Katy Keene: A Singer, a Dancer, and a Fashion Designer Have Big Dreams

Any show that starts off with a muscleman in black underwear is worth viewing, in my book.

Even if it is about some of the most minor players in the Archie universe.

If you read some of the Archie digests in the 1970s and 1980s, you may have run across reprints of 1950s stories about Katy Keene, a professional model like Fritzi Ritz, saddled with her orphaned sister Sis (like Fritzi Ritz was saddled with Nancy) and dating the boxer K.O. (for knock-out). 

The gimmick was that readers could send in clothing designs for Katy to wear.  And some of the aspiring clothing designers were boys!  In the 1950s, an interest in fashion design was tantamount to coming out: a glimpse of gay potential in Archie comics.

In this reboot, Katy (Lucy Hale) is an aspiring designer, not a model.  She may be the daughter of the original Katy Keene.  Her boyfriend KO (Zane Holtz, top photo) is a bouncer, not a boxer.

She works as a gopher or dresser or something at Lacey's Department Store in New York (Archie comics does that), where she butts heads with her boss, Gloria Granbilt (Katherine LaNasa, channeling Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada), as well as her gopher or dresser or something rival, Alexandra Cabot (in the comics, the rich witch who was always trying to sing with Josie and the Pussycats).

The main plot is: Katy wants a plum personal shopper job, but loses out at the last minute when she fails to impress the visiting Errol Swoon (Saamir Usmani).  I wonder, wwill anyone under 80 get the reference to Errol Flynn?).

Meanwhile her roommates have their own problems:

Jorge Lopez (Jonny Beauchamp), aka drag queen Ginger Lopez (not Ginger Snaps?), who performs Madonna with her own voice at mixed clubs, is an aspiring Broadway dancer.  He keeps running into homophobia ("sorry, we want our chorus boys to be a little more straight-acting"),  So Katy suggests that he audition as Ginger.  That doesn't work either, so he gives a teary-eyed "I'm going to be at Carnegie Hall, bitches!" speech.

Geez, he sounds like a losing contestant on American Idol.  In a creative field, you need to get used to rejection, girlfriend.

The other roommate is Josie (previous of Josie and the Pussycats), an aspiring singer.  As far as I can tell, her only problem is being offered a record contract by Alexander Cabot (Lucien Laviscount), Alexandra's twin brother and the Pussycats'manager in the comics.

Other very minor characters from the Archie Universe show up:

1. Pepper, who could either be a former member of the Pussycats or someone who hung out with Jughead in the 1980s,  She gives TED talks, writes articles, and knows everybody.

2. Cricket, who also hung out with Jughead in the 1980s, when they were trying to heterosexualize him.

3. Trula Twyst, so minor that I don't remember who she is, but who can forget the name?

3. Alan M. (James Maslow), Josie's boyfriend in the comics.

4. Kevin Keller drops by from Riverdale.

My verdict: These people act the way 12-year olds think that aspiring artists act.

And too much girl stuff.  By the end of the episode, I was longing for beer, farting, and football.

The real star of the series is the clothes. But I've already seen The Devil Wears Prada, thanks.