There’s a complete lot of “TV present” within the TV present “Riverdale.” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s small display screen Archie Comics adaptation — an inspiredly chaotic queer work that is as cheerfully absurd as it’s painfully earnest when it desires to be — burns by way of storylines like there isn’t any tomorrow. It is how, in the long run, the present is ready to take pleasure in subplots involving all the things from unlawful teen convict struggle golf equipment to diabolical sorcerers from alternate realities to the tickle porn business. (That final one may be very actual and even options “The Final of Us” actor Spencer Lord.) The identical goes for the genres it dabbles in, although there are two particularly that “Riverdale” constantly returns to all through its run: horror and musicals.
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Maybe it isn’t stunning, then, that “Riverdale” birthed a pair of spin-offs within the types of the horror-flavored “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and the healthful showbiz fantasy of “Katy Keene.” The latter, which Aguirre-Sacasa developed with Michael Grassi, follows the titular character (Lucy Hale) and her mates as they pursue their desires of hitting it massive in New York Metropolis’s trend, artwork, and tradition industries. Therefore, much more than its mum or dad present, “Katy Keene” is packed to the gills with musical sequences that cowl all the things from Broadway present tunes to Billboard Sizzling 100 chart-toppers. It additionally provides Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy an opportunity to shine in a manner that the Pussycats starlet by no means had the house to on “Riverdale.”
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Sadly for Katy, Josie, and firm, their desires have been shortly dashed: “Katy Keene” solely lasted a single 13-episode season being being canceled by The CW, as in comparison with seven seasons for “Riverdale” on the community and a pair of two-part seasons (spanning 36 episodes whole) for “Sabrina” at Netflix. Did individuals merely not look after this nook of the Archie-verse? Effectively, no, the reality is extra sophisticated than that.
Katy Keene struggled to face out above the remainder of the CW crowd
Do not forget that factor about “Riverdale” being shockingly earnest generally? Effectively, “Katy Keene” is Aguirre-Sacasa and his crew carrying their hearts absolutely on their sleeves to inform a narrative about go-get-’em theater youngsters (and folk lower from the identical fabric) residing out loud within the Huge Apple. That is principally what Aguirre-Sacasa did when he was youthful, which provides a private contact to the spin-off to go along with its gentler melodrama and all of the stylistic thrives a tv funds will purchase you. Evaluations have been usually, er, eager on Katy in flip, as evidenced by its 91% Rotten Tomatoes critics rating, with props going to its decidedly winsome forged and effervescent atmosphere. (The collection’ brighter, lighter colours and temper additionally make for a pleasant distinction to the “Twin Peaks”-inspired neo-noir stylings of “Riverdale.”)
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The issue wasn’t that folks did not just like the present, it is that they only weren’t watching it. As Deadline famous when “Katy Keene” was formally canned in July 2020, its “gentle” rankings (as The CW Chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz put it previous to the present’s cancellation) have been really typical for CW collection. However the place the community’s different reveals tended to see a large enhance in delayed viewing on the time, “Katy Keene” didn’t. Even when the COVID-19 lockdowns went into impact a month after the present debuted on February 6, 2020, viewers have been extra inclined to compensate for the brand new CW reveals that had premiered the earlier fall and constructed up extra buzz — particularly, “Nancy Drew” and “Batwoman” (the latter of which additional benefited from being a part of the then-thriving Arrowverse).
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Simply because the pandemic killed The CW’s deliberate “Arrow” spin-off “Inexperienced Arrow & The Canaries,” it is possible the following rise in manufacturing prices did not assist the case for giving “Katy Keene” the prospect to develop its viewers with a second season. Maybe if the present had come alongside at a distinct level, issues would’ve gone in one other course. To her credit score, although, Hale took all of it in stride, telling E! On-line a month after the collection was axed:
“I positively knew the place Katy would go within the second season and all of the plans for her so its all the time a bummer to see that come to a halt with out you wanting it to, however in the end, I solely had wonderful issues to say about that present and the individuals and everybody concerned in it. It actually was a spotlight of my profession and residing in NYC was wonderful.”
Spoken like Katy herself. You’ll be able to catch her and the others by streaming “Katy Keene” on Max.