Welcome to our coverage of Katy Keene! The CW’s newest series is a glitzy, warm, escapist spinoff of Riverdale and to be completely honest, it’s a mess. A fun mess! A mess with a great cast! But a mess nonetheless.
1. This Episode is All About Family…
…or at least it wants to be. This week, as everyone deals with their usual trials and tribulations, family is treated as a touchstone. Jorge deals with his father finding out that he does drag, Pepper’s tragic, mysterious past is explored a bit, and Katy keeps talking about found family helping her through the hard times. There are three problems here, though: first, that Katy’s whole storyline has essentially 0 to do with family. Second, that while Jorge and Pepper’s stories do have to do with family on a cosmetic level, their actual themes are about more than that. Third, that it kind of leaves Josie out in the lurch. Now, the episode’s narration not matching up with its actual themes isn’t disqualifying in and of itself, it does represent something greater about Katy Keene as a show; there’s a real dissonance between what really works in this series and what the writers seem to prioritize most often. On the whole, this episode is fine. It doesn’t really have any standout moments but it’s far from a trainwreck. It’s biggest sin is probably the fact that it’s mostly a pretty boring outing. On the bright side, just about every subplot wraps up with the promise of something interesting coming down the line.
2. Jorge is Getting Better with Age
This week, things keep getting stronger on the Jorge-front. In the aftermath of his and Bernardo’s assault, Jorge reveals the fact that he does drag to his father and it leads to a genuinely compelling story. Jorge’s family wants him to stop going out in public as Ginger out of fear that he’ll be attacked again; Jorge, rightly, rejects that demand, and chooses not to let the attack stop him from being himself. The episode does good work at firmly taking Jorge’s side without making his parents seem like monsters who reject his identity. Jonny Beauchamp is also doing stronger work at making Jorge feel more like a human being and less like a cartoon character. As far as good tv goes, the material here still isn’t top notch and it’s pretty boring to watch, but boring is better than bad and the redeeming qualities of this part of the episode go a long way.
3. Pepper has a Secret Past
Pepper’s whole thing is that she has an unbelievably lavish and exciting lifestyle and that she has connections to all of the most famous, powerful people in the world. It’s been a good schtick- in large part because of Julia Chan’s strong performance. This week, we take a deeper dive into her backstory as Ms. Freesia returns (which also means that we get the return of the inimitable Bernadette Peters). Ms. Freesia takes Pepper’s chaotic, exciting, charming tendencies and cranks them up to 11, crashing a party of Pepper’s to scam a would-be financier for the Pepper Plant, and blowing up some of Pepper’s biggest secrets in the process. Freesia casually tosses two grenades into the middle of the group discussion, first revealing that Pepper had promised the Spider Woman role to Xandra, Josie, AND Jorge in the eventual broadway production, then that Pepper actually grew up in New York. Peters is absolutely brilliant, bringing the perfect energy to the whole affair- drawing our attention without eating all of it up. This also opens new doors for potentially exciting material for Pepper. We’ve known for a few weeks now that she’s a scammer, but that might go even deeper than we thought. We also get a quick cameo from her dad, who brings her a cupcake and vows to find out which day of the month she was actually born. I’ve loved watching Pepper be Pepper and I wasn’t getting tired of it, so let’s just hope that all of this additional baggage of hers doesn’t drag down the deeply enjoyable nature of her character.
4. Katy Goes on a Fetch Quest
Last week, famous designer (and potential love interest for Katy), Guy LaMontagne told Katy that she would be his apprentice but early on this week, he gives her a challenge. After complications with Prince Errol meant that Katy had to call Guy in to design Patricia’s wedding dress, Guy wants to make sure that Katy is able to handle personal stress mixing bleeding into her work environment; he sends her to pick up a dress that he lent to Xandra, who is now dating KO. Lucy Hale does a good job at playing Katy at just a hair’s breadth away from snapping at any given moment as she tries to become friends with her first love, who is now becoming a model and dating a girl who loves toying with everyone around her. It’s a decent storyline that predictably ends with Katy getting KO’s help to get the dress back. Interestingly, Katy is the character left with the least interesting path forward out of anyone in the episode. She’s set up to be Guy’s apprentice, sure, but that was also the case a week ago. Katy is arguably the best character on the show (thanks to Lucy Hale) but she also has too much going on at a time. The writers need to do a better job at making her story more focused going forward or the actual material behind this great character is going to get lost.
5. A Plug for Josie and the Pussycats
Josie’s story this week involves a whole lot of wheel spinning that essentially boils down to Mr. Cabot wanting her to lead a girl group- a new iteration of the Pussycats. It’s an exciting project that finally puts something into motion for Josie, a character that’s really gotten far less momentum than she’s deserved in the show so far. That’s that on the episode so I’d like to take a moment to spread the good word of the 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie. I watched it a couple of weeks ago and it’s an absolutely insane, hilarious, wonderful movie about friendship, success, and the evils of capitalism. Parker Posey gives one of the most incredible, campy performances of all time, the whole main trio is charming, and Carson Daly plays himself, except he’s a murderer. The original songs absolutely slap and maybe best of all, it’s only an hour and a half. As far as adaptations of Archie Comics go, this is probably the best one you’ll ever watch.
