When Riverdale premiered in 2017, it was a darker adaptation of the Archie Comics characters from the mind of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Riverdale featured the characters that fans of the comics knew and loved, but the series began with a captivating murder mystery that devastated the town. And just when Riverdale seemed to get its footing in the murder mystery genre, the second season began with a completely different theme.
In between seasons, Riverdale reinvented itself into a slasher drama. Since then, it seems that with every new season Riverdale goes through a rebranding process. Some of these rebrands have been incredibly successful for the show, while others have failed to hit the mark. From murder mystery to one of many teen supernatural dramas to now time travel in its seventh and final season, the series has never stayed the same.
Riverdale Season 1 Was a Murder Mystery
The pilot episode of Riverdale established a compelling murder mystery when town golden boy Jason Blossom was killed over the summer. The town of Riverdale would never be the same, becoming clouded with shadows and secrets after Jason's tragic death. Over the course of the season Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones and Jason's twin sister Cheryl Blossom all played amateur sleuths to solve Jason's murder. The first season of Riverdale established itself as Nancy Drew meets Dawson's Creek with an intriguing ensemble cast.
Riverdale Season 2 Was a Slasher Series
The second season of Riverdale featured a new ongoing plotline surrounding a serial killer called The Black Hood. The villain's mission was to punish all the sinners of Riverdale. Once again the teens set out to solve the mystery, this time by unmasking The Black Hood. Archie and Betty had a vested interest in bringing The Black Hood to justice: he shot Archie's father and he was inspired to begin his killing spree after hearing Betty give a speech. Riverdale's first rebrand into a slasher drama provided a thrilling plot that viewers embraced just as much as the first season.
Riverdale Season 3 Was a Cult Story
The third season of Riverdale was the least entertaining rebranding of the show. The season started with a role playing game called Gryphons & Gargoyles -- clearly a parody of Dungeons & Dragons -- that turned deadly. The plot got even more absurd when characters started getting indoctrinated into a cult called The Farm. There was also a side plot where Archie and Veronica were dating while her dad Hiram Lodge tried to kill Archie multiple times. Eventually the cult and RPG plot lines started to intersect, making for an unnecessarily complicated season that left viewers more confused than enthralled.
Riverdale Season 4 Focused on Prep School Drama
Riverdale's fourth season premiered with an interesting I Know What You Did Last Summer-style mystery that made it seem like Archie, Betty and Veronica had killed Jughead. But it was eventually revealed that Jughead was faking his own death to expose the evil doings at Stonewall Prep, a prestigious boarding school that he began attending for his writing. Riverdale returned to form with all of its prep school drama. The only drawback was that the cult from Season 3 had an ongoing subplot that dragged down the new story that the show was trying to tell.
Riverdale Season 5 Returned to Mystery
Riverdale went back to its roots in its fifth season. After the gang graduated from high school in the first few episodes, there was a major time jump -- the best move the series has made. Seven years into the future, Betty's older sister Polly Cooper went missing and was presumed dead. Betty was no longer an amateur sleuth; she had become a member of the FBI. She used her FBI resources to search for Polly's killer while battling post-traumatic stress from her own encounter with a serial killer known as The Trashbag Killer. By going back to its original genre and freshening the series up with more adult storylines, Riverdale's fifth season was its best.
Riverdale Season 6 Was a Supernatural Adventure
Riverdale's sixth season took a turn into the supernatural and was praised for including fan-favorite Sabrina Spellman. However, the season's villain Percival Pickens was more annoying than Hiram Lodge. The strongest part of the sixth season was the five-episode "Rivervale" that explored an alternate universe. But when Rivervale started to bleed into Riverdale -- the show decided to give all its main characters superpowers and turned Cheryl into a witch -- it became a bit too much. The sixth season was another one of Riverdale's worst outings.
Riverdale Season 7 Will Be a Time-Travel Saga
Riverdale's sixth season ended with Cheryl using her witch powers in combination with her friends' superpowers to defeat Percival. This somehow transported the entire group back to 1955. It seems that the final season of Riverdale will explore the original world that Archie Comics created. This final incarnation of the show into a time-travel drama has a lot of promise because it will give viewers the chance to see a version of Riverdale more closely related to its comic book counterpart. However, no one knows how long the trip to 1955 or if it will meet the expectations of fans of the comic books.
The fact that Riverdale never stayed in one consistent lane baffled some viewers and excited others. From the first episode, it was clear that Aguirre-Sacasa and his team wanted to do something wildly different. They've continued to accomplish that by overhauling the show every season. Fans and more cynical viewers alike will always remember Riverdale for constantly changing its theme.
Riverdale Seasons 1-6 are now streaming on Netflix. Riverdale Season 7 premieres on The CW in 2023.