Riverdale, an Archie Comics adaptation on the CW

I remember when the episode came out people were also pointing out Mr Honey's inconsistent characterization as a good teacher since he knew about Reggie's Dad abusing him and didn't do anything about it.

Which as a teacher I'm pretty sure he's obligated to report it.

Yeah, and speaking of Reggie, there was that shit where Mr. Honey trashed Reggie's car. That was pretty far above and beyond the call of punitive behavioral discouragement.

If you turned your head and squinted, you could try to justify it as extreme measures justified by their effectiveness. Except it wasn't even effective, was it? Trashing Reggie's car certainly did nothing to discourage him, in "Killing Mr. Honey", from glueing Mr. Honey to his chair.

I don’t blame Mr Honey. Between Archie’s uncle’s enemies coming to school attacking students, Betty’s dad killing students on campus, Veronica’s dad causing student seizures, students and faculty joining cults, Mrs Blossom having Griffon & Gargoyles players committing suicide. These students don’t deserve proms and high school musicals.

These students don't deserve proms and high school musicals because violent adults keep coming to the school to murder them? That is some capital-V Victim-Blaming.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 26th 2020 at 7:30:59 AM

Most of your examples don't have anything to do with the actual students. You're calling out adults. The students are the ones that, according to you, are being preyed on. So, how is it their bloody fault that their relatives or teachers are bringing problems to them?

Like. How is Archie responsible for his uncle? How is Betty responsible for her dad? How is Veronica responsible for her dad? Mrs. Blossom is really "oof-worthy" because, like, the students are to blame for somebody having them commit suicide?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jun 26th 2020 at 6:41:11 AM

They don’t deserve it because of the main cast’s parents. I laughed out loud when the parents came to the school to force Honey to have prom for their kids. I’m like, “You’re the folks that screwed up their high school years in the first place!!!!!”

Honey’s trying to get their kids to graduate alive!

Proms and musicals are just extra curricular and privileges, and are events that have had multiple deaths over the last 3 years.

These parents should give more care to their kids’ actual lives, not damn prom and musicals.

Edited by ChumlyX1995 on Jun 26th 2020 at 6:43:25 AM

So, the students, including ones who don't have anything to do with those adults, don't deserve recreational activities because of the activities of adults unrelated to the school.

You want to rephrase the use of the word "deserve"? And, you know, maybe stop talking about the students as though they're responsible when you're getting angry at the adults?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jun 26th 2020 at 6:46:28 AM

You forget the multiple deaths during prom and musicals before Honey got there. I’d cancel those too, if I became the new principal.

Edited by ChumlyX1995 on Jun 26th 2020 at 6:45:46 AM

What the hell.

Edit: I also seriously question the efficacy of cancelling proms and musicals to keep people from being killed.

Wouldn't that leave "anywhere else"?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jun 26th 2020 at 6:58:42 AM

If Honey cares so much about these kids graduating alive, he sure isn't doing anything to show it. What with him failing to report Reggie's abusive father to CPS and whatnot.

This is exactly what I was talking about regarding the fallacious linking of correlation to causality. Mr. Honey has done absolutely nothing that would prevent murderers from entering the school and trying to murder the kids. In fact, at least one murderer did enter the school and try to murder the kids this year, and his failure to do so was entirely unrelated to Mr. Honey's policies.

No amount of terrorizing children will prevent predators from preying on them, because the victims are not responsible for the crimes committed against them.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 26th 2020 at 8:25:00 AM

I think this is honestly down to the writers not thinking about things ahead of time.

Like Alice being a mole for the FBI getting added at the last minute.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 27th 2020 at 12:38:35 AM

Seriously, four of the killers in this show (Hal Cooper, Hiram Lodge and Cheryl's parents) were living under the same roof as their own children and the only one of these who probably wouldn't have killed his own kid is Hiram and that's because he finds other ways to hurt Veronica.

Watch Mojo 10 Ways To Fix Riverdale for season 5.

10) No more Dark Betty.

9) Make a decision about music already. With the Pussycats gone and Archie having more or less given up on music, it makes the musical episodes seem out of place.

8) Balance storylines better. Some stories are introduced and resolved in an entire episode while others last too long. The stories are also too dark and strange.

7) Bring back the Southside Serpents and Pretty Poisons. The Poisons seem to have vanished after season 3 and they would allow for Toni to do something other than hang around with Cheryl. With Vanessa Morgan having recently spoken up about her character's abysmal treatment maybe bringing back the Poisons will give her some much needed development.

6) No love triangles. It's too cliche.

5) Remove Hiram. He started out as terrifying but he's gotten annoying and people forgive him too easily.

4) Cheryl's stories have gotten way over the top.

3) Have Veronica decide if she's against or with her father. Also, if she's going to be against her father, don't have her show her hand.

2) Better dialogue.

1) Better representation.

I'm mixed on 8 and 4 but agree with everything else.

Edited by windleopard on Jun 27th 2020 at 7:50:48 AM

Don’t have everything revolve around Betty and Jughead.

#3 is absolutely a problem. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one that's noticed.

Hiram gets a lot of scenes where he shows his hand. He condescendingly sees Veronica's efforts to undermine him and dismantle his criminal empire as teenage rebellion. In his view, she's just acting out at him.

And the problem is that, based on Veronica's behavior throughout the series, he's right. Veronica has zero conviction in what she's doing, and she drops everything to run back and be the dutiful daughter at the drop of a hat.

Each season, each of the main characters usually has their own plot thread they're running. But Veronica arguably gets the worst plots, because it's just season after season of the same story.

• Daddy, I hate you and I'm going to take you down.
• I'm sorry, Daddy. Let's be a family.
• I can't believe you did that! I'm going to be the one to destroy you!
• Oh no, that's terrible news! What can I do to help you?
• You and me are enemies for life!

Veronica is the most childish character on the show, because her entire existence from start to finish is defined by her relationship to her parents. There is no substance to her as a person beyond whether she supports or opposes her dad today. Season four even brought in a therapist to tell her this to her face!

And her takeaway from that was, "I need to outcompete Daddy in the rum business! That'll make him really angry!" And then she always, always marches into his office to mouth off to him about whatever move she's doing. Then he counters it, she gets pissy, she comes up with a counter-counter, and then marches into his office to mouth off to him about her new move.

Veronica's not trying to defeat Hiram. She's just an inverse "Well Done, Son" Guy. She defines her rite of passage into adulthood as finally getting that thumbs-down and frowny face from Hiram. She's passionate and she's fiery, but the sincerity left her storyline a long time ago.

Follow-up note: Veronica isn't the only one who does the "march over and tell adversary what you just learned or are planning" thing. She's just the most noticeable due to the constant repetition of her arc. Everyone in Riverdale has an oversharing problem. Everybody does this.

• Jughead: Holy shit, you guys. The janitor, Mr. Cleany, was that same guy that was spotted at the scene of the murder.
• Archie: Do you know what this means?
• Jughead: Yeah. And I know just what to do about it.
• Cut to Jughead confronting Mr. Cleany
• Jughead: I know you were at the crime scene! I have photo evidence! And I'm going to uncover the truth no matter what! What do you have to say for yourself?
• Mr. Cleany: I don't know what you're talking about. Good day.
• Jughead: What, that's it?! You're not going to confess?!
• Mr. Cleany: I'm trying to work. Get out.
• Later, in an alley
• Archie: Jughead! Are you okay?
• Jughead: Yeah, the Serpents scared off those goons. Someone's trying to have me killed. Someone knows I'm getting too close to the truth.
• Cut to Jughead confronting Mr. Cleany
• Jughead: I know you sent those goons! But I survived, and now I'm going to bring you to justice just as soon as I get back to my office, where all the evidence is stored in a safe under the desk! The combination is my birthday! So take that!

Rinse and repeat. The Stonewall Prep arc was especially bad about it, as Jughead made an art form out of confronting the Stonies with every new discovery he made in his investigation.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 27th 2020 at 9:54:32 AM

Veronica needs another opponent on the show besides her father. But, of course, the writers created an unknown half sister.

It’s funny how everyone on the show has an even family member.

Even Archie had an uncle, more with a shady past, than evil.

Veronica: evil Dad and Mom(unfortunately), evil half-sister Jughead: evil mom, shady half brother, good but underhanded dad Betty: evil dad, shady half brother, mother and sister are certifiable Cheryl: evil dad, crazy evil mom, evil uncle, all other relatives underhanded Archie: uncle with bad past Reggie: abusive dad Toni: distant grandfather, family has shun her.

Meanwhile, Kevin has a too normal family. He never gets focused on. And he somehow falls susceptible to a cult. His dad has more fatherly scenes with Archie than him.

Edited by ChumlyX1995 on Jun 27th 2020 at 10:42:41 AM

Speaking of that therapist, that was a missed opportunity to have Kevin and Toni talk about their problems too.

Hiram Lodge essentially became the Malcolm Merlyn of Riverdale, sticking around long past his use as a Big Bad and devolving into a Plot Tumor the show isn't willing to depart with. Just like how Malcolm made every plot and character worse the longer he was on Arrow, Hiram's presence prevents Veronica from growing as a person.

I want more Dark Betty.

I'd love for her to be a vampire.

Let's turn her into a vampire.

:)

I like Dark Betty better as something that Betty fears about herself than as an actual thing. The "serial killer gene makes her predisposed to be evil" thing has shades of a pet peeve of mine, "Mental Illness = Biologically Predisposted to Evil". It's not quite the same thing but it's similar enough, so seeing Betty overcome her own fearful conceptions about being destined for evil resonates with me.

I'm a care-giver for a person that suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and I see elements of her in Betty's journey.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 28th 2020 at 7:10:26 AM

I’m surprised no one has shown worry that Polly’s twin will end up the same way. Especially the boy. Given how Hal, Polly, and Dark Betty are. Then there’s the fact that they are an incest result from Blossom blood.

Katy Keene just got canceled.

Oh, was it doing badly or...?

I don’t know. Yet so far, it’s the only CW show to be canceled this season.

I hadn't even realized it was airing already.