Katy Keene

It's a little silly and cheese-laden, but this series' ample charms are clear from the moment the viewer first recognizes that this is a sort of NYC-specific fairy tale. Many will probably be reminded of a kind of Sex and the City junior, with its gorgeous characters alternately weathering romantic and career complications while frequently underlining how lucky they are to do it in NYC, but what it resembles even more strongly is The Bold Type, that underappreciated, underseen series about ambitious young women working at a fashion magazine. Like The Bold Type, Katy Keene is full of blithe anachronisms: Just as fashion magazines haven't been rolling in dough or culturally influential since the century's turn, it's odd to employ Katy, a fledgling designer, at a department store that seems to be modeled after Bergdorf Goodman circa 1960. Then too, there's the matter of all the outdated names. Surely there's not a 20-something Buzz, Katy, or Pepper left in the world, and even though said names and characters were largely imported from Archie Comics, it still strikes an odd tone.

Still, there are plenty of things the series gets right, and still others that are so frothy and fun that viewers won't care. The apartment that Josie, Katy, and Jorge share is authentically small and grimy, real NYC-style, and though Josie is the hottest musical star to ever emerge from Riverdale, the big-city folks who first hear her music dismiss her as sweet but colorless. The supportive relationships between Katy and her friends is also charming, and rings true, even if the show sometimes leans a bit hard on female competitiveness for drama (we could seriously do without Katy's sabotaging co-worker). Jorge's storyline, in which the sometimes drag artist is desperately seeking an entertainment milieu in which his somewhat feminine presentation is an asset instead of a downside, is also quite modern and delightful, and Jonny Beauchamp is so relatable that you'll instantly be on his side. In short, Katy's not perfect, but in terms of soapy, light, easy-to-digest dramas, it scores.