Riverdale has never been a realistic show, but season 2 was a whole new level of crazy. The first season made fun of itself and recognized the unrealistic elements, but it was still decently plausible and fun. It felt like there was a theme and it all followed one story line - Jason's murder.
Then comes season 2 where we're expecting more character development and twists and turns. But instead, we get flat confusing characters who change their entire personality and motivation every episode and an EXCESSIVE amount of plot twists. I'm all for a convoluted plot, but when you reveal some dramatic twist every five seconds, your audience stops being surprised.
Below are the top 11 reasons why this season was such a mess.
**Spoilers ahead (of course!)**
1. The characters act like they're 24
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I know they acted a little old for their age in season one but this season gets ridiculous. These teenage high school kids are trying to fight mobsters and take down serial killers? Oh and don't forget morning breakfast mimosas and hard drugs! What happened to failing math and skipping class?
2. The FBI agent
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That character made no sense from the moment he was introduced. He was way out of bounds and creepy, and then turned out to be a fake? This "reveal" evoked no emotions from me. It was such a cop out and felt like lazy writing.
3. Chic
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There were an ABSURD amount of twists with who he is, all in about 2-3 episodes. First it's revealed he's not Hal's. Then we realize he's not even Alice's. Then we find out Alice drove her son to OD. Oh and then it's revealed the love child was FP's kid. THEN we find out Chick killed Charles. As an added bonus, we get yanked around trying to find out if the black hood killed Chic at the end!
4. Bughead
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They break up like 7 times. They're a much better couple than Varchie (in my opinion) but they half break up or push each other away every other episode! It got old fast. They love each other and we know they'll end up together, so why put us through this?
Then it turns out they shared a half sibling? I know it's not technically incest but it's a little gross. Isn't it funny that both Bughead and Varchie's parents have had sex? Maybe in season three they'll discover a Hermione/Fred love child.
5. Jeronica? Vughead?
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Whatever you call it, it was terrible. The kiss was pointless and made me want to hurl. That's all.
6. Everything about Archie
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This boy is a disaster. He spent the whole season trying to be a badass instead of dealing with any of his emotions. His obsession with Hiram was super confusing and creepy. I don't know why he was trying to become a mobster? Or a killer?
Can we return to the times when he was juggling four girlfriends?
7. Veronica's flat character
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I would like to discuss the fact that this supposed cool feminist gal's entire story revolves around two men. This season takes an interesting character and flattens her. All she does is sleep with Archie and debate if she should love or hate her dad.
8. Jughead the serpent king?
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Jug goes from completely resisting the gang, to reluctantly joining, to being their leader and cutting off a chunk of a woman's arm? I love Jughead but his character arc is so confusing at times. He goes form a broody dork to a gang leader awful fast.
I'm sorry but the serpents are the least realistic gang in existence.
9. Cheryl and Toni
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Putting these two together was probably the best thing the show did all season, but they didn't give us enough!! The two have great chemistry but we only got one kiss. There was also not enough build up, they just fell together quickly as the show tried to wrap up the season but add more drama.
10. Black hood reveal
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The first half of the season they do some real investigating and slowly unravel a puzzle to find Mr. Svenson. The second half... Betty just randomly senses it's her dad? She couldn't do that the first half of the season when he was calling her more often? Hal's explanation and capture were also the most boring lifeless scenes of all time. His motivation was confusing, his childhood video was just weird, and he got taken down with one hit over the head. After an entire season, where we barely see or care about Hal, this just felt so tragic.
11. The FLAT cliffhanger
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Oh my god, who CARES? Is anyone concerned Archie will spend the rest of his life in jail? I mean the comics are named after him, I really doubt this will stick. Compared to last season, where Fred Andrews (a character I actually care about) was bleeding out, this was an awful cliffhanger. They built up to the moment so well with Jug's narrating and the singing, but then it fell FLAT.
I really wanted to love this season, but the writing was so bad and the excessive twists and turns left me unimpressed. I really enjoy the cast, and there were many decent elements, but this season overall was just terrible.