Sometimes a Good Notion

The Carrie Diaries

Sex and the City, which ran from 1998 to 2004, coincided perfectly with the years I spent living in the New York City area. It introduced us to cosmos and hinted at the burgeoning renaissance happening in the meat packing district. It was a show we would talk about and gathered to watch every Sunday at Urge in the lower east side. Sex and the City however only stands up in the moment. As you watch it now, the puns are cringe worthy and the material shallow which is why the film versions have failed. But in the moment it was timely, or perhaps it was the vodka fused glasses through which I watched it. In either case, when I heard that they were creating a prequel to Sex and the City I was intrigued. When I heard it would be on the CW, I was less so.

The CW came to be in 2006, and with the exception of the first few seasons of America’s Next Top Model (I know you watched it too! Don’t lie!), there has not been a single bit of programming on the network that has appealed to me. They have however targeted teenage girls successfully and niched their network to appeal to that market. Needless to say, my expectations for The Carrie Diaries, the SatC prequel, were pretty low. In fact I considered passing it over all together, but then boredom hit one Saturday afternoon.

What I found was actually surprising. The show, as expected, is teenage melodrama. But it is candid and strives to be truthful in its representations of teenage love, sex, insecurities, and relationships. The similarities with its predecessor are few. It’s the story of a young Carrie Bradshaw, as in SatC, she has four friends; narrates each episode bringing the theme to light; and she loves New York, at least the one she dreams of. But the similarities stop there, and this is a good thing. What I liked most about The Carrie Diaries is that it tries and succeeds to be itself.

The show introduces us to Carrie, a high school student in suburban Connecticut during the last days of summer. It isn’t an ordinary summer however, Carrie’s mother has just passed away and the Bradshaws must learn how to relate to each other after the loss. Carrie’s sister, desperate for a role model, is rebelling. Carrie’s father has no clue how to deal with two teenage girls. And Carrie feels responsible for everything. Like I said before, it’s teenage melodrama, but it is handled subtly and never struck me as overbearing.

As the school year starts, the show shifts to the gears it will grind for the majority of the season. The gaggle of friends who will help Carrie muddle her way through High School; the gorgeous Sebastian who is totally wrong for Carrie yet she can’t help herself; and the competition, Donna LaDonna, played devilishly by Chloe Bridges (above). The pilot sets up story lines for each of the characters and there is potential for interesting drama though nothing ground breaking despite the open use of marijuana and a closeted gay character.

The story book is straight out John Hughes and the production here throws us back to the days when Molly Ringwald ruled the screen. Everything from the costumes, the music, set design, and the wonderfully dated stock footage of New York City, strike the right note. These 80’s are not glamorized but rather pedestrian and it helps with the overall tone of the show. And therein lies main difference between Sex and the City and The Carrie Diaries. Sex was aspirational; it presented us a world where everyone had money, drank sweet lush drinks, lived in hi-rises, and used the word fabulous freely. The Carrie Diaries strikes us as ordinary; there is nothing fabulous about these characters or their problems. Perhaps in making everything far more approachable, the producers will be able to strike far more honestly at the heart of their viewers than say a Gossip Girl ever could. It’s certainly worth a watch.