The Carrie Diaries

Totally a guilty pleasure, but overall I enjoyed the show and specially the characters.

The show begins in 1984. Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) is a 16 year old high school student in Castlebury, Connecticut. Her dad (Matt Letscher) is left alone with her and her little sister Dorrit (Stefania Owen) after the death of her mother. Sebastian (Austin Butler) is the new pretty boy with the troubled past. Her best friends Maggie (Katie Findlay) and Walt Reynolds (Brendan Dooling) are dating except she's sleeping with an older man and he's gay. Her other friends are the smart Mouse (Ellen Wong) and nemesis-turn-friend Donna LaDonna (Chloe Bridges). She tries to have a life in Manhattan with an internship at a law office which she quits for one at Interview magazine for her flaky boss Larissa (Freema Agyeman). In the second year, she meets wild Samantha Jones (Lindsey Gort).

This show received lots of heat for not being a strict prequel to 'Sex and the City'. The tone is definitely a run-of-the-mill high school drama. It's pretty tame and unimpressive. I don't really care if it doesn't connect all the dots with SatC. However if the name isn't there, this is a very bland show. ASR is a very impressive young actress doing a solid job. Katie Findlay could be the next breakout star. She has a great story at the end of the first season. In fact, that was the only high point of the show. The rest is a passable affair.

Two negative reviews to one positive. Time to check in. I had an odd schizophrenic feeling (intrigued by the romance, but put off by the neurotic woman stuff) about Parker's Carrie and never really got into it. So I was biased going into Diaries.

The pilot played twice tonight back to back and I started a recording on the first hour not sure if it was a two-hour pilot or an immediate repeat. I had reception problems so bailed out and was going to abandon my interest but just watched the second playing in real time as long as it was there. I was captivated almost immediately.

For one thing, I think AnnaSophia is cute as the dickens as well as a compelling actor having just seen her in Bridge to Tarabitha. But beyond that, I thought Diaries was even truer to the Sex in the City theme than the original, if that makes any sense. There's something about the innocence of an origin back story that's more interesting than the ongoing series of contrived situations that all seem the same from week to week. The acting in general is easy and realistic without all the jargon and cultural quirks of much of today's TV.

Prime time television dramas and situation comedies generally tend to all have the same smell to me like dumpsters and garbage trucks have no matter what people throw away. Diaries seems fresh to me. I may well lose interest somewhere into the series, but I am going to put this on my recording schedule and look forward to a new addition to my core viewing listing.

Watched the pilot last night out of curiosity when I saw that the wonderful AnnaSophia Robb was starring as the young Carrie. I liked it.

I'm from New York, raised in Brooklyn, and when I was a teenager I started taking the subway into the City (Manhattan) on weekends, going to movies, matinees of Broadway/Off-Broadway plays, restaurants, stores, etc., and the exposure to such a huge, unlimited-opportunities place made me fall in love with it immediately. So I can relate to the way the show depicts the young Carrie's joyful reactions to discovering this vast and infinitely seductive new world.

AnnaSophia is an incredible actor; she's elevated everything I've seen her in by her mere presence and she most definitely does the same with this project. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I'll definitely continue watching just for her alone.

(PS: I've decided to not think of the show as a prequel to Sex and the City - and it IS Sex AND the City, not Sex IN the City - but rather to see it as a separate character for the most part; that way all the comparisons to SJP are avoided and I can simply enjoy it for the charming offering it looks like it's going to be.)

This is a very weird show, as it is very "little girly" with the cute voice over, etc. Yet, there are some pretty racy type things..which is fine if you are older and watching this. But then, if you are going to cater to both young and older audience, then give us some real nostalgic authenticity. Because as a person who was this age in the 80's, there is nothing even remotely fun about watching the show from that viewpoint either. The props are not that accurate, the clothes are not accurate, the phrases are not accurate.. who used the phrase "drama queen" in the 80's? That came much later. So it isn't even fun to watch for nostalgia. I am a few episodes in, and haven't once thought "oh wow, I remember that!" The music is okay, but they could choose better moments with that too.. it just seems like the production crew isn't really in touch with this era.. at all. And the show doesn't really seem appropriate for young girls, so I really don't see where this is going. Hopefully they figure it out later.