Shari Anne Brill, TVFirstLook
The CW's upcoming Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries, which had its Red Carpet premiere at the just-concluded New York Television Festival, is the coming-of-age-story of Carrie Bradshaw. As a big fan of the original HBO series, I attended the screening with elevated expectations. I was disappointed.
While AnnaSophia Robb is pitch-perfect in her portrayal of the young Carrie, the pilot is crammed with so much information that you may feel like you're watching it on a DVR stuck in fast-forward.
The story opens in suburban Connecticut. It is 1984 and 16-year-old Carrie is coming to terms with the death of her mother three months earlier.
From there, Carrie goes into warp speed.
Carrie returns to high school for a brief scene with her friends, followed by a chance encounter with potential love interest, Sebastian. Minutes later, her dad shows up and arranges for her to get an internship at a law firm in Manhattan.
Suddenly, Carrie is thrust into the big city. She trips, falls and gets a run in her pantyhose. Her supervisor demands that she buy a replacement pair, which sets up a pivotal scene. Carrie meets Larissa, style editor of Interview Magazine. Carrie unwittingly helps Larissa do some shoplifting. Larissa returns the favor by introducing young Carrie to the Manhattan club scene. That's all in one day.
Still, despite The Carrie Diaries' shortcomings, it's not all "too much."
First, young audiences will be introduced to 80s music, big hair and shoulder pads. Second, they will get a feel for what it was like to live life, communicate and manage relationships before the Internet, smartphones, social media and text messages. Third, and best of all, a new generation, who may have been too young to have seen Sex and the City, will have a chance to get to know Carrie Bradshaw.
I attended the world premiere of The Carrie Diaries last week. It kicked off the 2012 New York Television Festival.
The event featured a red carpet arrival of the cast, a screening of the pilot and a panel with author Candace Bushnell, executive producer Amy Harris and star AnnaSophia Robb. To get us all into that 80s vibe, there was a plentiful supply of Diet Coke prequel Tab.
Wow, and all of that happens in the pilot? I'm a hardcore Sex and the City fan too, so I'm not going to keep my expectations for this show too high; especially now after reading what you had to say about it. I will give it a shot though, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for the premiere date as it gets closer. One of the gals I work with at DISH said January is when it’ll be airing, so I’ll make sure to set a timer to my DISH Hopper DVR around that time. A lot of my other favorite shows are coming back in January too, so luckily for me I have 455 hours to work with when recording HD shows to my DVR so I’ll have no problem recording this new series and all of my others at the same time. :)
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