Riverdale: Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls

Riverdale: Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls
The CW
November 8, 2017
Soap Opera
DVD
C

This episode, written by Aaron Allen and directed by Ellen S. Pressman, continues to have far too much about the Black Hood and the gang rivalry, but it does have a couple moments I like.  One, although a bit cheesy, is literally kick-ass, as Veronica and the Pussycats kick Veronica's old friend who roofied and was about to rape Cheryl.  The other is the scene where Archie tells Jughead to stay away from Betty, at her request to protect Jughead.  But I don't get why Betty is going it alone so much this season, unlike last season.  If she can't sleuth with Jughead, she could take Archie along to the abandoned house, or at least let him know when and where to meet her after.

Riverdale is an interesting experiment, one that is of course still ongoing.  I think it had great potential, but even Season One was sometimes, forgive the pun, too arch and self-congratulatory.  Since it's a soap opera, I put up with threads, especially for supporting characters, being dropped, like the whole thing about Josie trying to live up to her dad's high musical standards.  Kevin never quite went beyond the "gay best friend" role and then suddenly turned into another gay stereotype, that of the gay man who cruises and doesn't care about his health.  (Here with the threat of shooting rather than AIDS.) 

The interaction of the core four characters, and sometimes them with their parents or indeed the parents with each other (RIP Fred/Hermione), is what makes the show its strongest, but this season seems determined to isolate the characters.  In any case, it's not that this show got even darker but that it went for a boring sort of dark and forgot how to do the lighter scenes that can carry a narrative, and indeed a life, through the darkness.