Riverdale S03E16 Review: Big Fun – Time to get musical again

FINALLY. I’ve talked about it for weeks–months, even–and finally, Riverdale delivers, springing a surprise on us right when I’m lulled into *checks notes* enjoying a musical episode? Could this be right?

Wow, I think so. Like the last musical episode, “Big Fun” is based on a movie-turned-musical. This time, the movie source is Heathers, which like Carrie, is all about teen murder. That’s fun.

Who doesn’t think so? Hermione, doing an impression of a protective mother, storms Principal Weatherbee’s office to demand the musical be stopped. She has somewhat of a point, especially since the last musical ended with Midge’s murder. But still. Like, ma’am, you and your husband are professional criminals and your minor child runs an illegal casino that started as a speakeasy. I hardly think some songs are going to damage your child.

And speaking of, that scene is the cue for Kevin to break into “Beautiful,” which is apparently a song from the musical. (I’m not familiar with this musical at all, so they could sing literally anything and I wouldn’t know the difference.) And it’s not bad! In fact, I kinda like it.

And so does Hermione, who just now realizes how “miserable” all the kids in town are. Gee, if only there were hints of that beforehand, like a thriving drug trade, a normalized cult, and near-constant violence. Anyway, the most important part is that Hermione greenlights the musical, which will be directed by Kevin and co-directed by his new bestie, Evelyn.

Unsurprisingly, cult vibes permeate the musical almost immediately. And it gets worse (for Betty). When she stumbles upon Evelyn conducting an apparent ritual with a few of the cast members, Betty goes to Weatherbee, who dismisses her concerns because that Edgar Evernever has some really great ideas. Poor Betty.

That ritual, by the way, takes place in the Gargoyle King’s former chamber at Quiet Sisters, where Evelyn invites everyone for a pre-show cast party. The last thing I want to do in a definitely haunted abbey/child torture factory is eat hallucinogens, but go off, Kevin.

While Kevin and Evelyn serve as co-directors, they’ve brought Toni on to choreograph. As you might imagine, the person who demanded this musical–Cheryl–isn’t thrilled to see her ex there so soon. Especially since Toni had the gall to wear red to school and everyone knows Cheryl “invented red.” Although they will later make up, this early tension results in a dance-off soundtracked by “Candy Shop,” and again, it’s fun. It’s what it’s supposed to be.

And the kids deserve to have some fun, especially since so many of them have garbage parents. On that note, the Lodges are divorcing, which seems to both surprise and upset Veronica and I’m just the “Confused Nick Young” meme. I’m sorry, Ronnie, but were you under the impression that this was a happy marriage? Whew, child. No wonder your relationships are such a mess. And on that note, someone be nice to Reggie, please.

Moving on, the musical is a success. Veronica gets both her parents to attend, but her Parent Trap dreams of getting them back together are going to have to wait. Meanwhile, having discovered that his old trailer is now ground zero for his ma’s drug operation, Jughead (and Betty) arrive late for the musical looking just like Veronica and JD in the original movie version of Heathers. That is to say, they look like chimney sweeps, because they burned down the trailer.

But somehow they get cleaned up (and Jughead learns choreography) in like, a cool minute, so the show goes on. And no one is brutally murdered at the end, so that would be reward enough. But then someone starts slow-clapping and before I can even think, Get a load of THIS GUY, my brain cells coordinate and I realize it’s Edgar Evernever, FINALLY. And then other Farm members, all dressed in white and including Principal Weatherbee, also stand and slow-clap. It’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen on this show. I sorta love it.

9/10 – Despite the fact that I’m giving this the same score as the last musical episode, I actually enjoyed the source material here more. The songs were better in my opinion, and they helped cover up the fact that it doesn’t feel like a whole lot happened in this episode. But of course, that’s fine, because we finally got introduced to the man behind the Farm. Chad Michael Murray feels awfully young to be playing a teen’s dad, especially if we’re supposed to buy that FP’s 50, but we’ll see how it goes.

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

7 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Snarky-Guru

2 years ago

I’m just glad that Jughead (Cole Sprouse) was in this one as I missed him during the last musical episode. One thing is for sure, the show writers are creative!

Rob Duggat

It was so good! I’m a sucker for musicals so you can consider my opinion a bit biased, but I absolutely loved this episode! Throw in some reveals about the farm and I felt the entire episode was done extremely well.

Dave

Reply to Rob Duggat

I am another sucker for musicals and I loved this episode to the core. It always like the brain is taking a break when there is music in between the acting.

Salome G

Reply to Dave

Hahahaha

Gavin the Binge-Watcher

Is the Riverdale cast doing the actual singing or are they pretending to sing along to a track? The episode was brilliantly done either way. The parents of Riverdale are really something else.

Reply to Gavin the Binge-Watcher

I think it’s a combination of both–it’s their real voices, but prerecorded and maybe cleaned up.

Natasha Yves

Finally we get a glimpse of Edgar! And we only had to endure another musical episode! 🙂

Actually, the entire episode was quite good. I think it progressed the story as much as can be expected when only half the episode is amelodic. The casting director seems to have an issue with perceived age but I’m enjoying the series so much overall I can suspend my disbelief on that issue.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

Riverdale S03E16 Review: Big Fun – Time to get musical again

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you