TV Review: Riverdale (Season 3, Episode 1)
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Image credit: Katie Yu // © 2018 The CW Network, LLC.
Now I'm no legal expert, but I'm pretty sure that's a conflict of interest and would not be allowed in a real court. Still it means the welcome return of Molly Ringwald as Archie's mother Mary, and in terms of the unrealistic stuff that goes on in this episode, this is really just the tip of the iceberg, so I'll let it slide.
In terms of storylines, the season 3 premiere was incredibly disjointed. We have Archie and the court drama, then we have a whole Serpents subplot that seems kind of redundant other than to show Betty and Cheryl now being a part of the Serpents.
There's the introduction of a new mystery in the form of the Gargoyle King and then we have the whole Polly/Alice cult thing. I was hoping that season 3 might have been a return to season 1, with more simple and less outlandish storylines, but we're only one episode in and it certainly seems like that's not going to be the case!
There's a lot for shippers to be happy about this episode, with Archie, Veronica, Jughead and Betty going away for one last weekend of fun whilst awaiting the verdict of Archie's trial (because apparently in Riverdale, judges are A-OK with on trial murderers going off on a joyride with their friends for the weekend, but I digress) and both sharing romantic moments. Whilst Veronica and Archie's heart to heart by the fire was nice, the scene with Betty and Jughead took the cake for me, with the gloriously sweet scene of Betty wearing Jughead's hat melting even my cynical heart. The whole Serpent story, whilst ultimately redundant, did give us the joy of getting to see Cheryl the archer (who knew? Also Cheryl did not get anywhere near enough screentime this episode, her stunner of an entrance in that red Serpents jacket may have been my favourite part) and a super cute dog, in the form of Hot Dog (I'll be honest, I didn't even realise that the Serpents had a mascot). But ultimately, the showdown between Jughead and Penny Peabody is rather cringey, as was Betty's "the Serpent Queen is also a Warrior Queen". It does set the stage for more conflict in the season, but I have to admit, the whole Ghoulies/Serpent fued is feeling a bit tired now.- Article continues below...
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