Admit it: You’re still reeling from the loss of your weekly encounters with the Upper East Side queen bee’s from Gossip Girl. (Or is that just me?) Their scheming and scandalous ways made us all crave a taste of the luxurious and exhilarating city lifestyle; and in a world where most television dramas are based in California,Gossip Girl offered viewers something different: a look at life in the city that never sleeps. Blair Waldorf may have gone on to marry the man of her dreams and retired her queen bee ways, but one fashionista has been conquering the city streets long before the Constance Billiard girls made their mark. Take it back to Sex and the City. The HBO hit has since come to a close and released two major motion pictures, but the story of Carrie Bradshaw is far from over.
Enter: The Carrie Diaries. The new CW show, starring AnnaSophia Robb, follows the life of a young Carrie Bradshaw, who, at 15, resides in the suburbs and knows little about the world she will soon enter. Young Carrie is naive– far from the woman she goes onto become in her adult years. She has just lost her mother and is dealing with both her clueless father trying to make sense of his new and unexpected transition into single-parenthood and rebellious younger sister, Dorrit. Within the first 5 minutes, Carrie is already at odds with her younger sis, having just found a stash of pot in her dresser.
Carrie’s school life isn’t exactly glamorous, either. Unlike Sex and the City, she isn’t part of the elite social crowd; instead, she has a small group of comrades, made up of best friends Jill Thompson- a seemingly innocent girl who later reveals she’s not as pure as everyone thinks, Maggie- the more daring one of the bunch, and Walt Reynolds, Maggie’s boyfriend– for now. Her two best gals have a fascination with losing their virginity, something both of them have just recently accomplished, to Carrie’s surprise. Jill lost it to a guy she met over the summer, and Maggie gave herself to… well, not Walt. Meanwhile, Carrie hasn’t even had her first kiss… until she meets Sebastian Kydd.
Though not a part of Carrie’s close circle of friends, Sebastian has managed to capture the attention of young Bradshaw. He’s new to town and has his eye on the protagonist. He even goes out of his way to go swimming with her at the school pool, the same place where he and Carrie share her first kiss. Ah, young love. Things between the two seem to be headed in the right direction, which of course means something or someone will find a way to ruin it– in this case, it’s someone: Donna LaDonna; Carrie’s nemesis and most popular girl in school.
In an attempt to provide Carrie with a change of scenery, her father offers her the opportunity of her young lifetime: an internship in Manhattan. Granted, the internship is at a law firm, but to Carrie, this is enough. Though the journey to her “new life” kicks off with yet another battle with Dorrit– over the younger sister hiding and subsequently ruining their mother’s beloved old purse– things start to look up when Carrie channels her energy into turning the situation into a positive one. Digging into her creative juices, she manages to turn the purse into a work of art, complete with a colorful, splattered paint look and trademarked with her signature, as shown below.
When it comes time to take on Manhattan, Carrie quickly realizes her internship is nothing but a boring desk job where at most she’ll be doing some organization, filing, and certainly NOT making any personal phone calls… and where she’s ordered to buy new stockings, pronto. Her trip to the department store turns out to be a blessing in disguise. There, she meets Larissa, a style editor at Interview Magazine who Carrie originally thinks is trying to steal her bag. Definitely not the case. Larissa just loves her bag; but does manage to steal an entire brand new outfit from the store just for the thrill of it with the help of wide-eyed Carrie. Larissa likes Carrie’s style and invites her to a party that evening; the same evening as the school dance that Sebastian just so happens to want to meet up with Carrie at. Young Bradshaw suddenly had a decision to make: attend the high school dance with her new crush, or explore the city nightlife with her new, sophisticated and seasoned acquaintance? Carrie, in true Bradshaw fashion, rightfully chooses a night out on the town.
Her first night in the city is filled with new experiences. She meets a whole new crowd, drinks champagne and dances the night away with her new friends, two of which are the first gay couple she’s ever encountered. Talk about green. When she admits this to the guys, they assure her they are not the first gay people she’s ever met and that she certainly knows someone who in her life who is gay, but just has yet to confess it to her (Walt!) The clock strikes 12 and Cinderella rushes home on the last train into the suburbs.
No longer the sophisticated character she pretended to be in the city, Carrie is hit with a dose of reality when she catches Sebastian getting cozy in the car with Donna LaDonna. The new, confident Carrie chooses to brush this off and walks home with Walt, only to find a crowd of policemen surrounding her home informing her that Dorrit has run away. Frantic, Carrie and her father await the arrival of troublesome Dorrit who shows little remorse when she stomps into the house, carelessly stating that she was “with friends”. Carrie finally releases her pent-up anger on her little sis; an outburst that goes on to bring the family closer and forces them to face the devastating truth that their mother is truly gone. They sift through their mother’s belongings in unison as a symbol of their new lives together.
As expected, the drama doesn’t end there. Jill is heartbroken after finding out that the guy she lost her virginity to is now ignoring her relentless phone calls, Maggie is revealed to have been cheating on Walt with a local police officer who “hopes her dad doesn’t find out”, and we find out that Walt is, indeed, secretly gay. Sebastian manages to patch things up with Carrie after meeting up with her at the school pool and engaging in a water splashing battle. Predictably, Donna LaDonna’s minions watch the entire flirtatious moment unfold and vengefully announce to each other that Donna will NOT be happy about this!
Talk about DRA-MA!
The Carrie Diaries turned out to be surprisingly intriguing. It’s a nice change from the current CW shows- none of which currently deal with a coming-of-age story quite like Carrie’s. Whether or not The Carrie Diaries will reap the same success of Sex and the City is still unknown, but I have high hopes that this series can go just as far with a new generation of budding fashionistas.
The Carrie Diaries airs Monday at 8pm EST on the CW.
No comments:
Post a Comment