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. ANOTHER ONE
We got two (mostly) good ones in a row everybody! It’s been a while since we had a streak of solid episodes and if we’re lucky, this bodes well for the last couple of episodes of Katy Keene’s freshman season. Episode 11 is pretty strong for all the usual reasons- it’s fun, easy viewing with characters that are mostly very likable plus, this week is an unusually funny outing. It’s far from a laugh per minute and maybe I only feel like this because I love Casey Wilson and her presence was absolutely thrilling for a Happy Endings fan such as myself, but I felt like the episode made me laugh a lot more than usual. The episode revolves around the Meta Gala (whose title I have to assume is meant to be a meta-joke but I honestly can’t tell) and barring one storyline, things are basically a blast to watch.
2. A Note on Character Development
As much as I enjoy this show and its characters, I can’t help but feel like, other than Katy, they haven’t changed at all over the last 11 episodes. Jorge has literally not learned a single lesson or become more mature or thoughtful despite several setbacks that should have made him more mature or thoughtful. Josie is a great character but she feels about the same as a person as she did when she started. Pepper has deepened as character as we’ve learned more and more about her but she hasn’t changed very much (but also I love Pepper and I’m happy to give her a pass). Katy is the only character in this show whose arc seems to be one focused on genuine character development; when she learns lessons, they mostly seem to carry forward and it would be nice if the other characters could be in a similar place. None of this is to say that a character should be totally different over the course of a season or even a series. They should feel like they’ve been moved forward in important ways. Riverdale is an absolutely insane show that frequently makes absolutely ludicrous decisions narratively but it certainly deserves credit for making sure its characters are always responding to what’s going on around them and what has happened to them while maintaining their cores. It’s important that Katy Keene figures out how to replicate that if it gets a second season.
3. *Gil Faizon Voice* Too Much Jorge
The other day, my little cousin was refusing to ear when he was clearly hungry so I challenged him to an eating race. He likes that he’s able to eat faster than other people and I thought “it’s not the healthiest thing for him to do but it’s definitely healthier than not eating at all.” Long story short, my cousin started coughing up food because he ate so quickly and I had clearly made a mistake despite my intentions. Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about that situation when I was watching Jonny Beauchamp play Jorge this week. This week, he was given a lot of material, more than he could handle. It was in service of something worthy- a meaty storyline for Jorge- but it just didn’t work. Finding a good Jorge story is a hard needle to thread; his arcs need to be grounded but if they take up too much time, Beauchamp starts to choke. I felt optimistic when it seemed like this would be a quick little mending of the fences between Jorge and his dad. My hope dwindled when I realized it was the B-plot. The material itself is actually really strong stuff dealing with Jorge’s trauma from being kicked out when he came out at 14 and his father’s conflicting feelings of deep love for his son and deep fear and internalized bigotry. If all of that had been put on a stronger actor’s plate, this might be a very different review but Beauchamp insists on playing the most cartoonish version of Jorge that he can and the character suffers for it.
Continued below4. Success for Pepper and the Pussycats
Pepper and Josie spend this week hustling their way to success in the side material this week. They all take advantage of the Meta Gala as chances to promote the Pepper Plant and the Pussycats, respectively. Both are pretty fun to watch but neither takes up all that much narrative space. Pepper makes sure that her ex, Hannah Melvey, isn’t able to open a Pepper Plant knockoff with the funding that she gets at the Meta Gala by getting dirt on Hannah’s lawyers. Josie and the Pussycats sneak in through the back door of the Brooklyn Museum then give an unsanctioned performance that security graciously lets them finish before kicking them out. Inevitably, the Pussycats are trending on social media and on their way to success, much to Xandra’s chagrin. It feels like a relatively solid comeuppance narratively given Xandra’s stunt from last week but it also comes a bit too easy. Surely there are going to be hiccups for the Pussycats in the coming weeks but there’s also literally no challenge that they have this episode. As for Pepper, there’s a storm coming. After Pepper calls Hannah’s mom to bring Hannah home (I’m not sure what authority she has here given that her daughter is an adult woman), Hannah stops in at Chubby’s to reveal some of Pepper’s secrets to Alex Cabot. I have no interest in seeing Pepper not be glamorous and fun but I feel like Julia Chan has the chops to deal with the material that she’s going to have to handle in the last episodes of the season.
5. Katy is Stretched VERY Thin
Katy takes the A-plot this week, and it has everything: yet another showcase for Lucy Hale’s talent, college rejection, forbidden romances, and best of all, Casey Wilson in a supporting role. The whole story here felt like it was designed for me: Katy has to balance being co-head shopper at Lacy’s with Amanda with helping Guy make a dress for Casey Wilson to wear to the Meta Gala. On top of all of that, the episode opens with Katy getting rejected from Parsons. Hale does stellar work playing Katy’s heartbreak and even better work putting on a mask to hide it (though it doesn’t exactly make sense that she would be so sad about missing out on Parsons when she’s literally alright great at the things she’d be learning and getting opportunities the school would give her). The most unexpectedly strong material that came out of this was Amanda and Katy’s growing relationship. Heléne Yorke lets her guard down a lot in this episode and it makes Amanda a far more endearing character than she’s been in the past. They have a nice rapport developing and I really hope that they keep focusing on this in the future. On the Guy front, Katy saves him by redesigning a dress that Casey Wilson doesn’t like and they finally kiss. I’ve been anti-Guy over the last couple of episodes but the scene where they get together REALLY works, so I have to give it a pass. They’ve got chemistry, the scene is framed beautifully, and when they kiss, it’s electric. I can’t say I stan just yet, but I am looking forward to where this is going.
