Riverdale: The Complete Fourth Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Riverdale: The Complete Fourth Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Riverdale has long since been the “guilty pleasure” show for The CW. It doesn’t have the mass market appeal of the DC superhero shows, nor the good writing of some of their more esoteric shows. The series is basically a full on angsty, hot person version of “Archie and Jugghead” with some Scooby Do mysteries and darkness thrown in. Sabrina the Teenage Witch is in the same universe (and has been since the cartoons), but has garnered much more support. For some reason Riverdale has managed to sputter along on weak ratings, but I have actually guiltily enjoyed it. The characters of Archie, Jugghead, Veronica and Betty have all been turned on their head and glitzed up with “pretty people” personas, but it still entertains in a sleazy sort of way.

Season 4 of the show opens up with a depressing arc. We say goodbye to Fred Andrews, leaving Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa) reeling with the aftermath of having to go on with his own family tragedy. He, Jugghead, Veronica (Camila Mendes) and girlfriend Betty (Lili Reinhart, who reminds me a LOT of a young Brittany Murphy) are going to put him to rest on the same day as having the FIRST Independence Day Parade since the horrible death that prompted the first season. This year brings us to the senior year of the character’s lives, bringing in varsity football games, another murderer, and more family drama between Veronica’s estranged father and her family.

The series thrives on angst and teen drama, and the fourth season epitomizes that particular bent as Betty and Archie start to grow closer together, and Betty gets to uncover more about her mother and sister than she ever knew. Veronica’s story was a bit more harsh, but it was also the more predictable of the season as well. HOWEVER, It’s nice to see Jugghead Jones and Archie working in tandem once more after all of the ups and downs of the previous 3 seasons.

This was actually the very FIRST time that Warner has put the DVD of the show out on their Warner Archive MOD line, and refused to put out a Blu-ray of the show. I’m guessing it’s because of the falling ratings, but up to date the Warner Brothers line has mainly released the DVD while the Warner Archive collection gets the Blu-ray duties. I’m not sure whether that will change in the future, but right now it looks like the DVD is the only way to view the show on home video, as I seen no official (or rumored) plans of releasing it on Blu-ray later, even via the MOD line.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The one thing that I appreciate about Warner Brothers TV shows is how stable they are in their releases. Except for some issues with early Blu-ray releases (back in the Smallville and Supernatural days) and the faux pas of cramming too many episodes on disc for the Supergirl Season 1 and Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 , Warner always delights, even in DVD realm. The second season is spread across 4 discs for the 19 episodes (down from 22) and given a very solid encode. The show employs lots of moody shadows and gloomy scenes contrasted with brilliantly saturated daylight shots. Colors are bright and bubblegum coated, with shiny pinks and reds, and deep blues and greens. Fine details are generally great, although I noticed that the discs have a slightly gauzy and hazy look to them (something inherent to all the seasons actually), and there IS some macroblocking. Black levels are also generally good, but show some milkiness in the deepest black settings and that washes out SOME detail. Otherwise very solid shadow delineation.






Audio:

Once more we have a singular 5.1 Dolby Digital track (384 kbps instead of 448 kbps) and the experience is just as good as the video. Dialog is crisp and cleanly located up front, and the show is decidedly front heavy in many ways. However the surrounds do get a solid workout with the score, and the show is more than a BIT bassy. Tons of low end coming through at all times as the tense score flows all around, and more boisterous scenes (such as Veronica lighting a creeper on fire and clocking him with a chair) have quite a bit of boom. HOWEVER, it can be a bit one notish at times, and some elements down have the low end whack I was expecting. For example, that scene with Veronica cracking a flaming creeper with a chair. The bass is present in the score, and the roar of the flames, but when she cracks him over the shoulders with a chair, the wood impacting doesn't make that much "oomph". All in all, a solid mix.






Extras:

•

Final Score: ​

Riverdale: The Complete Fourth Season is more of the same. If you’ve seen the previous three seasons, then you know what you’re getting into. The show hasn’t dramatically worsened over the years, but nor has it turned into something great either. At the end of the day it is a sleazy, angsty, “hot person” CW show that is actually entertaining on a popcorn level. It’s kind of fun, the dram is pretty predictable, but I’ve seen much worse over the years. The only real “complaint” for this year is that the finale is spectacularly bad. I won’t spoil what goes on, but needless to say it was a bummer when the the rest of the year was pretty good. Audio and video are on par with other seasons, meaning good video, solid audio, but NO extras this time around. Rental.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: K.J. Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes
Created by: Greg Berlanti
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG 2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: NR
Runtime: 805 Minutes
DVD Release Date: September 22nd, 2020

Recommendation: Rental