TV Review: Riverdale (Season 3, Episode 4)
13th November 2018
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This week marked the much-touted and long-awaited "Breakfast Club" flashback episode of Riverdale and for the first time so far this season, we actually had a cohesive narrative running through the episode!
In true Riverdale style, our flashback to the 90s was still bonkers, but this episode gives us answers to the origins of Griffins and Gargoyles as well as allowing us to enjoy the young cast playing their parents. 'The Midnight Club' is without a doubt the strongest episode of the season so far.
an homage to The Breakfast Club, it kind of works, in a very weird way.
Some of the parallels to their future children and future lives were a little heavy-handed, with Fred being a musician and Penelope's "in the mood to cause chaos line" being a clear throwback (or throwforward !) to Cheryl's same line in the pilot episode. However, the parents definitely felt different enough that it didn't feel like the actors were playing their usual characters which was great.
together a little too neatly, but I did appreciate that for the first time this season, Riverdale told a singular cohesive narrative!
Riverdale is knocking it out of the park with the cliffhangers this year, as we end the episode back in present time. Betty, after finding the original chalices from the game hidden in the school trophy case, goes to find Jughead in the bunker. When she gets there, however, she discovers Jughead, fully immersed in the game, ready to "ascend". This certainly seems to be setting up for an exciting episode next week, and I can only hope the momentum from this week's episode keeps going throughout the rest of the season!
Riverdale Season 3 is streaming on Netflix with new episodes available every Thursday.

Image credit: The CW Television Network and Warner Brothers
The episode starts off where the last one finished, with the kids becoming obsessed with G&G after finding the game rulebooks. After Mayor Lodge bans the game, Betty returns home to demand answers from her mother, which acts as the framing device for the rest of the episode's 90s flashback. It works pretty well in this sense, as Alice's narration of the story to her daughter ties the present in with the past, meaning the episode doesn't feel disjointed, something Riverdale had a problem with in the first few episodes of this season. Watching the young stars of Riverdale play their teenaged parents is a joy, with Lili Reinhart turning in a particularly memorable performance as young Alice. All of the cast were great in their roles, but none seemed to melt into their characters quite as much as Lili. The clear 80s parallels with what is meant to be a 90s setting is a bit of an anachronism, but since Riverdale has always kind of existed outside of any clear time period and it is meant to be- Article continues below...
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