“Riverdale”: A perfect guilty pleasure watch

“Riverdale,” produced by The CW Television Network, is a teen drama series based on the Archie Comics series. The show centers around a group of friends who engage in typical high school antics, participate in romantic endeavors and solve whatever mysteries come their way. Perhaps a good way to view the show is as a crossover between High School Musical and the Hardy Boys. The show is admittedly a little ridiculous, but just because a show is sort of dumb does not mean it cannot be good.

The most enthralling — and the silliest part — of Riverdale is the drama in the show. The show goes through plot twist after plot twist. This ensures that there is always a greater threat that the protagonists face or at least a superordinate goal that they’re working towards. The show’s plot twists make no logical sense but are, nevertheless, still entertaining. In fact, sometimes it’s just fun to see whatever ridiculous direction the show writers try to take the storyline in. The show writers also completely abandon character development for the sake of their plotlines; one second a character is a cultist living in the middle of the woods, and the next season they’re back in high school like nothing happened. This may be frustrating to some, but I find it amusing.

Another great feature of “Riverdale” is because it’s a teen drama, it embraces tropes to their fullest extent. We can discern the reason tropes became tropes is because people find something about them deeply enthralling. I mean, consider how many teenage dramas there are based on vampires. Despite minor differences, all of these shows essentially have the same character types and storylines, yet they continue to sell. Likewise, “Riverdale” embraces a lot of stereotypes and tropes to the maximum, which makes it a great guilty pleasure show. I particularly enjoy the mystery novel tropes that they implement whenever a new “big bad” is introduced.

“Riverdale” takes its drama to extreme lengths and has absurd characters. In fact, because drama and power moves in “Riverdale” are ridiculous and over the top, I think they’re actually quite educational. While the absurd power moves we see on television look like they would never work in real life, I have found the opposite to be true. I think they’re infinitely more effective in real life because no one expects you to be such a theatrical person. I remember one time after watching “Riverdale” I wanted to test one of these power moves. When I heard my roommate walk in, I set up my chair with the back facing the door and waited. When he walked in, I called my roommate by name, telling him to take a seat in a slow voice, and I could tell he was thrown off guard. Of course, I immediately started laughing and told him I was kidding, but my antics proved the effectiveness of “Riverdale”-style low budget drama power moves.

Whether you want to admit or not, Riverdale is a fun guilty pleasure show. It’s a show with loveable characters, fun tropes and a purposely timeless aesthetic. The actors give it their all and it makes up for any flaws the show might have. I think the series has a lot to offer if you’re willing to come at it with the right mindset and embrace the ridiculous parts of the show as part of the appeal.

*Photo courtesy of The CW Network

Kristian Fors is a student at Utah State University majoring in Economics and is an opinion columnist for the Utah Statesman. He enjoys studying psychology, traveling, and living life as intentionally as possible.

—krfors@gmail.com