#riverdalians

Happy Fathers Day to FP Jones!!! 🫶

Now why does everyone look SO good here????

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So I recently finished rewatching all of Riverdale again, with less of a gap between seasons this time. So I feel like my ranking has changed a bit, especially since it’s been longer since the series finale.

Quick reminder that this is MY ranking, and you don’t have to agree.

Anywho, here we go!

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#7

Riverdale Season 5

Honestly, still my least favorite season. I enjoyed more on this rewatch, especially the first few episodes that essentially close out S4. The concept of the time jump was a really good idea at first, but then it derailed kinda quickly. It just doesn’t stand out to me. Couple that with MORE Hiram Lodge bullshit and I’m out lol. The Mothman stuff was… fine, I guess. The storylines for all the characters felt kinda disjointed and mostly uninteresting. It’s the only season where halfway through, I felt downright bored.

That’s not to say it’s ALL bad. I loved the introduction of Tabitha, the fact that Toni got more of a spotlight. And the change up in relationships was very much welcome.

Overall I just think they could’ve done way more with the time jump and could’ve gone somewhere more interesting with all the characters. The most disappointing season imo. It was needed change-up that just ended up falling pretty flat for me.

#6

Riverdale Season 7

At first, I really did love this season. But upon rewatch, and in the context of the overall show, they really disappointed. I think I just wanted to like it and ignored all the flaws at first because well, it was the last season we ever got. Even though a lot of the storylines were fun in the moment, the whole season felt very directionless. We weren’t really building to anything. Most of the canon from the past 6 seasons was just thrown out the window. It SHOULD HAVE been them building towards returning to the og timeline, getting memories back, taking the lessons they learned in the 50s to make desired changes in their life in the present. They were our og characters, but also “not” and that makes me kinda sad. It just didn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion for the characters we grew to love over the past 6 seasons.

I loveeee the comic & 50s era vibes this season tho. It was fun and some of the storylines, like I said before, were genuinely cool. It has my favorite musical of the whole show. The last two episodes, felt like maybe there was hope for a (maybe rushed) return to the og timeline, or at least some version of it. And the final scene is so good it still makes me emotional.

Like S5, I think it was just really disappointing. It wasn’t boring like S5, but it should be held to a higher standard since it was the final season. Before the final scene, I just felt… unsatisfied.

#5

Riverdale Season 4

I think most people can agree this is where Riverdale started feeling a little stale. And imo, there was way too much focus on Jughead and Betty as a pair, leaving so many other characters with no screentime and no discernible storyline. The tickle porn storyline… maybe the most cringe of the entire show. This is where I started getting very annoyed by the overuse of Hiram. It fell back into old patterns, just didn’t manage to mimic what made the show so fun and great before. A jumbled mix of both awesome and pretty bad storylines.

It didn’t have the same kooky weirdness of Riverdale that I loved, but I still enjoyed it more than S5 & S7 overall. The Jughead/Stonewall story was interesting. The videotape storyline was soooo great & creepy, but it ended in a really disappointing/boring way. There were so many great setups for crazy storylines, but their instance on being more realistic just brought it down. Luke Perry’s sad passing, and therefore Fred’s death was incredibly well done and is one of my favorite episodes of the show. Such a beautiful tribute to a wonderful person and character.

#4

Riverdale Season 3

This is where it gets hard for me, because these other 4 seasons on this list are my absolute favorites and it’s hard for me to choose. I used to rank this a little higher, but upon rewatch, there are a lot of things I really dislike about this season. The Hiram/Archie stuff being the most obnoxious imo. It really dragged the season down for me, especially in the middle. Archie’s jail plot was a huge part of this season and it was just boring to me. The underground fighting ring was a snooze. The most disappointing season for Archie, for sure. It was a little cluttered too, in hindsight.

Despite all that, I LOVEEEE when Riverdale goes insane. When the plot lines feel like you’re watching them while on crack. It has the other best musical (Heathers, I love you), and I thought the cult/G&G plot was so fun and freaky in the best of ways. I adore Choni with everything in me and this was the only season where they were genuinely happy and had a good plot together, while also being individuals (S4 definitely shoved Toni into the background even more, which sucked). My favorite part of this season is just how wacky it is, and how they just went full throttle with it.

#3

Riverdale Season 1

Look, most people put this season as their #1 for a reason. It’s what the made the show the hit it later became. There isn’t much I dislike about this season, other than the sickening Grundy plot that still makes me feel icky to this day. It was a little simpler than all the others seasons, and there wasn’t a “big bad” necessarily, which isn’t necessarily a negative. The dialogue is a little corny, dark Betty makes me wanna die, and like every season, I hate Alice Cooper with a fiery passion. It also took a few comic characters that I loved, and either turned them into a shell of themselves, or made them downright awful. Grundy, Chuck, & Dilton to be exact. They deserved better.

But the mystery behind who killed Jason was soooooo interesting and so incredibly well done. The back and forths, the way the storyline was paced, the tragedy of it all. So perfect. The vibes of this season, the soundtrack, Archie’s music storyline, the introduction to all the characters. I love it SO MUCH. This season will forever make me the most nostalgic.

#2

Riverdale Season 2

I had so much trouble picking between this & my number 1 pick. I enjoyed the hell out of S1, but this season, this is the one that made me fall in the love with the show. The Black Hood is easily my favorite villain, who brought both mystery and a bit of horror to the show. I hadn’t been tired of Hiram yet, so his role this season was excellent. I actually really enjoyed the Serpent stuff (not Betty’s dance tho. Ugh), and the direction it took Jughead was interesting. At this point, I was accepting that he wasn’t like his comic counterpart was just enjoying it for what the Riverdale version was becoming. Overall, S2 probably had the strongest storyline, while still not straying too deep into the crazy aspects. Grounded, but a little darker/more adult. An excellent balance imo.

#1

Riverdale Season 6

Hot take maybe, but S6 was absolutely my favorite season. It was exactly what I’d hoped the adult-plots in S5 would be. Everything felt so much more cohesive, the whole gang worked together against Percival, and yet everyone still got a far more acceptable amount of screentime and growth. It wasn’t bogged down my certain characters or relationships. It showed how much everyone had matured since high school, something, I think, S5 epically failed at. Everyone felt necessary here.

It’s so well balanced, while also keeping a bit of the cuckoo-bananas of S3/S4 with all the supernatural aspects. And I fcking LOVE fantasy/magic storylines. Like. SO much. The introduction of Sabrina into this show, Cheryl’s journey of being a witch, everyone getting powers. I’m positively obsessed with the Rivervale arc. It has similar aesthetics/vibes to S1 & S2, dark with some levity.

As a Choni shipper, yeah, it sucked watching the Toni/Fangs stuff. But I think their time apart allowed them both to heal from things, to become stronger individuals. And course, we got the official confirmation that they’re soulmates. We knew it and they were building to it. So I can’t really be mad about it! I’m not a huge Barchie shipper in the comics, I think they’re cute in New Riverdale, but that’s about it. In the show, I think I land firmly on team Barchie after S6. This season really made me love them. Jughead and Tabitha were all kinds of adorable and I wish he’d ended up with her in S7. I also thoroughly enjoyed Veronica and Reggie, which I didn’t expect. I liked them a lot more with this rewatch.

There were some stinker plots, like Toni & Fangs, Kevin kinda being the worst, and I didn’t like the musical much. But man do those negatives pale in comparison to how much I enjoyed this season.

Season 6 feels like an amalgamation of everything I love about Riverdale, the dark, the camp, the mystery, the insanity, but also somehow some grounded-ness in there too. Percival was a great villain, and the plot wasn’t all over the place, allowing things to feel focused balanced, and tension-filled. The relationships between all the characters felt matured. We build to something, and the finale was insane, tied with the S2 finale as the best imo. I had the most fun with this season upon rewatch, I almost want to watch it AGAIN already. It was, in my not so humble opinion, Riverdale’s magnum opus.

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If you disagree with my ranking, and want to come yell at me for it in the comments, you’re more than welcome. 🤗