The Carrie Diaries - General Discussion

[ElectricBoogaloo]

AnnaSophia Robb in a faux trailer for Sophia Coppola's version of The Little Mermaid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfHFEgxs9lY

 

Trying to keep my hopes up for this show being renewed! There was news a few months ago that Katie Findlay (who plays Maggie) signed on for a Shonda Rhimes pilot but that didn't bother me since Carrie was supposed to be leaving Castlebury anyway. Chloe Bridges (Donna LaDonna) will be a recurring character on Pretty Little Liars but again, not exactly a reason to panic since Carrie didn't seem likely to return to Connecticut in S3.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Carrie Diaries officially canceled

[Bella]

Sad news indeed.

 

It may not be sufficient comfort for fans of The Carrie Diaries, but the Sex and the City forum will be having a rewatch of Season One this summer. http://forums.previously.tv/topic/6374-rewatch-announcement-season-1-starting-monday-june-9/

 

Please come over and join us. Your insight from watching this show will be appreciated.

[LemonSoda]

Bummer. I actually liked this show.

[apgold]

I did too. Sadly it never got the audience of SATC to watch it.

 

Maybe if the show started with Carrie moving to the city and not her suburban vs. city life split, it might've done better.   I really liked the character of Walt (his coming out was one of the most interesting storylines) and young Samantha.  Could've done w/o Mouse, and some of the dad storylines, but there was enough charm to make me watch and ASR was a perfectly cast young Carrie.

Edited June 3, 2014 by apgold

[FAU]

I did too. Sadly it never got the audience of SATC to watch it.

 

Maybe if the show started with Carrie moving to the city and not her suburban vs. city life split, it might've done better.   I really liked the character of Walt (his coming out was one of the most interesting storylines) and young Samantha.  Could've done w/o Mouse, and some of the dad storylines, but there was enough charm to make me watch and ASR was a perfectly cast young Carrie.

 

Exactly, there was no reason to see young Carrie in a typical high school teen drama, especially since her character already felt radically different enough.

[KarenClassic]

Season 2 of The Carrie Diaries was released on Netflix over the weekend.  I enjoyed watching the first part of the second season.  Some of the cheeky references to how things will actually change- I can do without but it's a fun Netflix watch. 

[millennium]

I just noticed this show is on Netflix.   I'm bingeing it because there's nothing else to watch.   I'm five episodes in.   Good soundtrack.   The problem I have is the huge disconnect between this sweet, likeable, sensitive girl and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City, who is probably one of the most despised women in series television (Google "hate Carrie Bradshaw").   What happened?

[Carrie Ann]

I just noticed this show is on Netflix.   I'm bingeing it because there's nothing else to watch.   I'm five episodes in.   Good soundtrack.   The problem I have is the huge disconnect between this sweet, likeable, sensitive girl and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City, who is probably one of the most despised women in series television (Google "hate Carrie Bradshaw").   What happened?

 

I had the same feelings and ultimately I decided to just treat it like a comic book character. Like, this is a different Carrie Bradshaw story. It's not really the origin story of the SATC Carrie, because that would be too depressing. Not just the personality changes, but the fact that all these sweet people apparently just completely disappeared from her life. So in this version of the story, Carrie has a chance to find and hold onto happiness in a relationship, as well as her relationships with her family members and friends from all parts of her life. Hurray!

[ByTor]

I'm with millennium and Carrie Ann on this, teen & adult Carrie were too completely different for this to be seen as a prequel.  I looked at "Carrie Diaries" as if it were a show about a girl from CT who loved writing and NYC and who also coincidentally had the same name as the SaTC character.

Edited June 10, 2015 by ByTor

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I agree that keeping the two versions of Carrie as separate characters makes more sense in my head. Often when I watched young sweet Carrie on this show, I would think of SATC Carrie and wonder, "Gawd, what happened to high school Carrie that turned her into SATC Carrie?" And I know that people drift apart when they move away after high school but it seems crazy to me that Carrie wouldn't have been in touch with at least one of her high school BFFs.

[ByTor]

I know that people drift apart when they move away after high school but it seems crazy to me that Carrie wouldn't have been in touch with at least one of her high school BFFs.

Or at the very least her sister.

[millennium]

Or at the very least her sister.

 

Especially when she gets it in her head to move to Paris, or when she was at desperate lows in her relationships.  You'd think she would have called Dorrit at least.    Obviously the sister wasn't invented at the time of SATC, but considered in retrospect, in the context of The Carrie Diaries, Carrie's later life seems even more empty, shallow and self-absorbed.   It's not so hard to imagine that older Carrie was so focused on her own quest for fulfillment that she simply forgot she had family and old friends.

 

Maybe if the series had continued the writers would have killed off Dad and Sis in a car accident, to explain their later absence.

[ByTor]

Maybe if the series had continued the writers would have killed off Dad and Sis in a car accident, to explain their later absence.

I thought the same thing.  Otherwise what's the point of introducing a sister whose existence was never spoken of?

[Carrie Ann]

Exactly. Any way you try to explain the disappearance of TCD Carrie's friends and family--not to mention her self-esteem and self-awareness--in order to make it fit with SATC Carrie, it just turns the TCD story into a tragedy. The rest of her family members have to die. She has to become estranged from Mouse, Walt, Maggie, Larissa, Sebastian, even Donna--everyone but Samantha. She has to become so destroyed by the process of living through her 20s that she loses all sense of self and becomes the waffly, self-centered, impressionable Carrie of SATC. No, I will not accept that. This Carrie goes on to live a much fuller, happier life, and that's that!

Edited June 12, 2015 by Carrie Ann

[millennium]

The sad part is, Candace Bushnell probably could have created a freshcharacter, even with Carrie-esque circumstances, and still sold the series.

 

I don't understand the logic of making it about Carrie Bradshaw.    The target audience appears to be teenagers.   I'm guessing the average CW teenager isn't steeped in chapter and verse of SATC -- if they know it at all.    (No way would any teenager of mine watch SATC with my knowledge.)

 

So what was gained by making it about Carrie?   Even the opening is weird ... "Before there was sex ..."   Coming from the mouth of young Carrie, it's ... skeevy.

[millennium]

Just finished the two seasons.  I'd give it a B+ for being light, entertaining, and self-contained.   All of the characters were likeable and it had one of those rare final episodes that wrapped up all the different storylines (I suspect they knew the show wouldn't be renewed).

 

I still find myself unable to draw a connection between this series and Sex and the City (despite that young Samantha did a great job of evoking Kim Cattrall's older character).    Which is perhaps a good thing.

[Aryanna]

Hey, does anyone still read this forum?

I loved this show. I've been thinking about re-watching it again on Netflix. 

[LemonSoda]

On 4/30/2019 at 7:54 PM, Aryanna said:

Hey, does anyone still read this forum?

I loved this show. I've been thinking about re-watching it again on Netflix. 

I'm home sick so I'm re-watching. I'm still sad this show never got the audience it deserved. 

I know the biggest complaint was the huge differences between the Carries but that's due to the huge differences between the real CB and the Carrie Bradshaw created by Michael Patrick King and SJP. 

The friendships storyline didn't bother me because of my own life experiences. So many of my I thought we'd be life long friends from school, university or even from my early years in the city the it's us surviving this place together friends dwindled over time. People grow apart, they move and become memories. Maybe a Christmas or birthday card, a phone call or now text or email. 

SATC Carrie wasnt very developed as a character. I can't see her going out of her way to keep in touch with anyone. 

[Aryanna]

I didn't watch SATC on it's first run and have only seen reruns here and there so the difference in Carries didn't bother me at all. I know it was a big deal to some, but not me. After going back and watching some SATC, I actually like TCD Carrie better than the SATC Carrie. She seemed more thoughtful and rounded as a character than the SATC Carrie.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Katie Findlay, who played Maggie, has a recurring role on the new Nancy Drew series. She plays the girlfriend of one of the main characters.