"Euphoria", which airs on HBO, follows the narrator Rue through day to day life as a recovering teenage drug addict. "Riverdale", which airs on the CW, is the TV adaptation of the Archie Comics that follows the main characters, Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Betty, through high school in their strange little town called Riverdale.
Both "Euphoria" and "Riverdale" tackles a variety of issues like drug addiction/abuse, underage drinking, partying, hookup culture and abuse. But with the writers of Euphoria, you could tell a lot of creative and hardworking people pity the story together. Even with the narrator, 17-year-old recovering drug addict Rue, being fairly unreliable, the storyline is very put together and cohesive. There's no romanticizing of anything negative the characters suffer. Euphoria shows teenage life in a real and raw light
While "Riverdale", the writing is mediocre at best and just plainly horrible at worst. In my most honest opinion, I feel like the script is written after playing a few games of Mad Libs. There are 15 different plotlines each season and the way they wrap up each plot is very unsatisfying or just made zero sense in regards to how it all was laid out or it never gets mentioned again, never really reaching any kind of resolution. The show doesn't feel organic, it feels so ridiculously unnatural and fake. None of what the characters go through is relatable, some of the scenarios would rarely happen in real life.
So while some aspects of "Euphoria" can be perceived as unrealistic or ridiculous such as the makeup or lighting, it still feels serious and real. While with "Riverdale", it's so outlandish it's honestly unbelievable. "Riverdale" wishes it could be the perfect balance of entertaining and absurd that Euphoria" has perfected in just one season compared to "Riverdale's" three.