Showing posts with label Riverdale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Riverdale. Show all posts

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Let's Talk "Riverdale" Season 3

No, you're not seeing things. Yes, we are talking about The CW's "Riverdale" once again and this time, this time it won't be pretty. Not that last time was pretty...just...well...okay. Anyways, I started watching "Riverdale" with my wife just to see what in the blue hell the fuss was about, after all, Hot Topic boasted a large "Riverdale" poster outside their store so there had to have been something there worth investigating. Long story short, my wife and I really dig the series...as nothing more than riff material. "Riverdale" managed to find that sweet spot of "So Bad It's Good" in the same vein as "Pretty Little Liars" where the show takes it's self just seriously enough for it to not be unwatchable. That being said, this season...oh boy where do I begin? Let me back up for a bit and say that I'm writing this opening BEFORE the midseason finale (where hopefully we'll get some answers or at least some semblance of coherency) because I wanted to capture my thoughts at the moment so everything after the break will be after I watched the midseason finale.

The plot of "Riverdale" Season One was VERY simple: Who killed Jason Blossom? And by the end of the season, that question was not only answered but answered logically and without any lingering doubts. Despite being hilariously written angsty teenage schlock, Season One wasn't bad. Then came a little thing called The Black Hood...and Season Two. Season Two was a bit of a mess but manageable. Season Two decided to make Betty the center of everything by involving her in not 1 but 2 plots, the aforementioned Black Hood storyline (which began with Archie so he really should've been the one to finish that) and The "Chick" storyline that might as well have been called The "We really didn't have a point for this except that Chick was a character from the comic book so we added him anyway". Not to mention there was the gang war started by Hiram Lodge between The Ghoulies and The Serpents and his eventual takeover of the Southside...oh yeah and something about Penelope Blossom and her husbands' twin brother whose name I can't be bothered to look up threatening to kill Cheryl's grandmother. Yeah...a whole lotta stuff happened. Despite that, once again the MAIN plot thread (The Black Hood) was tied up in an uneven, stupidly tied bow but a bow nonetheless.

Then Season Three happened...and after having watched 7 episodes of this I can honestly say I have no clue just what the f*ck is going on. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware of what's happening but how it all meshes together is completely beyond me. Let's start with what (very little) I do know:  there's a game called Griffins & Gargoyles the setting of the game is the kingdom of Eldirvar (an obvious anagram for Riverdale). G&G, as it's called in the series, is an analog for Riverdale, the town its self and the various factions within it, namely The Serpents, The Ghoulies etc. This game was discovered by the parents of the main characters during one happenstance detention sentence and they all played it heavily...eventually LARPing with it. One night during an Ascension Party someone brought a chalice of poison with the intentions of someone drinking it, Alice spotted The Gargoyle King in the hallway during a drug mania induced by fizzle rocks...(that's a sentence I actually typed). Long story short, Alice finds the chalices but doesn't drink and sometime later the Principal is found dead in the broom closet having drunk from the chalice himself...and somehow the parents are culpable.

Before I go on allow me to explain how they could have gotten out of this and are NOT culpable AT ALL. For starters YES, they are culpable for breaking into the school and that is indeed illegal, but once the authorities see that they didn't vandalize the property or anything I'd imagine the most they'd get is community service. On that note, the reason they're not at fault is because THE PRINCIPAL DRUNK FROM THE CHALICE HIMSELF!! Who looks at two suspicious cups of God knows what and says "Down the hatch!"? No one forced him to drink it. Furthermore, no one can even attest to those cups being placed anywhere with the intention of anyone drinking it. Basically, what I'm saying is if I left a bottle of sulphuric acid and dyed it blue and left it in the bathroom and someone drank it, I'm not a murderer, I'm not even a man-slaughterer, I'm incredibly careless but at least I'm not careless enough to drink something I have no clue what the contents are.

That aside now G&G is making a full comeback having claimed the lives of Dilton Doiley and...er...friend. The Parents are all up in arms that the "evil" game has returned and The Gargoyle King is back as well having claimed Ethel as his disciple. Not only that but now G&G seems to have spread even further with Archie's prison warden calling Archie "The Red Paladin" and claiming allegiance to a force more powerful than Hiram Lodge. Now Betty is trapped in an asylum where everyone is drawing pictures of The Gargoyle King and getting good and doped up on fizzle rocks. Not only that but Ethel is apparently BFFs with this special effects class project and this alliance gives her the ability to basically call the shots within The Sisters Of Quiet Mercy. Last but not least there's The Farm, a cult that Alice & Polly joined that's NOT run by Joe Carroll (or Billy Grimm for that matter...a pox on you CW...seriously, a pox on you) but is instead controlled by some non-entity we have yet to meet named Edgar Neverever...or Evernever...or nevermind.

Not even Billy Grimm knows what's going on in this damn show.

The Farm has been mentioned numerous times over the span of a few seasons and I was under the impression that it'd take center stage as the main plot of this season (given how it featured the twins being placed over a fire pit and not The Gargoyle King). However, considering we have yet to meet Edgar Evergonnashowup I have a sneaking suspicion that he's The Gargoyle King, how or why that'd make sense is anyone's guess (including the writers) but that's my theory so far. Theories are basically all we have considering this season views like it's been written by several people NOT communicating. I have the feeling production meetings for this show are not unlike pornos where stuff starts to happen and before things get outta hand someone protests only to be silenced by quiet whispers of "Shhh, let it happen.", except unlike porn, this ends with a headache and questions. All that said, let's dive in;

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Let's Talk "Riverdale"

Okay, I've got some 'splainin' to do, but I'm okay with that. So it's no shock to you what this article is about but the real question is "Why?". Yes, why is the operative word all around for something like this. So "Riverdale" is a CW series based on (of all things) Archie Comics, and is a teen drama series ala "Pretty Little Liars". When this series was announced, I laughed, I mean of all the things to get a gritty reboot in 2017 Archie found it's way on that list?! Don't get me wrong, Archie isn't new to gritty, after all there is Archie meets The Punisher, and Archie with zombies, Archie and The Predator...you get the gist, but all of those are very tongue in cheek and more of a "Hey, wouldn't it be weird/funny if this was an actually thing?" kinda thing than being a legit thing...like Marvel's "What If..." or DC's Elseworld. But who am I kidding, it's 2017 and EVERYTHING needs to be adapted, rebooted and made for a mature audience and Archie is NO exception!

Now, I'm no fan of Archie comics but I am familiar enough with them, I know of Archie being the world's biggest player (essentially having 2 women wrapped around his finger for nearly 78 damn years), I know of Betty & Veronica, "Jughead" and that's about it. I came to the conclusion to watch this series due to Hot Topic of all places boasting "Riverdale" merchandise and a huge "Riverdale" poster displayed on their window. For starters my initial surprise was that the series was somehow (pact with Satan not entirely out of the question) still on the air and currently into it's Second Season (how?!) and my second reaction was "Am I missing something here?". It's a gritty Archie reboot, it can't be any good (it's not but we'll get there). Oddly enough my wife and I both decided that we were gonna roll the dice and check this series out for ourselves and I am SO glad we did. Once "Pretty Little Liars" concluded, I was worried I wasn't gonna have another series I could watch for craps and giggles. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed "Pretty Little Liars" because it was SO BAD it was GREAT. It was entertaining enough to keep me engaged and dumb enough for me to dismiss, in short, PERFECT!

It looks like "Riverdale" will be filling that spot for me now because this series is a GOLD MINE of riff material, be it Luke Perry looking like Dollar Store Heisenberg to other character just acting and being completely stupid, this series makes my wife and I cackle like hyenas. Anyways, allow me to take you guys on a guided tour of "Riverdale" and embrace the madness...crap, that was "Hannibal's" tag line..."Hannibal" I'm so sorry to include you in this review, please forgive me.