Beronica on Riverdale- a missed opportunity

Like many others, I have become hooked on The CW's new show Riverdale, which wrapped its first season in the US last night. Having watched the season finale this morning I'm already eagerly awaiting Season 2 and we don't even know when it starts yet.

Now to the point of this blog. Everyone who watches the show has an opinion on which characters they ship together- with Bughead and Beronica seeming to be the most popular. Basically the biggest ship war seems to be whether viewers want to see Betty with current boyfriend Jughead or BFF Veronica.

My personal view is that the show are missing a major opportunity in resisting calls from viewers to making Beronica canon. It's worth noting that they wrapped shooting Season 1 on Valentines Day so the writing had been done months before they could've known how popular the ship would be.

However, the show didn't do themselves many favours by having them kiss in the pilot only to insist nothing romantic would happen leading to accusations of queer baiting, which I'll leave comments on to better qualified people than this straight guy.

Despite the show's insistence that nothing romantic is happening between Betty and Veronica, the chemistry between them is undeniable and subtle hints of attraction are still there- Veronica blatantly checking Betty out in episode 3 being a case in point.

The chemistry between them is no doubt helped by the wonderful off screen friendship between actresses Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes, who have both said they would support the idea of their characters friendship blossoming into a romance. Camila has been particularly vocal about this on several occasions.

As well as this, the characters at this point are around 16. At that age, somebody discovering their sexuality is totally normal so you would have a storyline which many people could relate to having been in that situation themselves.

It's fair to say that the show hasn't shied away from difficult issues. The first season alone has featured slut shaming, a teacher-student relationship, incest and suicide. Oh, and an entire season based around the murder of a teenager. Considering all that, is a sweet storyline that sees two friends falling in love really too much to ask?

I'm gonna bring up a thorny issue here- to say The CW's relationship with the LGBT community is bad is quite possibly the biggest understatement I've ever made. I've never watched The 100 but the anger among Clexa shippers is still very clear on social media over a year on.

That said, if there is any network who owes the LGBT community some proper representation it's The CW. Shooting for Riverdale Season 2 begins next month and they have the chance to create something special with Beronica. With the ratings falling massively as it is, I hope it's a chance the show doesn't waste