Chick Lit On TV: The Carrie Diaries, Episode 3

Nancy's Discussion of The Carrie Diaries, Episode 3

I love the way his hair swoops onto hers. Adorable!
Oh, Carrie. Snooping around and telling everyone about it will always backfire. In "Read Before Use," Carrie is determined to find out why her dad, Tom, won't let her date Sebastian. Why is Sebastian labeled a bad boy? Carrie's curiosity takes over, which only leads to trouble. Despite the warnings, she hangs out with him anyway. I liked when Carrie and Sebastian listened to music together, sharing headphones. It was a cute scene and even cuter when Sebastian got her headphones of her own. 

Meanwhile, Tom finds out that when he tells women he's a widower, they are instantly attracted to him. But he isn't ready to get romantically involved with anyone, despite his first visit to a singles bar. Dorrit steals a hamster from the pet store, hides it from Tom, then loses it. Nothing too thrilling going on with her story line, but she plays the part of bratty little sister well. Elsewhere, Mouse is preparing for her date with her on/off boyfriend, and Maggie is trying to get over her breakup with Walt. 

Carrie discovers that Sebastian got kicked out of his last school for having "intimate relations" with his art history teacher. This is reminiscent of Pacey's affair with a teacher in Dawson's Creek. I thought it was funny when Carrie asks Sebastian, "Where did you learn to kiss like that?" and he responds, "I had a good teacher." Ha! She freaks out. End of date. But it isn't until the end of the episode that she tells him she looked through her dad's files and found out about his past. Big mistake. Looks like Carrie's romance with Sebastian is over...for now. 

I enjoyed this episode. Like the two episodes before, it was entertaining without being overly dramatic or cheesy. The show has a fun, nostalgic quality with plenty of adorable outfits and great 80s songs.  

I want to hear from you! What do you think of The Carrie Diaries? Love it? Hate it? Let's discuss! Share your reactions in the comments. Thanks!

Chick Lit On TV: The Carrie Diaries, Episode 2

Nancy's Discussion of The Carrie Diaries, Episode 2
Young Carrie Bradshaw is back this week. In "Lie with Me," there's a lot of fibbing going on, as expected from the episode title. Carrie is still juggling her double life. Regular high school kid most days, but on her internship day, she goes to Manhattan for a taste of the glamorous world of fashion, hiding it from her boss and her family. She's also trying to win the affection of new guy/bad boy Sebastian without letting the popular girl get to him first. Luckily for Carrie, Sebastian appears to be totally smitten with her and resists the advances of the other girl. I like Carrie and Sebastian together, and I'm sure it won't be long before they are an official couple, even though her dad forbid her from seeing him. That only makes her want him even more, of course. It was nice to see Carrie and her sister, Dorrit, getting along more, so I was disappointed when Carrie dumped Dorrit at the pool because she invited Sebastian instead. But at least she made it up to her later. They don't have that much of an age difference, so I'd like to see Dorrit included more in Carrie's life and see the two of them become friends, eventually. 

In the city, Carrie risks losing her internship to bring her purse to Larissa so it can be photographed for Interview magazine. Am I the only one who thought it was strange that Carrie left her purse there? She wanted it so badly in the first episode and didn't want to part with it, and then she willingly left it behind. I know the magazine was a big deal to her, but I was still surprised by that. And I have a feeling she won't get it back. Larissa isn't my favorite character. She seems untrustworthy, and I think she's going to get Carrie into trouble soon. But I did love her cell phone. It was gigantic! I remember having a toy phone when I was younger that looked just like that. 

Carrie's friends kicked it up a notch this week. They were way more dynamic than in the pilot. Did anyone else notice Carrie's dad's hair? It was so much longer than last week. There must have been a big gap between when they filmed the pilot and the second episode. Speaking of hair, I love Carrie's hair. It's big and curly and frizzy and wouldn't work for a lot of people, but on her, it's adorable. And the white sweater with the black hearts on it that she wore at the end was my favorite piece of clothing in this episode. 

They noticeably toned down the 80s music. There were a few popular songs, but not nearly as many as the pilot. And did you see the old footage of the city? It was near the beginning. I don't think they had any old clips of Manhattan in the first episode. I read an article that criticized the show for using modern day NY as the scenery for a show set in the 80s. Looks like they sort of corrected that this time around. But the old footage really stood out because it didn't match at all with the rest of the show.

Overall, an entertaining episode. I don't totally see where the show is going. There aren't enough conflicts at this point to really reel people in week after week. The episode ended on a happy, settled note and didn't really make me wonder what will happen next. But I'll tune in next week anyway because I like the characters, and the show has potential. 

I want to hear from you! What do you think of The Carrie Diaries? Love it? Hate it? Let's discuss! Share your reactions in the comments. Thanks!

Chick Lit On TV: The Carrie Diaries, Episode 1

Nancy's Discussion of The Carrie Diaries, Episode 1

The Carrie Diaries, based on the books by Candace Bushnell, premiered on The CW Network last night. I admit that I'm new to the Sex and the City world, so I didn't have any expectations for this series. I haven't read The Carrie Diaries books or Sex and the City, and I've only seen a few episodes of the HBO show. Basically, I have a clean slate for The Carrie Diaries TV show. I've read on other websites and blogs that this prequel doesn't match up with the HBO show, and there are plot holes between the two series. For example, as we saw in the pilot, Carrie has a good relationship with her father, but fans of the HBO show say that adult Carrie mentions that her dad was absent when she was growing up. It seems that the show runners for the Sex and the City series made up their own back story of Carrie's life when needed, and then the author of the book wrote The Carrie Diaries books, and the TV show is based on them. That's why the two series have inconsistencies. That being said, I'm actually glad that I don't know much about Carrie and her life from the books or the previous show because now I won't constantly compare the show to the books or compare the two shows or get annoyed when something is inconsistent. 

Anyway, I enjoyed the first episode. I think the actress who plays Carrie did a great job, and she's really compelling onscreen. This show is like an 80s version of Jane By Design, a show that was on ABC Family last year. That isn't a bad thing. I loved Jane By Design. I also love 80s music, and there was tons of it in The Carrie Diaries. I think they included almost every popular 80s song in this first episode. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but there was a lot of it. I'm not complaining, though. And I love the fashion. The dress Carrie wore during her night out in Manhattan was absolutely adorable! I like her friends, but they were a little bit lackluster. Hopefully, those characters will be developed more in upcoming episodes. And I really like Sebastian, Carrie's potential love interest, but mostly because the actor used to be on Switched at Birth, one of my favorite shows. I think his character on The Carrie Diaries needs to be more dynamic, too. Overall, it was a great pilot, and I'm excited to see what's next. After each new episode airs on Monday nights, I'm going to share my thoughts on Tuesdays, so check back every week. 

I want to hear from you! What do you think of The Carrie Diaries TV show? Love it? Hate it? Let's discuss! Share your reactions in the comments. Thanks!

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