Riverdale needs to keep the main characters together

Riverdale may insist that Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are close friends, but the storylines and scenes themselves don’t always match that description. While the core four: Cheryl, Kevin, Toni, and Reggie, may sometimes gather together, the group can come across more as people stuck together by past trauma and circumstance rather than genuine friends.

Season 6 has the chance to rectify that by allowing the group to spend time together in ways that do not make it appear they are only together because of the season’s problems.

Although many of them have complicated histories or relationships, those are details that can be developed in storylines if they were given a chance to be together and create a more vital dynamic.

When Betty worked the Lonely Highway searching for the person or group of people who had taken Polly and several others, Tabitha joined Betty on her quest. Tabitha had only been introduced in season 5 and had no history with Betty. Yet the other main characters who had known Betty for years, are nowhere to be seen.

Betty’s friends do get involved in helping her distract the truckers and search for evidence in their trucks as to who the Lonely Highway Killer could be. Still, although Jughead eventually joins Betty in the investigation, she mainly goes it alone or is joined by Tabitha.

While the central character’s storylines may occasionally cross paths, or the show may grant scenes between them to reinforce that they all live in the same town and are friends, the series is lacking in giving them chances to work together in plot lines to develop existing relationships.

Riverdale’s first season showed more intricate relationships between the central characters, allowing them to be friends in moments not directly associated with the overall antagonist. But in the following seasons, the main characters spending time or storylines together started becoming rarer and rarer.

Season 5 had the opportunity to allow everyone to have new and exciting relationships when they came back together after seven years. But, Riverdale did not take the chance. Rather than have the group discuss the truths about what happened over their time away, they were more involved in their individual stories rather than working through things together.

The show’s best episodes show the central characters working and being together, rather than spending so much time apart.

Veronica’s storylines mostly surround a business venture, her on-again-off-again romance with Archie, or her conflicts with Hiram. So how come Riverdale will not create a friendship between Veronica and Jughead or give Veronica time to reconnect with Betty?

Betty and Archie’s friendship seemed to fizzle out for several episodes in season 5 after their choice to end their short-lived romance. However, Archie and Betty were the initial close friendship Riverdale relied on to help tell the story. But, at some point, their respective affairs with Veronica and Jughead separated them to such a degree that Archie and Betty barely spent time together either.

Regardless of if the group is on the same side or opponents, Riverdale should take the opportunity in the future to develop the friendships and dynamics between the main characters, allowing them to be involved in each other’s lives.