The Carrie Diaries series premiere review: Innocence and the city

The CW has, from the looks of it, been trying to recapture that good ol’ WB heartwarmth (like Life UneXpected) but has always been sidetracked by shocking plot twists (90210) and finding that fast genre series may be their calling (Arrow). Well, it may have finally found a good combination, sans genre series. I’m sorry that I have to say this, but… The Carrie Diaries pilot was actually really solid, if not completely well done. I must first admit that I don’t feel any sort of loyalty to the original Sex and the City series, so it’s not as if I’m watching the sweet AnnaSophia walk around wondering how she ends up to be the cigarette-smoking, sort-of-lost adult she eventually becomes. If that’s how you feel about the series, then yeah, maybe you might want to rethink it. But for anyone else, The Carrie Diaries stands on its own merits.

At its peak, The Carrie Diaries is a show that exudes warmth and heart quite well. And at other times, it’s a show about The Big City and fairytales. This being the first episode, it’s difficult to ascertain whether or not it will be able to transition between both of those worlds fluidly, continuously. Given the CW’s core demographic, no one really knew if the network could pull off a period piece. That said, there’s an easiness to the show all due to the fact that it takes place in the 1980s — full of nostalgia (even if you weren’t born in the ’80s) and wonderment that you otherwise couldn’t get with a present-day show. For that reason alone, TCD may skate by a lot on whimsy alone. The problem? Well, there really isn’t one, because it sells it all quite well in the pilot episode.

The pilot episode has so many aspects to present — friendship, family, loss, wonderment, love, and sex… and sexuality — that in less capable hands it could have fallen apart. But Amy B. Harris reels it all in well that by the time Mouse is crying on Carrie’s shoulder, the chemistry between the cast is palpable. Therein lies one of the reasons Carrie Diaries is unique for a CW vehicle: substance. This being a show with former Gossip Girl exec producers, it’s no one’s fault if they think the show could dovetail into an abyss of OMG moments. But that’s not happening on Carrie Diaries. There’s no other way to say it: what Carrie Diaries wants to execute, it does it well.

In fact, I almost felt as though, having watched the entire pilot, I’ve watched all of TCD that I need and got complete closure.

I’m not the target demographic here, but I think The CW may have found a series that truly fits its brand… while still coming a bit from left field. A year or so ago when I reviewed the first few episodes of Hart of Dixie, I thought the same: that show was fine for whatever the demographic was. Here, The Carrie Diaries is more than just fine, it’s enjoyable. It bundles realism and escapism while keeping gravitas. I may or may not be back just to watch a couple of more episodes and get what the show is (but thereafter, I probably won’t watch… it’s not my kind of show)… but more importantly, for whomever the show is, I think that audience may already be hooked.