#Rambling about Riverdale

[ourladyofmaplemurder]

Anything Goes - A Riverdale Thesis Statement

So, I was listening to "Anything Goes" of the Riverdale album recently to luxuriate in the majesty that is Ashleigh Murray. (She is so sorely missed.)

I find this song to be so deeply important to Riverdale as a way of understanding where it's coming from on all levels.

There are a few songs they've done over the years that I consider to be "thesis statements" for the show. Seventeen is another big one, but let's focus on this one for now. I'll talk about that song another day.

In-depth rambling beneath the cut. <3

I think Anything Goes is appropriately positioned in Season 3 because this is the season where the style of the show starts to reveal itself as more heightened and abstract.

Riverdale, if anything, is a burlesque number. Slowly peeling back its more accessible layers into something entirely unique and strange.

Season 3 is when the show starts to reveal that it's not your typical teen drama and it never was. (This is why a lot of people struggle with this season and drop off. It really is the culling blade. I will release my essay on this in due time.)

Anyway.

For those that might not be aware, "Anything Goes" is the title song of the musical "Anything Goes" by Cole Porter.

Here's the original version in one of my favorite performances of the song by Sutton Foster in a rehearsal. Seriously, she's incredible. (Maybe I just love giant tap numbers, but this fills me with delight every time I see it.)

In any case, the song's lyrics are about how the times have changed. Standards of morality are lower than ever before. I think that, in its original meaning, it does apply to Riverdale, but there's a bit more to it than that. Let's unpack.

As Cole Porter puts it:

"In olden days a glimpse of stocking was Looked on as something shocking now Heaven knows Anything goes"

This easily applies to the salacious nature of Riverdale, especially in the earlier seasons. I mean, could Cole Porter have even conceived of a kinky lesbian sex scene intercut with violent boxing? Anything goes, indeed.

And sexual stories have a heavy stigma attached to them. Eroticism, though one of the most popular topics and genres since the beginning of time, is often treated as a lesser form of art. Too much sex in your story and it becomes "pornography", a word often spit rather than said.

Moving on.

The second verse says:

"Good authors too who once knew better words Now only use four letter words Writing prose Anything goes"

Though Riverdale doesn't really use a ton of "four letter words", this verse can easily apply to Riverdale's low-brow plots and ideas. Bloody serial killers. Secret siblings. Murder. Mothmen. Etc. Etc.

Horror and melodrama, two of Riverdale's most beloved genres, have also been treated as second-class citizens in the art world for ages. This is especially true nowadays even with the rise of prestige, high-concept horror. The genre, on the whole with notable exceptions, is still treated as a lesser art form.

"The world's gone mad today And good's bad today Black's white today And day's night today And all the guys today That women prize today Are just silly gigolos Anything goes Anything goes"

"Everything is wrong," the song declares. The world is upside down.

A couple of things about this section.

1: It sounds to me like the haters lamenting the state of art and the world today. "I can't believe that show has seven seasons." "It got too weird." Etc. Etc.

2: I feel like the first two lines are a tongue in cheek praise of Camp.

3: The line about the guys of today that women prize makes me think back to my first point about the thirsty nature of this show.

Do I sound insane yet?

Regardless, the lyrics can be taken either sarcastically or sincerely. So, in one version the singer is lamenting the state of affairs and in another, they're delighted with how much freedom there is.

Riverdale obviously falls in the latter interpretation, but I can't help but hear the first one as well because it echoes criticism of the show.

Two more bits I want to mention.

"So though I'm not a great romancer, I Know you're bound to answer when I propose Anything goes"

If I had a criticism of Riverdale, it would be its lack of polish. It might not be the best "romancer" as it were, but oh, how can I reply with anything but an enthusiastic "YES. <3" when it proposes, through its unrelenting, feverish madness that truly, anything goes?

Riverdale hops from genre to genre and style to style with such reckless avarice that I genuinely swoon. It embraces a hedonism and indulgence that "high art" scoffs at. Highly technical works of art, though beautiful and thought-provoking are often quite restrained. They're often very focused on one topic or style. Their limited scope allows for a cleaner execution.

Riverdale pours all of American culture into one giant bowl and hands you a spoon. It's messy and unrefined. It's hard to swallow, at times. It's unbalanced, but god, does it burst with charm and flavor. Maybe my palette, cut on technique and training, was just longing for something that tasted of heart. Either way, I think this is Riverdale's greatest strength.

Finally.

"And all the pains you've got If any brains you've got From those little radios Anything goes Anything goes Anything"

I think this is a cheeky dare to look more deeply at this show. It's daring the listener to meet Riverdale with their heart (their pains) and with whatever brains they might have left after being glued to their "little radios" for so long.

That's definitely not what the original song was saying, but I'm only looking at it in the context of Riverdale.

EDIT**: OMG I TOTALLY FORGOT TO INCLUDE THIS. It's like, half the reason I wrote the post.

So, one more thing about this particular version of the song that makes it fit Riverdale so perfectly.

The style is dark, sexy, and almost angry. It's almost accusatory. This fits in with my statments about how the song dares you into thinking more deeply about it.

It teases you for liking its thirst traps and slasher gore and this tone is not nearly as "Golly!" as the original. No. It's almost somber. It's a dark cabaret number rather than an upbeat tap song.

And this shift in tone is significant.

It mirrors the shift from pie in the sky Americana in the original comics to the dark, gothic vibe of the modern Archieverse and Riverdale itself.

It embraces a smoldering darkness that relishes itself. It's hedonistic and sultry in a way the original was not.

So, yeah. This song feels like a thesis statement of the show to me. When it comes to Riverdale's genre, style, subject matter, ideas, characters, and everything else...

Anything goes.

[buggybambi]

you guys know that one scene from riverdale where jughead sees toni in his shirt, but he knows betty belongs in that shirt?

okay yeah imagine that with carmen berzatto. you and him broke up, maybe prematurely, and he moved on way too quickly to even think about what he was doing. he finds the girl in his shirt, in your shirt.

he told you before that you look better in it then he does. he adores seeing you in it. he's forced to now stare at someone else in it, instead of you. everytime he's seen you wearing it is flooding his mind. early mornings in each other's arms, watching you in his clothes.

but now? now it's on someone else. now his shirt, your shirt, is on another girl. and it's his fault that you aren't in it, that you arent there.

anyway this idea sat in my mind figured i'd share lmfao

[scorndotexe]

"i'm so glad ari aster didn't go to therapy and wrote midsommar instead." "emerald fennell is a sick woman i dont know what's in her mind but i never want to go there. watching saltburn is enough." not one of these kinds of people would survive five minutes with me

[acediscowlng]

you ever think about how tentpole fandoms from 00s-2010s shows with huge followings that are going strong even now would just not exist if they were made in this day and age

[opheliaintherushes]

Also, not to draw comparisons between a masterpiece and a crack show, but the dreamlike scene of Nucky being shown the television in "Eldorado" by a Gillian-coded woman as a sign of a future-of-out-reach is how you properly draw a story to a close and comment on its medium.

[lhoandbehold]

I watch Riverdale with my flatmate and then recap the most important developments to my partner and recapping this show is getting increasingly challenging, what is even going on

[starfruit-baby]

im not sure why choni shippers keep quaking in their boots and asking and begging for confirmation and reassurance on choni being endgame like. i know the scene is grim for sapphic ships in media lately but riverdale literally did the whole "theyre actual, literal soulmates, and theyll be doomed to misery with anyone else" canonically. the fangs stuff was just to add tension cause what show would riverdale be without conflict at any point, much less making cheryl miserable. they did almost every cliche in the book possible for them. no one is competing with you! its just not gonna be a walk in the park for them cause youre watching the show where insane shit has to keep happening all the time or else it wouldve been cancelled on the first season

[james-stark-the-writer]

you know, i appreciate the work Susan Sontag has done for people appreciating Camp and stuff but i feel like if you are still using Susan Sontag as the authority on Camp in the year of your lord 2023, using notes that were written in 1964, as if the landscape of art and our relationship to art hasn't fundamentally changed since then,,, it's like, you need to catch up babes, a lot of those points are still really relevant, i'm not saying throw it out, but like update your understandings of Camp beyond that one authoritative text that's at this point almost 60 fucking years old. Susan Sontag is not the fundamental authority on what art today is or would be considered Campy, build off of those basics, please dear gods, evolve your understanding of what Campy art today actually looks like rather than trying to apply a prescriptive label from a text that can kinda boil down to 'Camp is whatever you feel like, and you'll know it when you see it because it won't be like traditional art' because the attempt to define it is so wide, calling every non-traditional piece of art campy is fucking pointless and not how anyone is obviously using the fucking label, people are very deliberately talking about one specific feeling they get from the piece of art, and it's got very little to do with aesthetics, at least as far as TV shows are concerned (movies are a different conversation), and much more about presentation and tone and intended effects and what the whole fucking point of the piece of art actually is, which is a lot more than what is afforded to most things considered Campy, like 90% of the shit people call campy at this point is just called campy and then it's left there, because it's a "oh you can't say anything about it because it's campy" like at this point it almost functions as a conversation ender because anyone you're talking to about any aspect can just go "yeah that's meant to be that way, it's campy" and it's like. okay, where do we go from here? should the piece of art not be analyzed as a work of art? does it not deserve to be evaluated in good faith and treated like any other piece of art? i understand the urge to defend the use of the term, as like "oh we're using it because people are misunderstanding art and what it's trying to be", and as a Riverdale-truther (as in genuinely love it as a piece of art and what it says and does, it's not fucking campy i swear to god, none of you fucking know what pulp art is!), and as a TASM2 truther (best Spidey movie after ITSV, and definitely best general movie after ITSV, and i don't care what your opinion is) i understand the urge to want to defend it as camp, but like, what's the piece of art actually doing and trying to say, what are the deeper layers at play? or are you really just satisfied saying something is Campy and stopping your analysis of the piece of art there? is your soul really okay correcting someone's interpretation of a show and saying it's campy and not doing anything beyond that? what does it being campy actually change? what the fuck does it actually do for the piece of art, if the piece of art is even campy at all?

[wazzuppy]

its less that i think old kids properties shouldnt have darker, adult reboots and that they're inherently bad, and more that i think that most of them lack an understanding of why those original works were special and enjoyable in the first place and attempt to overcompensate for it by falling back onto tropes the cw popularized in order to seem more "mature"

[jeannedarcgerard]

riverdale chapter 13: the sweet hereafter // bury me in black - my chemical romance

[magdaclaire]

sometimes i think being in the riverdale cast is like going to the charter school in my hometown. you have a senior class of twenty two people and by senior year they're all bisexual and openly horny on main and there are only two people in the senior class who haven't kissed every other member of the senior class and it's because they've been in a weird exclusive relationship since they were seven years old and never backed off that shit

[dragon-spaghetti]

Oh btw so sorry for the recent riverdale fixation idk how long it'll last so yous are just gonna have to bear with me-

[cooper--jones]

Sincere question: can I watch the Riverdale finale without having watched a single episode since S3 or S4?

[book-tease]

wait the series finale of riverdale was last night??? might watch it with no context because like. that show started this blog. there’s such a soft spot in my heart for it

[belovedcarrion]

The Dark Circle. THE DARK CIRCLE!?!!? What the FUCK ARCHIE. Why is that what he came up with. It's so stupid. God Archie why

[little-green-lies]

I can't believe you think they're treating Choni badly this season or that they have bad storylines and especially that they painted Toni as a villain in 708 when she was simply finally granted some perspective and they tackled an issue with their own writing that always plagued Choni back in the high school days, to show how much they've matured. Their content this season is nothing short of excellent.

Okay this is the second time I'm typing this because Tumblr glitched and wouldn't post the first one. I probably typed too much but I really wanted to give you a solid answer. I will try to keep this more succint but I have a lot of thoughts on this so hopefully it posts this time.

I apparently also deleted my first paragraph so I've typed this section out three times now. I do not think they are treating Choni bad this season. My issue is and will continue to be the setting for this season. After two seasons of them not being together they've now thrown them into a situation in which they "can't" be together and that irks me. I thought when we got confirmation that they were soulmates, that maybe just maybe they'd let them be fully happy in the final season. And that is the full crux of the issue, it's the LAST season. I discuss Riverdale a lot more on my main page (which I encourage you to check out because I do speak about this a lot more in the tags of a lot of my Riverdale reblogs) but i actually just made a post stating that I think this may be Riverdale's best season. They opened this season with one of the strongest episodes I've seen in television thus far. Especially coming from a CW show. I do think this season is also shaping up to be Choni's second best season. They've had a lot of solid scenes and Vanessa and Madelaine are giving it their ALL. That being said, forgive me for hoping the last season would be spent wrapping up happy endings mixed with the usual Riverdale drama. I did not go into this season expecting SO MUCH new plot. And if it wasn't the last season, I wouldn't complain as much. That's always been my biggest gripe, it's the last season. That's all. If this was season 5 or 6 and I knew we had 7 seasons, then I would have nothing to say. Because yes, it's given us some really good content. I just don't want it for the finale. They could've tackled homophobia back when Kevin came out to his dad or when Cheryl came out to Toni. I don't want to see my favorite character forced back into the closet because they decided to set us in one of the worst eras in American history.

Now for my villain comment. I stand by that. I do think that scene framed Toni in a really bad light and here's why: Everything she said was valid and yes, it's an issue I've been wanting them to tackle for YEARS. What she said is not what made her the villain. It was the way they framed the scene that I knew would be misconstrued by the people that watch this show and always have a bone to pick about whatever she says or does. Up until that scene, we were led to believe that Toni's biggest issue with Choni is that she lost herself. But all they show that as, is she's given up writing for cheer. Okay fine, drop cheer and go back to writing. Cheryl wants to see her gf but she's not gonna stop her from doing what she loves. However, Toni breaking up with her felt out of left field to me because she's allowed to be her own person AND still date Cheryl. So I figured maybe they were setting it up for the fact that she doesn't like commitment and the other greaser got in her head about Cheryl being a rich girl too scared to come out of the closet. Also a valid reason. But that's not the scene they gave us. What they gave us was Cheryl asking if the issue was because she was white and Toni saying yes. Nothing up until that point had given us any indication THAT was the issue. What frustrated me even further was that they don't even give them room to have a discussion about it. Toni says her peace and leaves and all we get is a shot of Cheryl crying. She clearly cares about Cheryl enough to have pursued her for that long and then she drops her without even having a discussion?? And so soon after they got together? If we had gotten a scene where the difference of their skin was brought up before that (and that could've have been anything from an offhanded comment to Cheryl laughing about something someone says in their presence she didn't know was meant to be a dig) and we see that register with Toni, it wouldn't have felt off balance. Especially since her and Betty get along and she's white. Her and KEVIN get along and he's white. Kevin and Clay are dating and there seems to be no problem THERE. So they can be okay but she can't date Cheryl because of it? It just felt like after they gave us such a strong opening ep regarding race, to then have her drop that with no nuance didn't sit right with me. All of the digs against Toni that we had seen had been because she was bi or at least "queer adjacent" as far as Evelyn was concerned. The only time we see anyone being racist, is when she's dealing with the adults, never the teens. And I knew someone was gonna watch that and say "oh of course the black girl has an issue with her white gf blah blah blah". That's why I said they set her up to be the villain. Not that she was one. Purely based on how that scene was framed. It just felt like it was missing context. And who knows, maybe they filmed a scene and then cut it but either way, it felt off to me and having it not get brought up again until the Black Athena ep just left me feeling unmoored.