literally showed her ancestor burning at the stake, the next season will be interesting. I’m really looking forward to the CAOS cross-over.

Moving on to Veronica. She annoyed me so much. I swear if she says “she-wolf of Wall Street” one more time I will throw hands. I just couldn’t get with her whole stick, but I appreciate that in the end she finally broke things off with Archie. That they got back together didn’t make too much sense and I’m glad she re-evaluated. You can’t talk about Ronnie without addressing Hiram. There was one episode about his origin story bascially that was fairly decent but otherwise they just need to fuck off with this character. It’s not interesting anymore, I get it, he’s bad. It doesn’t help either that all his schemes are just so freaking weird and don’t really make sense.

Jughead was always one of my favorite characters but I feel like they did him dirty. Again so much potential here that just ended up wasted. Seriously, what was that story with the rat-king? LIke, excuse me, I’m sorry, what now? And they never addressed it again. He does seem to be doing better now as the season was concluding and Tabitha appears to be a good match. They make for a nice couple!

Finally, Betty. Oh Betty darling. This was the part of the story that I had the highest hopes for and also the one that disappointed me the most. Polly disappearing was intense and I get what a powerful motivator it was for Betty. It’s an intriguing story-line and the hunt for the serial killer could have been fascinating. But what the heck were those methods?! Literally nothing made sense. The grand reveal was also slightly underwhelming (not even gonna talk about the logic any more), except for the moment where Alice and Betty discover the body of Polly. In that moment you can tell just how talented those two actresses are and how great this season could have been.

This season also featured the return of Josie for one episode and I know fans were excited about that. But that you somehow manage to fill an entire episode with just so little story is actually astonishing. It was just song after song after song, hoping that nobody would notice the grave lack of substance. There actually was another musical episode that could have been good. The musical chosen, which I wasn’t aware exists really nails Alice’s feelings. But that they desperately tried to stretch it over all characters and storylines was simply too much. Too many songs. Not enough story. For real, stop it.

Season 5 of Riverdale hurt my brain. The plot was just so freaking stupid it times, it was almost physically painful. I will forever mourn the lost potential. The cast is amazing and there are moments where you can see writing shining through that could have been great. But overall this was a mess and I am so disappointed.

Did you watch the season? Let me know in the comments what you think!

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