Indigo

when "rivervale" first started i was thinking that it was a lost highway-style metamorphosis (not out of the question considering the heavy allusions to that exact movie throughout seasons 4 & 5)-- that the story had come to a point past which there is nowhere else to go (the apparent death of archie) & thus undergone a transformation. i wouldve appreciated it as a like nonliteral extrapolation on what had happened up till then, & i wouldve begrudgingly accepted "it was all a dream", but tbh "it's a literal parallel universe in a state of crisis, the resolution of which will prevent archie from dying in the main universe" was like, the stupidest route they couldve gone. not an endearing kind of stupid either

the multiverse stuff is also like, all dialogue. there's no visual representation *at all* of the supposed impending apocalypse. very "low-budget" decision from a show with multiple cgi beehives

on paper the idea of a supernatural anthology-esque "what if" au is actually pretty charming-- like if treehouse of horror composed like a fifth of the season. in practice it falls short repeatedly: the plots still proceed in riverdale's characteristic scattershot fashion, diminishing & de-emphasizing each episode's allegedly central horror component. the appeals to the idea of the story being anthological (up to & including the rod serling pastiche) run aground of the insistence on maintaining inter-episode continuity, fatally kneecapping the arc conclusion's central basis (ie, that rivervale is a world whose status quo is periodically resetting). the horror components are barebones, perfunctory, & largely symbolic, presumably because (as weve already seen via chilling adventures) aguirre-sacasa's approach to structuring a horror story is effectively identical to the bottom of the r/nosleep barrel. Evil Archie was fun though.

the structure of the first two episodes of rivervale led me to think that one major character was going to be killed off each episode until there was only one person left. unfortunately that's too interesting for riverdale

it is very very funny how you can tell that almost every actor is genuinely struggling to say "rivervale" out loud. it sounds unnatural & forced.

it's banal but i cant deny smiling a little when jughead's narrations made hamfisted reference to horror anthologies ("nightmares and dreamscapes", "house of mysteries")

in the abigail episode theres a scene where she & thomasina are rummaging through fen's things looking for proof that he's a murderer. and then he enters the house & calls out to them, & they start scrambling to put his things away & hide the evidence of their rummaging, crosscut with shots of him coming up the stairs to imply urgency. then as soon as he reaches them they immediately confront him about being a murderer. so why were they trying to hide their rummaging. why would the scene be written like this. were they stupid

kind of exhausting how the telos of "rivervale" is like. "riverdale needs to continue existing. any loss or sacrifice is justifiable in pursuit of that goal." i do not think riverdale has earned the right to creative incest

the thing i really dont get about "rivervale" is like. ok you want to lead the season with a few AU episodes to explore a supernatural direction. thats fine youre allowed to do that. but like. when the AU ends there are still supernatural elements! they get superpowers & witchcraft & resurrections & whatnot! so what was the point. a what-if episode depicts abigail the immortal witch in cheryl's body, then a regular episode later in the season depicts. the same thing. happening again.

you can really feel the stinging over the cancellation of chilling adventures of sabrina. which is crazy because chilling adventures of sabrina sucked