I don’t know jack shit about comics. Let us be real, I don’t want to. Especially when it comes to anything Archie Comics. I am pretty sure I will get stoned for this, but I don’t like Riverdale and it’s turned me off to anything having to do with Archie Comics.
But then there is Katy Keene and I know that it has something to do with it. But I am choosing to block that out of my mind because I really, really can’t wait for this show.
Katy Keene will be a mid-season show and it takes place 5 years after Riverdale. It’s in the greatest city, New York City. Lucy Hale leads the cast as a budding fashion designer, and Josie moves in as one of her roommates.
“Their world is populated with kindred-spirit starving artists, including mysterious socialite Pepper Smith (Saving Hope‘s Julia Chan) and Broadway-bound performer Jorge Lopez — and his drag queen alter ego, Ginger (Penny Dreadful‘s Jonny Beauchamp),” per the official logline. “While their climb to the top is rife with obstacles, this found family will stop at nothing to see their names in lights.”
Looks great, right? I think so too. There are a lot of reasons to want to see Katy Keene and I am sure we all have our reasons to want to see the show.
But for me, the reasons are specific.
IT’S SET IN NEW YORK CITY
I love a good television show, but I love one set in New York City. There is something about this city that wakes you up and sets your soul on fire. It can make you feel invigorated or overwhelmed, but it’s completely true that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.
I think that a lot of times, people imagine New York as this place from Gossip Girl, but it’s so much more than that. There are the streets that are hidden, the places that aren’t touristy, the friends that keep you going, the parks that give you peace, the museums that give you culture. I feel like when it comes to New York, people need to see all that it has to offer.
And they need to see it through innocent eyes.
So I am excited to see New York through characters that are struggling to make it. And I will be hoping that they do.
IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I DID OVER ‘THE CARRIE DIARIES’
At The Critic’s Choice summer tour this year Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, part of the creative team behind Katy Keene, talked about the comparisons that are already occurring to Sex and the City.
“We definitely talked about Sex and the City. We wanted this to be a New York show. We talked about Girls. We talked about Mary Tyler Moore,” he said, “We said that Katy Keene is halfway between SATC and Girls. I had spent many years in New York being a struggling playwright, and that was our way in.”
I’m not comparing it to The Carrie Diaries, but the trailer for the show gives me the same hope and joy that The Carrie Diaries did. I love that feeling of anticipating something. And I am so ready for this one.
IT HAS LUCY HALE
I was a total fan of Pretty Little Liars. The cast became iconic to most of us. Lucy Hale definitely has had an affect on my love of fandom and everything in between.
The actress signed on to star in the drama and that makes it all the more appealing. You just have actors/actresses that you trust, that you want to see their shows, and Lucy is one of them.
DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA
The official synopsis of the shows you that you can’t think of Katy Keene and not think that there is going to be a shit load of drama.
Katy designs clothes for anyone she can, including her friend and roommate Josie, whose singing talent catches the attention of Alexander Cabot, a CEO who hopes to reboot the record label division of his father’s corporate empire. But Alexander’s dream of signing Josie to a recording contract meets resistance from Cabot Media’s powerful senior vice president Alexandra, who also happens to be his twin sister. Josie and Katy’s roommate, Jorge, works at his family’s bodega and has his eye on Broadway, but after a series of rejections, he hopes to take his drag performance career as Ginger to the next level. The mysterious Pepper Smith plans to open her own version of Andy Warhol’s Factory. She has the connections, but no one seems to know where she got her money or if she really has any at all. As these aspiring artists take on the runway, the recording studio, Broadway and the New York social scene, they find more than just a career in the big city — they find long-lasting friendship.
If we’re being honest, we’re happy that it’s not going to have the dark tone of Riverdale.
“[The network] wanted something “bright and aspirational. It’s nice that the show has such a different tone, like fashion and Broadway and not the gargoyle king or a cult.” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said.
There is no premiere date set for Katy Keene. We just know it’s a mid-season show, so can 2020 get here really fast?