The Carrie Diaries - Season 1 Episode 1 - Premiere - Video Recap and Review - Pilot
The Carrie Diaries - Season 1 Episode 1 - Premiere - Video Recap and Review - Pilot
The series premiere of The Carrie Diaries rocked the CW like a hurricane tonight, and I have to say, it was good! I, for one, approve of AnnaSophia Robb's interpretation of the show's titular star. Sex and the City, it is not. Well, not exactly. It's something new, judging by the pilot episode, which is what I'd hoped for.
The show opened with a teenage Carrie Bradshaw dreaming of Manhattan and prepping for her first day back at school. Having suffered the loss of her mother just a few months prior, school would be a whole new ball of wax this year. Okay, the first major switcheroos from the original series took place within Carrie's family. On Sex and the City, Carrie has a distant mother and way more distant father. I don't think there was ever mention of a punky little sis named Dorrit (Stefania Owen). Still, now that we're dealing with "high school girl" Carrie back in Connecticut, it serves us well to have a bratty younger sibling stirring up trouble without necessarily being hate-worthy.
Carrie had spent the morning rummaging for her mother's purse; a piece of her mom she carried with her always. Dorrit denied stealing. Why hide an old purse when she had weed to stash? Carrie's father, Tom (Matt Letscher) wasn't a deadbeat at all! He offered Carrie access to her mother's shrine of a closet. Carrie had her pick of the litter to replace her signature bag. Well, not exactly. She had her eyes locked on a pretty cool party dress, but her father snatched it away before even letting her try it on. Her mother wore it on her last birthday. You went for the dress, Carrie, but all you got were some kind-of-okay sunglasses. Make do!
The first day back at school was a little rough, but mostly fine for Bradshaw. We were introduced to "The Mouse" (Ellen Wong), Mags (Katie Findlay), and Walt (Brendan Dooling); Carrie's trio of best friends we know she must inevitably replace with the likes of Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha. So sad, too bad! We were also introduced to Donna LaDonna (Chloe Bridges), who was deemed the wicked witch of the 80s before we even heard a word from her. Carrie was upset because she was the only girl who attempted to console her. Apparently, Carrie figured it would up her popularity game to be seen with the girl who lost her mom?
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Time stopped, at least for high school girls, as Sebastian Kydd (Austin Butler) sauntered through the school doors and into the courtyard. The new Kydd in town turned heads... and he's rich! As it turned out, it wasn't the first time he and Carrie had met. Now that Carrie had someone male to gawk at, it was time for girl talk in the library. The Mouse shocked the other two ladies with a revelation that she had lost her virginity to some dude named Seth over the summer. She described losing her virginity like shoving "a hotdog into a keyhole," and suddenly, I felt like I was crashing a high school party as a twenty-something dude. Next, Mags admitted to losing her virginity, presumably to Walt because they're dating. Still, she left things unclear.
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This got Carrie wondering about her own virginity, just before she bumped into Sebastian again. Unlike Donna, Sebastian actually consoled Carrie, offering his condolences and admitting that his own mother had left his family for the tennis coach. Rich people problems. Flashback: The two met while hanging at an indoor pool a while back. He leaned in to kiss her, but she was fifteen and scared, so she pushed him into the pool. After a decent splash fight, Carrie's first kiss actually did happen. Sadly, Sebastian's rich parents decided to start work on their own backyard swimming pool, and Carrie hadn't seen him since. Back in the present (the 80s present, not today today), Carrie and Sebastian walked through the halls together. She intended on asking him to some dance, but her father showed up and sent her into a tizzy. The last time her dad roamed the halls of her high school, her mom had died. *passes out*
Carrie awoke to the truth about her dad's visit. He was meeting with her guidance counselor to set up an internship at his friend's law firm in... Manhattan! An overjoyed Carrie could barely wait to go home and plan an outfit. Still, she needed that purse! A little digging in Dorrit's room, and Carrie found herself tearing through the back of an oversized teddybear. There it was, her mother's purse. Dorrit had already ruined the thing by spilling nail polish all over it. Carrie gets everything, and Dorrit didn't even get to have her mom at her future sweet sixteen. Eh, I'm still wondering where she got weed. Discouraged but not defeated, Carrie hit on her first spark of fashion expertise when she "Jackson Pollock-ed" the destroyed bag into a nail-polished statement, complete with the name "Carrie" scribed across the side.
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Carrie's first day in Manhattan went by in a flash! The stereotypically harsh folks of NYC barely wasted a minute of Carrie's time before they'd knocked her onto the sidewalk. Already, a tear in the tights of her day. I mean, literally, she tore her tights straight out of the taxi. I don't think Carrie spent even a moment working in that smelly old law firm before heading over to Century 21 and searching for a new pair of tights at her boss's request. By the way, the street style of 1984 Manhattan looks a lot like downtown NYC in the present. Cheap interns!
Carrie's heaven is Century 21. After a millisecond of checking out some dresses, this swanky she-beast, Larissa (Freema Agyeman) was clawing at Carrie's signature purse in a frenzy. She was attempting to fawn, but Carrie was quick to knock her back with a swift push. Thief! Not really, Larissa works for Interview Magazine and was looking to photograph Carrie's work. After a little bonding time in the dressing room, and enlisting Carrie as an accomplice to help her steal a dress, Larissa invited her new protege to a super-cool New York City party! Would Carrie choose between showing up at her run-of-the-mill high school dance or sneaking out to a new club in Manhattan? Carrie called The Mouse from work and gushed about the experience. The Mouse had her own news; Sebastian called for Carrie's number! Larissa sent over a designer dress, a dress she swore wasn't stolen, to match Carrie's purse, and that sealed the deal. Sorry, Sebastian! Carrie hailed a cab, and that was that.
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To be frank, the party was poppin'! Carrie rubbed elbows with fashion designers, sipped champagne from the bottle, danced with her first gays, etc. It was the time of her life, and curfew wasn't a thought in her curly little noggin. Still, she made a mad dash for the train after bidding Larissa a fond farewell! Something isn't sitting right with me with regard to Larissa. I think something's up. She "collects people." Yeesh.
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Walt picked Carrie up from the train after the dance had finished. He's already my favorite friend of hers; a non-token closeted gay guy as Carrie's first best friend makes sense, yet it's something different from Sex and the City. Plus, his idol/ crush is Rob Lowe. In the parking lot, the pair ran into Sebastian and Donna smoking up in his car. I have to say, I wasn't mad at Sebastian for hanging out with another girl after Carrie totally ditched, and I wasn't mad at Donna either. They'll probably write her to be increasingly intolerable, but so far, she's fine and kind of funny. Am I right?
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Austin Butler (Sebastian) kind of looks like Chord Overstreet had Willy Wonka's magic taffy puller stretched him a little vertically.
Back at the Bradshaw ranch, Carrie spotted cop cars and assumed her father had phoned them over for her. In truth, Dorrit had snuck out. Dorrit's plot arch is that she's being rebellious to be rebellious. The next morning, Dorrit rolled home, half in the bag, and without much explanation. Carrie tried playing mom, but failed, leading to a pep talk from her dad. Her dad decided that he would now attempt at playing both parental roles, even if it meant admitting that Carrie's mother had died.
Cue a different kind of closet/dress-up montage. *sad 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'* The trio, Dorrit included, cleaned out their mother's closet. Her father offered Carrie the party dress she'd wanted for school, only to watch Carrie pass it down to Dorrit. Her mother liked Dorrit in green. Green as the grass, right? Dorrit wasted no time wearing that thing, seriously. She wore it to clean out the rest of the stuff!
The Mouse's boyfriend Seth was no longer returning her calls. Mags allegedly lost her v-card to a police officer behind Walt's back. Walt ended the episode while pawing sadly through his Rob Lowe magazine. Lastly, Sebastian showed up to surprise Carrie at their old old stomping ground; the indoor pool. *cannon ball*
The premiere episode closed with Carrie finding some blank journals of her mother's, to which her father gave her. We got our first glimpse of Carrie Bradshaw scribbling in her bedroom window.
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What did you all think of The Carrie Diaries pilot? Are you sticking around for the rest of season 1? Even though it's very different than Sex and the City, are you enjoying this interpretation? How do you think AnnaSophia Robb is doing so far as Carrie?