Welcome to our coverage of Katy Keene! The CW’s newest series is a glitzy, warm, escapist spinoff of Riverdale and with any luck, it’ll be the next big thing on the network. Things bounce back this week and even though there aren’t any stellar moments, better is good!
1. A Solid Course Correction
After last week’s absolutely baffling and ineffectual bottle episode, Katy Keene gets things back on track in episode six. The episode does a good job at moving things along, particularly for Katy and Jorge, and it definitely resides in the shows comfort zone even if it lacks the same magic that it’s had in some moments. It does make me a bit nervous that the show seems to be having this much trouble being consistent in its quality. Sure, it makes sense that a show with six episodes to its name still hasn’t found itself quite yet but the moments work so well that it’s a bit hard to understand how so many things don’t. When the show is being earnest and goofy, it’s a great time. Think of the impromptu singing scenes in the last two episodes- they were delightful because they were genuinely carefree fun. When the show is going for drama, it’s been more of a mixed bag. Josie’s storyline has been meh (more on that later) and Jorge has come across like a cartoon character. The show does seem to get how to pull of Katy and Pepper’s plot lines relatively easily though. The writers clearly have strong understandings of those characters (particularly Katy) and they consistently deliver entertaining material for both of them.
2. Jorge’s Got Competition
The silver lining of last week’s episode was Jorge’s subplot revealing his drag persona, Ginger, to his mother. This week expands on that quite a bit, giving Luisa a chance to stage mom her son through a drag pageant. Jorge has to face off against the evil, Insta-famous queen, Paige Deveraux to fight for the prime slot at the bar. It’s a pretty straightforward story- Jorge is an underdog who screws up most parts of the pageant (in part because of some Deveraux sabotage) but really delivers on an acapella performance. He loses- which definitely makes sense, but the veteran drag queen who hosted the pageant is none other than Francoise, who decides to take Jorge under his wing. It’s all very nice! Katy Keene seems to be learning how to use Jorge correctly and it’s very cool to not hate every major scene that one of the main characters of a show you’re reviewing is in. Let’s just hope they keep it consistent.
3.Pepper Peppers Around
Pepper! What do we say about Pepper? She’s trying to get the Pepper Plant off the ground and she’s still having a fling with KO’s roommate Raj but now that girl who helped her sneak out of the hotel is her new protege. That’s it! There’s nothing particularly interesting about Pepper’s storyline which I might find annoying if Julia Chan weren’t so good at playing her. Chan brings a fun energy to every scene so no matter how inconsequential Pepper is as a character, she’s pleasant enough to watch that it doesn’t make a difference. So roll on Pepper, you’re doing nothing and you’re doing it well.
4. Weirdest/Best Line of the Night Goes To…
Andre de Shields as Chubby who says “Easy there, it’s New York” when Josie is nervous about Alex Cabot’s late appearance to her EP launch. It is an absolutely insane response to an incredibly normal thing to be nervous but de Shields delivers it with such confidence that it’s absolutely delightful. It’s the peak of Josie’s storyline tonight, which is mostly forgettable. Alex is upset with her after finding out that his father is paying Josie to keep Alex on the right track and it throws a pretty big wrench into things. Also, Xandra is the one who told the press that she and Alex were an item in high school in an effort to make it okay for them to get back together (GROSS). Oh, and Josie’s mom is visiting because that’s a thing that moms do but mostly she just stands there during various scenes. On the whole, Josie’s story has been pretty boring so far; the Cabot stuff is intermittently wild but ultimately repetitive and the show needs to move things forward a lot more in the near future. Ashleigh Murray does great work playing Josie and she’s a standout in just about every scene with the main cast (and with Andre de Shields who happens to be a national treasure)- her storylines just need to match that. Also, the original songs she’s been performing have been bad and there must be a turnaround post haste.
5. Katy’s Royal Drama
Prince Errol is back in Katy’s life this week but this time he’s bringing a lot more angst. He and his bartender girlfriend, Patricia are really going through it; Errol wants a laid back wedding with a normal girl and Patricia is feeling very uptight and wants a fancy royal wedding. Katy ends up playing messenger and trying to soothe tension between the two. Here’s the thing- Errol is being a jerk. Patricia is clearly feeling a lot of pressure from the rest of the royal family and responding to that and it’s totally unfair to blame her for it. Errol doubles down on that when he decides to call off the engagement and then spends a night bonding with Katy, which leads to a hookup. Worse still, he slips out in the night, then decides that he does want to get married AND lets Patricia ask Katy to design the wedding dress. What a mess. It’s a testament to Lucy Hale that all of this is as fun as it is. Hale does a great job, as usual, somehow making Katy’s royal hookup feel like a believable part of processing her breakup with KO rather than an insanely unrealistic storyline. If her story boils down to a love square between her, the prince, KO, and the designer from a couple of weeks ago, I’m sure she’ll find a way to make even that feel grounded. This is Katy Keene the show at its most interesting and Katy Keene the character at her messiest (which, incidentally, is also very interesting!). This is a wild, fun show and Katy’s storylines embody that better than anyone else’s. Better yet, there are stakes in her world now! Let’s hope the execution is as interesting as the setup.
