Friendly PSA: You can now binge ‘Riverdale’ season 1 on Netflix (and you should)

Photo Credit: Riverdale/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

In the mood for chaos? Archie and the gang have finally arrived on Netflix for your binge-watching pleasure. Here’s why you need to slap ‘Riverdale’ straight to the top of your queue.

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Stop what you’re doing! Netflix has added The CW’s newest teen soap sensation, and if there’s anyone left who isn’t theorizing the fate of [name redacted], you need to feast your eyeballs on the batsh-t crazy, beyond bananas first season of Riverdale. Oh, you think the article you’re reading about the state of our country is unbelievable? Take a trip down to Sweetwater River.

Riverdale concluded its freshman run with a bonkers season finale just one week prior to its streaming bow on Netflix, a sweet perk of The CW’s deal with the streaming giant. Now ravenous Riverdale fans impatiently awaiting the second season can relive each twist and turn—and, of course, recruit new fans—as often as they’d like leading up to the fall premiere. The updated take on the classic Archie Comics characters reimagines the ethos of Riverdale as a dark, seedy town teeming with crime and dirty secrets. Following the murder of golden boy Jason Blossom, everyone scrambles to uncover the truth, learning with each failed suspect that you can run, but you can’t hide behind those iconic Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe milkshakes. So, whodunit?

No details will be spilled here. You’ll have to clear an afternoon and binge the entirety of Season 1 for the pressing answers to that particular question. But even as Riverdale focuses its inaugural season on the central murder mystery, its campy tone is a welcome return to a number of gone but never forgotten favorites in the vein of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Critics liken its sensibilities to Twin Peaks meets Dawson’s Creek, but we’d be wont to exclude the clever combinations of Gossip Girl and Veronica Mars in this mix. Even with all of these comparisons, Riverdale has emerged as an entertaining animal in a league of its own.

In addition to its unquenchable penchant for delicious drama (you’ll never see the mind-bending Cooper-Blossom familial twist coming), the fresh faces in the cast make the noir-soap a prime television destination. KJ Apa leads the series as the rebooted heartthrob Archie Andrews, while Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes perfectly slip into the three-dimensional roles of Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge respectively. You definitely remember Cole Sprouse, who revamps the brooding Jughead Jones, from Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, but introduce yourself to the magnificent Madelaine Petsch as the fiery Cheryl Blossom.

Check out Archie and the gang in action in the trailer below! 

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You’ll also recognize most of the core characters’ parents (yes, that’s Luke Perry and Molly Ringwald as Archie’s folks) in a fun game of “What do I know them from?!” Its cast is great, its story is even better, and that season-ending cliffhanger will render you stricken with a laundry list of questions leading into the full, 22-episode second season. Although we’ll miss The CW’s dearly departed fall entries Frequency and No Tomorrow, which you can also binge on Netflix, Riverdale more than makes up for the losses. Don’t miss the on-ramp for television’s newest can’t-miss delight with all of the pleasure and none of the guilt.

Watch the first season of Riverdale on Netflix! Season 2 returns Wednesdays at 8/7c this fall on The CW.