What were the writers of the Riverdale TV Show thinking?

They are thinking: “Let’s keep moving away from all that silly stuff” that used to define Archie and the gang, and in this forgetting why at least some of that silly stuff could simply have been updated, rather than shelved or discarded.

When he first encountered Riverdale in the infamous Xover, of all people, Frank Castle, THE PUNISHER fell in love with the town, and vowed to protect this anachronism from his world. That is some of what they should have kept. Sure, you want modern times, and not an eternal early 1950’s world. But while light stupid laughs would not sustain a show today, just angsting and grimming it up and adding sex and murder might just be the post-modern version of the gang’s once-dismissable adventures. Hell, they once had an Archie cartoon that was kind of X-Files-ish, and while that wouldn’t work either, using it as a stepping stone template might have aided the new joke Riverdale has become.

The thing with Riverdale is that it’s embraced its cringe. The writers want to be unpredictable and ridiculous with the show because a) it’s CW, cringe is their brand and b) Riverdale has developed a following for being so utterly awful that it’s funny now.

The team behind the show knows it’s going to get renewed, so they don’t hold back at all. They’re free to do whatever they please.

I gave up Riverdale at the end of season three, but up to that point it seemed they were thinking:

• Stranger Things on a budget
• Dungeons and Dragons fanfiction
• Cringey soap operatic acting
• Comedic gangs
• An obnoxious and utterly ridiculous cult
• Trying to fit a story in there somewhere.