Riverdale is in its final season (Thankfully? Unfortunately? I’ll let you decide). If you’ve missed out on the previous six, firstly I envy you, and secondly, I don’t think a recap would do the madness justice. You simply need to experience all 120 episodes and counting for yourself.
Luckily, all you need to know about season seven is that the characters have been transported back to 1955 and they’re all teenagers again. None of them can remember their old lives apart from Jughead (Cole Sprouse).
If you thought it was ridiculous that we were meant to believe Archie (KJ Apa) was a 16-year-old in 2017, its just laughable now. This man clearly pays his taxes.
About two minutes into the first episode of the new season, the murder of Emmett Till is established in the Riverdale canon. Yep, you read that right. I don’t know what I was expecting either, but it certainly wasn’t that.
Whilst the episode brings up some important points about racism in the 50s, including how the teachers at Riverdale High attempt to censor the students of colour from speaking out, the plotline is all but forgotten in the following episodes. Classic laziness from the writers as usual then.
Half-baked anti-racism aside, one has to admit the general fifties aesthetic and costume design is campy fun.
I’m by no means a fashion expert, so I doubt anything is historically accurate, but the bright colours and bold prints are a welcome contrast to the earlier seasons where everything was a bit drab and dingy.
But the 1950s setting also introduces some new hurdles for the characters: rampant homophobia. Queer characters Cheryl and Kevin are back in the closet, and it feels more than a little cruel.
We’ve watched dozens of episodes of Cheryl dealing with internalised lesbiphobia and Kevin struggling to come out to his dad in the modern timeline. Now they have to go through it all again but during an even less accepting time period.
Even more confusingly, Toni appears to be somewhat openly queer at school and no one seems to care. It just goes to show, the writers are so out of ideas that they have to rehash the same old stories.
Another of the earlier plotlines looks set to repeat as a murder causes tensions in the quiet little town – exactly the setup for season one. This is intentional though, with the official Riverdale Twitter joking that there is “no need to catch up” ahead of season seven.
With just three episodes released at the time of writing, only time will tell how the final season pans out. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching Riverdale, it’s definitely to expect the unexpected.
Riverdale is available to watch on Netflix, with new episodes out every Thursday.
Featured Image Credit: Radio Times
Film, media and journalism student. I like writing about my inability to eat gluten.
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