TV Review: Riverdale, Season 4

This was TV show #13/20 (#18 overall) that I watched for my 20 for 2020 Challenge. The final episode of Season 4 premiered on The CW on May 6, 2020. There will be a spoiler section contained within this review (but you will be warned before we get there).

I really like this show. I don’t care if that’s weird. I just love it so much. It’s just so over the top that it’s really fun to make fun of and have a good time. Pretty much all teen dramas are like this. That just comes with the genre territory. I am fully convinced that the writers, the cast, everyone is in on the joke, and they make the show so ridiculous on purpose. The show is just so fast paced and all over the place, that it’s extremely entertaining. They fit so many plot lines in every episode. Yes, they drop a lot of them and never return to them. It’s messy, but it’s just so fun. I love the cast. I love the 4 main characters (played by KJ Apa, Cole Sprouse, Camila Mendes and Lili Reinhart). I love other supporting characters played by Madelaine Petsch and Casey Cott. I love the adults too. I love how they use all these former teen heartthrobs from the 1980s and 1990s to make up this all-star parent cast (Luke Perry (RIP), Molly Ringwald, Skeet Ulrich, Kerr Smith). And guest stars like Chad Michael Murray. It’s just an iconic cast.

I think my one complaint regarding this season has to do with this season’s storyline. It felt extremely disconnected and all over the place. Even more than previous seasons were. Previous seasons had an overarching theme that covers the whole season, and includes all the characters. This season, every character had their own mini storyline, and some would end partway through the season, and another storyline would start. This will be discussed in further detail in the spoilers section below.

***SPOILERS SECTION***

So to go a little more in depth regarding the disconnected storylines this season… I didn’t like that there wasn’t one main theme this season. There were a bunch of mini storylines, and they were all separated by different characters. Season 1 was mainly about the Jason Blossom storyline, Season 2 was about the Black Hood, Season 3 was about Griffins & Gargoyles/The Farm. And for Seasons 1-3, these main storylines were experienced by all of the main four characters. In Season 4, Jughead and Betty’s storyline was about Stonewall Prep, Archie’s storyline was about his gym, Cheryl’s storyline was about her brother, Veronica’s storyline was about her new rum business. Because all of the characters were kind of doing their own thing, it felt really disconnected, and it didn’t have the same “squad” feel as other seasons do. I think the next season maybe needs to take a tiny step back in terms of all the different plotlines that are going on. I also don’t like that the Serpents storyline was dropped pretty much completely. And as always, storylines were randomly dropped throughout the season like Betty’s “Dark Betty”/FBI/serial killer gene/Farm hypnosis storyline, or Chip/Charles working together, or the videotapes. Another thing I’m kind of disappointed with was how they rushed the end of the Farm/Edgar Evernever storyline. I feel like they could have made that storyline last another half season to even a full season, but they chose to end that storyline within the first three episodes of Season 4. If they didn’t want the Farm storyline to continue into Season 4, they should have just ended that in the Season 3 finale. But this messy tying of ends (or not-tying of ends) is nothing new for Riverdale. Riverdale consistently does this unfortunately.

One random thing I wanted to point out is that I really liked the Shannon Doherty cameo in the first episode. As a Beverly Hills, 90210 fan, I thought it was so cute that they had Shannon Doherty cameo in the tribute episode for Luke Perry.

***END OF SPOILERS SECTION***

This is just a really fun, casual, entertaining, teen drama. I love it. If you like teen dramas, this is a must watch. I’d give this show an 8/10. Have you watched this show? Let me know your thoughts down below.