By Ryan Flaherty
Saturday night the Paley Center for Media hosted screenings of the CW’s new series premiering in October, as well as a discussion from the cast and creators of ‘Nancy Drew’.
‘Katy Keene’ can best be described as a modern fairytale on bath salts. The series is a loose spinoff of Riverdale, based off of the original comic. In the show, main character Katy is a friend of Veronica Lodge’s, who welcomes Josie (of Josie and the Pussycats) into her New York apartment as a new roommate- and the show takes place roughly five years in the future from where Riverdale currently is. Confused yet? Me too.
One of the most striking things about the series is that nothing bad ever seems to happen. The girls are exactly where they want to be throughout the episode, with a little room for growth, plus all of the villains are extremely one dimensional. The show literally plays like a comic. This provides for a fun watch, but ultimately it needs something to keep viewers coming back.
Including Josie’s character as an adult does create the possibility to bring ‘Riverdale’ characters in as older versions of themselves, but the series seems to be using that bridge as a crutch rather than an accessory. While the fans will flock in the beginning, the show isn’t quite strong enough to keep them coming.
‘Batwoman’ seems to take the opposite approach as ‘Katy Keene’, where everything goes wrong and the world is gray. The world it takes place in is detailed, and adds a new CW flair to Gotham. What was most refreshing about the series is that rather than causally mentioning that Kate Kane is a lesbian, they instead create a plot line and multiple backstories around it. This can’t be said for many other broadcast projects, making it all the more important.
The writing and acting feels standard for the most part- very dramatic and a little dry. However, the episode is propped up by an incredible performance by Rachel Skarsten who rounds out supervillain Alice (a violent play on Alice in Wonderland) that will keep you watching. While not the best superhero series I’ve seen, ‘Batwoman’ holds its own and provides a reason to come back.
‘Nancy Drew’ is the CW’s strongest pilot this season, and can best be described as Riverdale 2.0. A strong cast and creative team make it one of the best series to be excited for this fall. Kennedy McMann, Leah Lewis, Maddison Jaizani, Tunji Kasim, and Alex Saxon are all fantastic leads and really pull it all together.
What could’ve easily been another boring adaptation of a known story turned out to be a refreshingly modern retelling of the classic detective story. The murder at the center of the first episode is interwoven into a broader supernatural conspiracy, creating an increasingly complicated plot. Beyond that, every main character seems to be a suspect, with no way of knowing who’s really at fault (this is done with a very cleverly edited scene, the highlight of the episode).
While there are times that things seem oversimplified, ‘Nancy Drew’ is best when you suspend your disbelief.
The full cast and crew were present Saturday at the Paley Center to answer questions about the series, and recount their favorite parts about the show.
To begin, the panel was asked if they read the original Nancy Drew books, to which everyone raised their hands. Kennedy McMann (Nancy) said that her childhood love of the detective really helped her prepare for the role, and that she couldn’t be more excited for the project. What also helped the filming process was how cohesive the cast is, with all of the leads saying how close they’ve gotten and how nice everyone is. McMann said of filming scenes with a horrifying ghost she has a storyline with, that the actress she worked with was actually very sweet. She recounted seeing her outside of hair and makeup and saying “Stephanie! You’re so pretty!”. [McMann was talking about Stephanie Van Dyck, who plays Lucy Sable in the series.]
Another major talking point was how ‘Nancy Drew’ differentiates itself from other CW shows. It presents very similarly to Riverdale (as they both star redheaded teens looking to solve a mystery). The creative team explained that since both shows shoot in Vancouver, they had to work really hard to differentiate the two worlds. Riverdale also has a far larger budget to film their show, while a newer show like ‘Nancy Drew’ had to make cutbacks. Writer Melinda Hsu Taylor says that they really wanted a dog, but couldn’t afford one (that money was presumably spent on the rights to Ariana Grande’s ‘7 rings’ that plays later in the pilot).
The cast and team are very proud of how the show turned out, and they’re all excited for fans to see it (the cast has yet to find out who is responsible for the murder, so they’re excited for that as well). Make sure to watch it October 9 exclusively on the CW.
TV Wasteland 