#i have never seen a more.... i don't want to say ''realistic'' because riverdale exists in this like. absurd parody dimension both--

[soubiapologist]

i don't expect any of you to understand the reference but alice cooper. from riverdale. is a little like if a loveless character was really really really fucking funny

[mejomonster]

Oh an FYI, for better or worse the Riverdale show is intensely inspired by Twin Peaks.

I feel like if you've ever seen twin peaks, this becomes immediately obvious within seconds of turning on Riverdale.

Like, on technicality, yes riverdale is "based on" Archie comics. And in a sense that's not totally wrong. It definitely plays with 50s aesthetics despite being set in 2000s (sort of like Twin Peaks lives in the "retro" even though it's technically not set in the past), and it uses the fact its based on a fun comic to really just have Fun going all out camp. It doesn't Care the bad guys name is Blossom like a fucking cartoon lol, it IS like one. It doesn't care the colors aren't about the realism like at all but about pretty colors, cartoons don't care if they're going for what pops. It doesn't care its calling stuff Jingle Jangle and the Serpents and the Black Hood and the Sugar Man, because hey that's exactly what a kids cartoon would do especially an older one having a fun time being ridiculous. So like yeah, in that way, you can see the comic vibe. And in a way I don't like really noticing at all and would rather ignore, it does in some ways try to keep some elements of those original core characters (which in some ways I Ah really wish Riverdale had nothing to do with an existing property because then I'd actually have no issues with it at all lol... but 1 we live in a time where almost everything is a remake adaptation prequel sequel and that's like the whole Industry top levels fault at the end of the day-.- and 2 for better and worse I think in some ways the show does actually care for the original material, which I did not expect and feel conflicted about and mostly want to avoid but it Is there if you look for it.)

Like. In a way Riverdale is if you made an Archie fanfiction Twin Peaks au. It's so Twin peaks. It screams Twin peaks for modern teenagers.

Like? Alice Cooper is the same actress that played the waitress with the abusive truck driver husband in Twin Peaks (they even use a Twin peaks image of her for the newspaper article of her younger self). Jughead's dad is one of the bad guys from Scream (and I feel like that on its own screams a LOT about horror and camp themes and references). So many shots in Riverdale (at least up to the season 2 I've watched) are direct shots from Twin Peaks. The color scheme reliance on red is Twin peaks, and the blue reliance is Riverdale playing with its own use of color the same way. The Riverdale town sign is a direct shot from Twin Peaks. Jughead and the biker gang in GENERAL and the Whyte Worm are like huge obvious parallels to the leather jacket wearing biker gang in Twin Peaks lol??? The weird dialogue, while not having the same effect at ALL of Twin peaks surreal shit, is likewise obviously trying to not be normal. Riverdale doesn't want to sound normal, it's happy to be weird as shit and whatever IT wants to be, and that's a very Twin Peaks attitude.

My dad said when Twin Peaks aired everyone thought it was so weird and interesting. And like. I'm not sure I can say I've got an opinion of Riverdale much yet, but I can say yeah... if you're used to media trying to be normal, like the other stuff, realistic, no surrealness in your media, then lmao of course Riverdale is weird. Yet if you've ever seen Twin Peaks or equally bizarre stuff, Riverdale is pretty tame and mundane and only in the shallow end of weird to be quite Frank (as of mid season 2 where I am). Like... I am DESPERATE for Riverdale to take off the training wheels for its "audience thats never seen Twin Peaks" and FINALLY go as weird as Twin Peaks! Or weirder! Give me weirder! It's still actually like... Twin Peaks episode 1 level weird, just with more camp. Riverdale hasn't even entered end of season 1 Twin Peak Bizarre levels yet.

Anyway back to my point. I think seeing it as a homage to Twin Peaks sort of makes obvious a lot of stuff that seemed... incomprehensible about Riverdale, tbh? Like... why have a biker gang, why act like you're in the past even though you're set in the present, why have a killer, why have an adult manipulating a student, why have fucked up rich people messing with the town, why have a weird bar that fights happen at, why have murders and a curfew no one listens to, why have random people hook up and have secret affairs and ties, why do people say weird shit, why are there sudden dance or singing scenes, why would a character show up doing a drug deal or hiding jewelry or trying to run away or... because Twin Peaks did. So MUCH of Riverdale is so clearly a homage to Twin Peaks.

I'm waiting for a log lady equivalent, a confusing dream sequence, a truly fucked up gambling club full of teen girls, a doppelganger, stuff Twin Peaks did that was bizarre that Riverdale hasn't even reached yet.

Tldr I just think like. It's neat. It's nice even. I like this aspect. I think a lot of early reactions I saw to Riverdale, a long long time ago back when they really were reacting to like "very ordinary plot" season 1? Was in part people reacting to a show doing some things like Twin Peaks, but they'd never seen a show do That before and so were just like wow WEIRD. And like. Fair. But also sometimes the weird feeling... is the point.

[thetaoofbetty]

I don't know why people complain alot about Riverdale being "unrealistic", they never promised us that ? isn't every fictional world has its own rules , can't we apply that to Riverdale ? (I mean for me they never did something massive that broke the world -fictional- rules )(like I never seen people complain that Harry Potter is "unrealistic" because the magical world doesn't exist in the real world )

Hello lovely! 

Good morning to you too, hah. I think, for a lot of people who roll their eyes at Riverdale, it’s not the realism, we all sit and watch unrealistic nonsense, it’s the blatant ignorance and inconsistency to make (sometimes truly horrifying) plots happen. 

I mean, the thing of it is, it’s not placed in a world where superheroes or magic exists, it’s supposed to be in our modern world with human limitations. Take Fred getting shot for example, he was in the hospital for a while. He was in pain. He was taking meds. He took it easy for, like 30 seconds, which in TV land is more realistic than say, Fangs who got shot in the same general area and has no scar. None. Hiram has no long term repercussions. And probably no scar. 

Gunshot wounds leave nasty scars. 

So, people are like, sure okay when they see Fangs wandering around with flawless abs (okay it’s not like I’m mad about it, I enjoy abs in all their forms tbh) and Archie has his bear attack scar still but then there’s the active ignorance when it comes to the writing for the plot, say, kids from Juvie going to Hiram’s prison. 

That’s…not how that works. It’s not that it’s unrealistic so much as it’s legitimately stupid to think people with at least 3 of their brain cells won't side eye that. 

I think with Riverdale, it would be easier to pass a lot of stuff off if the adults were unaware or at least less involved with the kids and their wild world. Because then you’re like, uh okay, FP, that’s not how snakes work but go off I guess. Or sure, Alice, get totally involved in an obvious cult when you were a cynical journalist, like, a year ago. Most of the adults act worse than the kids. It’s a bad look. 

There’s a lot of inconsistent characterization that I think people find more annoying than anything else. Jughead can be totally unaware one episode so they can traumatize Betty and people think he’s a bad boyfriend but if they kept him in character 100% of the time, they’d never be able to execute their shitty plot lines. 

Veronica hates her dad. Loves her dad. Disowns him. Loves him. Breaks up with Archie for him. Wants Hermione to leave him. Threatens her mom to keep them together. Mocktails. Illegal gambling. Archie. Reggie. Mafia nonsense. Is a waitress sometimes? 

I was gonna play a drinking game with how often she says Daddy in an episode but ultimately decided I needed my liver so there’s that. 

There’s no real growth for a lot of characters if they have no stable characterization week to week. It’s like whiplash and it exhausts people. The writers, they think it’s clever and meta or camp or whatever but it’s not. It’s tiring. 

Like, we’re already watching a show about teens smarter than everyone around them while pretending they don’t look like they’re in their 20′s solving murders and being kidnapped and almost killed on the regular. I don’t think it’s too much to think, at minimum, we could get some consistent characterization. 

I mean, I can lie and say I’d still watch it if I didn’t love the characters but, uh, yeah, that’s not even close to true. I wish I could say I loved both but I don’t. It is what it is, friend. Which is bad writing. It’s not even that it’s bad, it’s more that it’s almost insulting at this point with the bullshit they expect us to invest in then immediately forget or the fact that week to week we’re supposed to shrug off everything they previously established. 

It’s not even that it’s bad so much as that’s just really lazy and makes it seem like no one who writes the show actually watches it. It’s not that it’s unrealistic or even absurd, it’s that I’m not as stupid as the show is trying to make me think I am. And camp? Is great when it’s actually camp. Or noir is great when it’s actually noir. 

The fandom is currently more clever than the writers and that’s...well, it’s not great for long term success is what I’m saying. 

But you know, imma just be over here loving bughead because that’s all I signed up for tbh.