Katy Keene has been heavily promoted a spinoff of The CW’s popular series, Riverdale. Both shows are produced by Greg Berlanti, and the town of Riverdale and its inhabitants are regularly mentioned in the new series. However, those tuning in for Riverdale 2.0 will be disappointed.
Whereas Riverdale’s high-school teens regularly go up against murderers and other bad guys while living the lives of people much older than them, the characters of Katy Keene are chasing their dreams in a fantasy New York City where the stakes are decidedly lower.
The series centers on Katy (Lucy Hale), an eternal optimist working at a fancy department store called Lacy’s (the spinoff continues Riverdale’s tradition of slightly adjusting the names of well-known brands for its own universe) while aspiring to become a clothing designer. In the pilot, Ashleigh Murray’s wannabe pop star, Josie -- a familiar face from Riverdale -- moves in with Katy and her roommate Jorge Lopez (Jonny Beauchamp), who dreams of treading the boards on Broadway one day and performs as a drag queen who goes by the name Ginger. There’s also Pepper Smith (Julia Chan), a columnist and tastemaker who plans to open an Andy Warhol-like arts collective, if she can only find the money to make it happen.
Although Katy and her friends haven’t met Josie before the pilot, she immediately becomes one of the crew. Meanwhile, New York serves as the show's setting and a character in and of itself.
The heightened New York of Katy Keene is reminiscent of the setting of Sex and the City. Yet, whereas Carrie Bradshaw and her friends’ lives were consumed by their romantic entanglements, Katy and her pals are more concerned with figuring out how to fulfill their career aspirations. That’s not to say there isn’t a significant amount of frothy romance -- especially for Katy whose adoring long-term boyfriend K.O. (Zane Holtz) wants to be a fighter. And for the other characters, there’s plenty of hooking up to go around. Yet, although sometimes they falter, these twenty-somethings put their career goals first.
While figuring out how to fulfill their dreams is the challenge each character faces, in the first three episodes available to review, it all feels pretty frivolous. The conflicts rarely last for more than a few scenes and things often work out a little too conveniently. Opportunities often fall into the characters’ laps while the city seems to be full of generous and trustworthy folks who don’t do anything much worse than hold a grudge. The four leads all want success on their own terms, which also seems to double as an excuse to keep them on the show. As a result, they sometimes behave in ways that no one who wasn’t starring on a TV show would.
Despite all that, the characters are fun to hang out with. The series is well cast, with Hale in particular doing a good job holding the center of the series as the upbeat Katy. The core group of four creates a believable, supportive friendship that will win you over even if their experiences may make you roll your eyes.
There are some storylines here that have the potential to be especially resonant. Jorge’s journey of finding a balance between being himself and changing to ensure his casting in a musical could turn out to be especially poignant, although the story was too peripheral in the first three episodes to say for sure.
RELATED: Katy Keene: 5 Things We Know & 5 Things We Hope To See
Ultimately, Katy Keene doesn’t seem to be interested in juicy plotlines or high drama. Instead, it offers a fizzy, lived-in world of people you’ll enjoy spending time with as they follow their passions. If it all seems a little simple, that’s also part of the charm.
Katy Keene stars Lucy Hale, Ashleigh Murray, Johnny Beauchamp, Julia Chan, Camille Hyde, Lucien Laviscount, Zane Holtz and Katherine LaNasa. The Riverdale spinoff premieres Thursday, Feb. 6, at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.