Riverdale season 7 review: Archie and the gang get a sendoff that’s just so Riverdale
The CW show's final round features a total reset to the 1950s and, of course, plenty of dark secrets
TV Reviews Riverdale
There’s never been a better time to get onboard with Riverdale, which returns to The CW for its seventh and final season on March 29. Due to the magical comet MacGuffin in the previous season’s finale, the slate has been wiped completely clean for Archie (KJ Apa) and the gang. Relationships have been reset, diplomas have been rescinded, and some characters have even returned from the grave. It’s like watching the first season again, except the players are all old pros with easy, lived-in chemistries, and the writers are steering the ship with total confidence rather than figuring out what the show will be. And, oh yeah, it’s the 1950s, for some reason.
Outsiders will want to write this time-travel plot off as just another Riverdale head scratcher, but as creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa puts it, the ’50s setting is both improbable and somehow inevitable. For longtime fans of the series, it makes total sense in a delightfully nonsensical way. And for fans of the original Archie Comics, this season is finally a payoff as it leans into the aesthetic of those classic comic books. The costuming and set pieces are just plain fun. And Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is wearing an actual crown!
In point of fact, ’50s Riverdale is the most Riverdale that Riverdale has ever been. The delicate balance of love triangle and best friendship between Archie, Betty (Lili Reinhart), and Veronica (Camila Mendes) is more satisfying than ever. As the prophecy foretold, Jughead is a genuine weirdo, living on the fringes of the friend group (and the fringes of town). Characters formerly relegated to the sidelines like Ethel Muggs (Shannon Purser) are getting their own fleshed out storylines. This is particularly gratifying in the case of Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), whose previous deal, as Jughead points out, was mostly putting on musicals and joining cults. And there’s a lot to look forward to for devoted ’shippers of Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan).
Our faithful narrator (and the only character who remembers the present day), Jughead, gets all the timey-wimey exposition out of the way quickly enough, and it’s good thing, too, because life in the ’50s turns out to be much more engaging. Last season made the gang into superheroes; this season requires them to be social-justice warriors. Viewers may cringe at a CW show attempting to earnestly tackle era-appropriate civil rights issues, but those moments of unvarnished sincerity are what make Riverdale truly camp. Concepts like repression and purity culture, on the other hand, lend themselves quite deliciously to the show’s core interpersonal conflicts. Generally speaking, the series is effective (if unsubtle) in proving the point that the good ol’ days weren’t so good after all.
If there’s one drawback of going back to the drawing board, it’s that resetting sometimes means rehashing things already covered in the original Riverdale timeline. Cheryl’s experience of homophobia, for instance, is poignant but not all that different from what she experienced in the present day. (In both timelines, Cheryl’s evil mother denounces her as “unnatural.”) But those of us who grew up on fan fiction know the pleasure of reconfiguring a familiar story in an alternate universe, and in this particular case, Petsch plays Cheryl’s closeted arc with aplomb.
All of the actors make the most of the material. Apa absolutely nails Archie’s “aw, shucks” persona, with some genuinely hilarious line readings in the early episodes. Mendes, often left stranded by the plot in recent seasons, has been restored to the center of attention as a Hollywood It Girl, and it’s exactly where she belongs. The whole cast seems to have come to the final season with renewed vigor. There’s a meta element to a group of adults playing teens who are actually adults (or however this twisted timeline works), and they’re doing so with a winking humor that’s irresistible.
But just when you think the series has settled in to being a funny high school period piece, somebody turns up to a school function covered in blood. Riverdale is still the murder capital of the world, after all. It’s a town full of dark secrets in any universe or timeline. The coming episodes will undoubtedly unravel in a typically outrageous manner that only this series is capable of—a manner, it must be said, that will be sorely missed when this final season concludes. For now, we get to enjoy Riverdale at the height of its powers, gorgeous, goofy, brilliant, and absolutely bananas. In other words: television at its most swell.
Riverdale season 7 premieres March 29 on The CW
45 Comments
absolutely the defining piece of art for our current times. i donât even have to watch it to know that.Â
Not immediately related to Riverdale the show, but Riverdale the trailer – when will trailers stop using a clock sound mixed in with big brassy hits? Itâs either that, or they take a song from the 90s and add an epic orchestra. Every trailer sounds the same.
when will trailers stop using a clock sound mixed in with big brassy hits?As soon as the next trailer trend comes around. It seems to be a relatively small group of people making all the trailers. Whenever they hit on something that works, theyâll run it into the ground and then move onto whatever is the next big thing.
Season six was really fun. The opening Rivervale episodes were the only time Iâve liked the show even more than I did in Season 1. I’m excited that it’s delivering a proper grand finale to the weirdness of the CW.
Rivervale was a ton of fun. I wish they had continued a few more into the season.
Last season was really hurt by the huge break into between episodes. It started off with those five Rivervale episodes in November and December, took a three month break and then ran until late July. By the time the season was over, I totally forgot abut what happened in the Rivervale part so it took me a minute to connect everything. Last season would have been better at 13 episodes. There were too many episodes where Percival was twirling his proverbial moustache all episode though Iâm guessing it would have played better as a binge watch.Â
I binged like five eps at a time over the course of a few weeks, and i still forget what happened earlier in the season. Season 6 was just bonkers. Youâve got Rivervale, mutant/magical powers, a ghost train, time travel, like three musical episodes… and just a quick wrap-up of a multi-season serial killer arc? Was that all the same season?
I rewatched it all on Netflix, and I believe it did work better as a faster binge.
This show has always been batshit insane and Iâve loved every second of it.
Many people have forgotten, but Archie fought a bear.
Also a man tried to launch himself into space in an Evel Knieval outfit. This is the best show ever.
I very much hope this final season includes a scene where someone sings a lengthy dark country ballad detailing just a few events from this shows nonsensical history. âThe boy who punched a river/ and the gargoyle serpent hobo / the witch teen has a doll of her dead brother/ and the maple syrup did flow….â
Also, and I know heâs gone, but I heard that in Leonard Cohenâs voice
This is probably a terrible jumping-on point to start watching, but I might
It would be incredibly entertaining to hear about someoneâs experience watching this series in reverse.
Iâve only seen Season 1 and some of Season 2. Listening to recaps has been a WILD ride.
i actually think it might be the BEST time to start (after the actual beginning)!! godspeed!
You totally should.Â
When does the Punisher show up?
They already did Archie v. Predator in the first season with the grooming music teacher.
Well done!
He already did, sort of. Archie fought an ex-military mercenary wearing a shirt with a skull on it a few seasons back.
did he? I had forgotten about that.Â
KJ Apa has aged straight into looking like the dad from Modern Family.
Is KJ Apa transforming in to Phil Dunphy?
Thank god Iâm not the only one who saw that.
imo the show did a great job in casting some of the most likeable YA genre soap stars since Dawsonâs Creek (even though our RD cast were early 20s when cast).
Batshit crazy show in all the best ways. Looking forward to a weird and wacky finale!
Had no idea this was still going. They are supposed to be juniors in high school? Yikes.
Well in the regular timeline they graduated (and Archie went to war) but eventually they all wound up back in Riverdale – this season is sending them back to highschool it seemsÂ
Only because of time travel. They all graduated high school in the original time line a couple of season ago and then there was a seven year time skip.Â
Ah, good because it looks like they are 25-30 IRL.
People looked older back then anyway. Cigarettes didnât help!
This show has become entirely batshit insane and wonderful and I love it, and Madelaine Petsch is one of the most gorgeous people I have ever seen in my life.
Is this when The Predator finally shows up then?
Still cracks me up that anyone buys that dude as a redhead.
And (if I’m not mistaken) Midge is back!
Archie/Betty/Veronica throuple endgame or nothing! đ¤
My favorite scene in the first episode is when Jughead is forced to explain the nonsense plots of the original timeline to everyone. Itâs an easy joke, but after six seasons of buildup itâs so, so worth it.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2023/03/30/riverdale-returns-for-the-last-time/
Cheryl confronting Veronica the lying liar who lies at Popâs is my favorite scene along with Jugheadâs botched synopsis.
So now the big question is how much of the final season will be set in the alternate past. So much has changed since season five that itâd be very unsatisfying if
they didnât return to the present until the series finale.
Itâs a damn shame that Betty doesn’t have her trademark ponytail for this season.
This is the last season of “Riverdale”. Surely the AV Club ought to do regular reviews again as a proper send off?
Really missing Betty’s ponytail this season.
Prediction for 7×04: After getting âpinned all the wayâ by Archie, Cheryl gets pregnant, prompting Archie to offer to make her an honest woman by eloping, but the societal issue tackled in the episode is female bodily autonomy and Cheryl instead gets a (very illegal) abortion.
I suck at this.