Welcome to our coverage of Katy Keene! The CW’s newest series is a glitzy, warm, escapist spinoff of Riverdale and while in the past I’ve said it should be the next big thing, I now accept that this show is a big mess.
1. Katy Keene is a Messy Show
Every time I tell someone I’m reviewing Katy Keene, they ask me the same thing: is it good? I always say “Yeah! It’s really fun!” I stand by the latter aspect of my characterization but the former simply does not hold up under scrutiny. This is a show that had a bottle episode less than halfway through its first season; a show where a stepbrother and stepsister were high school sweethearts and the stepsister is plotting to win her stepbrother back; a show that has no less than 3 love interests for its main character, all introduced within the first four episodes. At the same time, I refuse to deem the show bad. It has a (mostly) wonderful cast that grounds this ridiculousness and makes it fun to watch and the visual style is great to look at. I’m definitely in this thing for the rest of the season but I want to be clear eyed about the fact that this is not a particularly coherent show.
2. The Worst Musical Episode Ever
The best part of Katy Keene, up until now at least, has been the impromptu musical numbers. Josie and Jorge’s performances are perfectly nice but the unplanned moments that the main cast gets together and starts doing songs and choreography are so relentlessly joyful and well made that I wouldn’t have imagined the show doing anything better than a musical episode. Somehow, though, Katy Keene managed to put together the least fun, least dynamic, least interesting musical episode of television I’ve ever seen. Every impromptu musical number this episode is boring; they don’t make use of the sets particularly well and there’s absolutely no interesting camerawork going on. There are two numbers that involve background dancers except there are only two dancers so it feels more awkward than it does dynamic. The numbers feel more like theatre kids doing bad karaoke than they do a strong production of anything. Worst yet, the musical they chose was Kiss of the Spider Woman, a show that very very few people have ever heard of. As a musical theatre fan myself, I had to look up the show to make sure that it wasn’t made up when they first said its name. The fact that this episode was that alienating and boring instead of fun and joyful is deeply disappointing.
3. 2 Stars Are Born
The main thread of the episode Jorge’s production of Kiss of the Spider Woman. After his initial “one queen performance” ends up with journalists and Broadway insiders walking out, Pepper engineers a new setup. Attendees were upset that Jorge played both leads, so Josie will play the Spider Woman opposite Jorge who will play the actual lead and with Alex and Xandra Cabot producing. It’s a fun showcase for Pepper as a hustler and it leads to a solid performance from Josie. Jorge is Jorge which means he gets upset about not being the star and that becomes him saying he wants to show his dad his drag persona for the first time through playing the Spider Woman. That rationale honestly feels like a bad retroactive explanation for annoying behavior but it at least leads to one emotionally honest thing happening in the episode. After Jorge and Josie BOTH play the Spider Woman and deliver a knock out performance, Jorge’s dad notes his son’s talent, only to tell him he should take the makeup and costume off. It’s sad, to be sure, but it’s also very real, which makes for a stronger beat than one where Jorge’s dad would suddenly embrace drag. Taken as a whole, the narrative feels all over the place. There’s a world in which this was more tightly plotted and involved a much better musical, but that is sadly not the one we live in. Hey, at least a talent scout from The Apollo liked Josie’s singing.
4. Katy is a Regular Casanova
Continued belowKaty’s drama with Prince Errol and his fiancé, Patricia continues this week as she gets pressured into designing Patricia’s wedding dress. After Katy and Errol’s ill-advised hookup last week, Errol is smitten and keeps pursuing Katy throughout the episode which only adds to the guilt that she’s feeling. Eventually, Katy brings in Guy LaMontagne, the famous designer she had a charged moment with a few episodes ago, to make the dress for her. It doesn’t exactly deal with the fact that there’s a prince in love with Katy who’s marrying a woman he doesn’t want to get married to (for ridiculous, unfair reasons) but it get the job done for now. Later, after Guy sees Katy’s designs for Jorge’s show, he ends up taking her on as his apprentice. It’s not a bad thread, but it is a boring one which is almost worse; there’s nothing to really critique because there’s not much there in there first place. Still, it at least sets up a new status quo for Katy.
5. There’s Honestly Nothing Left to Say
This episode wasn’t good! It’s honestly embarrassing that such a theatre kid show was able to make a bad musical episode. Oh, actually there is one more thing- it ends with a group of guys getting ready to attack Jorge and his boyfriend for making out in public late at night. So now this show is tackling hate crimes.
