The 'Pilot' episode of 'The Carrie Diaries' has finally arrived, I've been prepping for this show for a while now. A couple of months ago, I bought the first 'The Carrie Diaries' book but I didn't read it until December. At the same time I also watched the original 'Sex and the City' series including the two movies and I fell in love with Carrie Bradshaw. She's a woman that we can all relate to, a lover, a writer and an icon. Therefore, 'The Carrie Diaries' has some pretty big Manolo Blahnik's to fill. I felt that the first episode was done very well, there were a lot of storylines that I already knew about just from The CW promos and that left me wanting a little bit more from this episode. Although, it was just the pilot and it was still a pretty strong episode. So let's begin, it's 1984 and we start with Carrie having a dream about being in New York City but she then wakes up to find that the purse her mother left her is missing, so she goes to confront her younger sister, Dorrit. I really liked this opening because it felt like I was watching a movie. Anyway, Dorrit claims that she never took no purse so Carrie starts looking around anyway and she finds pot stashed in a drawer. This then leads to a physical fight between the sisters which Carrie's father has to break up. Carrie and the rest of her family are still reeling from her mother's death so there are very tender, soft moments in this episode. It's really nice to have those kind of moments, there needs to be more shows like that. Additionally, I think that AnnaSophia Robb is great, especially in those scenes and I really enjoy her as Carrie. To help Carrie feel better about the purse, her father allows her to wear her mother's sunglasses to school. At school, Carrie runs into her frenemie, Donna LaDonna but Carrie can't get away fast enough. She then meets her real friends The Mouse, Maggie and Walt (Maggie's boyfriend) who tell her that there's a new guy at school, Sebastian Kydd. As I've read the books, I know about Carrie and Sebastian's storyline which makes me have mixed feelings about him. However, the producers could change all that in the show but he doesn't seem too different than his book alter ego. It doesn't seem like the new guy is too new though, this is obvious as Sebastian walks right up to Carrie and starts talking about her mom. Maggie and The Mouse are instantly curious so the girls have a very 'Sex and the City' dish session in the school's library. Carrie tells them that she and Sebastian met last Summer at swim club. Then The Mouse admits that she met someone over the Summer named Seth and they had sex. Maggie also tells them that she had sex but it seems like she didn't have it with Walt. This leaves Carrie as the last virgin, a very big contrast to 'Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw. Outside, Carrie finds Sebastian sitting alone so she decides to talk to him. Flashback to last Summer: Sebastian and Carrie are at the swim club and he almost kisses her but she pushes him into the water and they end up kissing anyway. He then drops the bomb about his parents building a pool at his house, meaning they won't see each other again. Back in the present, Carrie builds up the courage to ask Sebastian to the school dance but her father arrives at school. The last time her father came to school, it was to tell her about her mother so out of fear Carrie faints before she gets the chance to ask Sebastian to the dance.
When Carrie wakes up, her father tells her that he has gotten her an internship at a law firm one day a week in Manhattan. She is of course excited but she wants her mother's purse for the job so she goes to ask Dorrit for it again. Although like last time, Dorrit denies having the purse so Carrie searches Dorrit's room anyway. She finds it hidden in a stuffed bear but nail polish has gotten all over the it and ruined the purse. At first Carrie is mad but Dorrit tells her how sad she is that Carrie got so much extra time with their mother so she starts to feel a little bad. Dorrit is a weird and she gets upset with Carrie all over again. But I don't think Carrie cares, she just makes her mother's ruined purse into a work of art. She gets all her nail polish out and starts painting the purse with it and it looks pretty good.
It's now time for Carrie to meet Manhattan, I feel like Carrie in the city is much more fun then Carrie in the suburbs. She arrives at her first day on the job with a ripped pair of stockings so things are starting off good. At lunchtime (my favorite time), Carrie goes to Century 21 to get some new stockings because wearing no stockings would be unprofessional, according to her new boss lady. While looking around, a crazy British woman named Larissa grabs Carrie's purse because she wants to shoot it for Interview Magazine. Larissa and Carrie get to know each other in the dressing rooms and then Carrie helps Larissa commit a crime. Larissa doesn't pay for the dress she's wearing so she has Carrie walk out of the store at the same time, this makes the security guard check Carrie's bag and Larissa is grateful towards her new friend so she invites Carrie clubbing. Back at the law firm, The Mouse calls Carrie to tell her that Sebastian called for Carrie's number (by the way, Mouse's phone is a Mickey Mouse phone, I thought that was cute). Carrie calls her house to see if any messages were left for her but we see Dorrit disconnect the phone and then sneak out. Back at work, a dress from Larissa is delivered, Carrie's boss lady is horrified by this dress but me and Carrie think it's beautiful, thank you! Anyway, the boss lady promised Carrie's dad that she would take Carrie to the train station after work but boss lady has to cut out early and lets Carrie make her own way to the train. Carrie now has a dilemma, should she go to the school dance and meet Sebastian or go out clubbing with Larissa?
What version of Carrie Bradshaw would choose a school dance over a trendy Manhattan club? That's right, none, not even the teen Bradshaw. But back at the dance, Maggie is drunk already and Donna LaDonna has her claws all over Sebastian. Also, The Mouse is having a pretty crappy night when she can't get Seth on the phone. In the city, Carrie meets a gay couple that might trigger her to question a friend's sexuality later in the series. But for now, it's midnight and Carrie Bradshaw has to return home before she gets turned into a very blonde, curly pumpkin. Walt meets Carrie to walk her home from the train station and they see Donna and Sebastian lighting up in his car. This scene shows us the stronger, more lively Carrie Bradshaw that we all know and love from the original series. Then Walt talks about how he and Maggie haven't had sex. But then who did Maggie have sex with? Also, he tells Carrie that Maggie might not be 'the one' for him. When Carrie finally gets home, she finds out that Dorrit is missing.
A drunk Dorrit arrives home the next morning and Carrie loses it. She starts yelling at Dorrit about how annoying she is, basically. I hope Dorrit dies later in the series, not that I hate her or anything, I just think that it would be a good storyline and it would explain why Carrie has never mentioned a sister in 'Sex and the City'. After Carrie's outburst her father tells her that she reminds him a lot of her mother and he's going to start being a better parental figure. Later, The Mouse comes to talk about how Seth never called her back and Carrie gives her some relationship advice. This scene was great because it reminded me so much of 'Sex and the City' and Carrie acted just like her adult self. Another amazing scene followed this with the Bradshaw sisters and their father going through their mother's closet. Meanwhile, The Mouse laments about Seth, we see a distressed Walt looking at some images of half naked men and Maggie hooks up with a young cop (might this be who Mags lost her virginity to?) Then Sebastian and Carrie hang out at the pool with Donna's Diet Coke-head (woo hoo, I just made an 80's reference) friends watching them. The episode ends with Carrie writing in a journal and the audience watching from outside her window, much like how many 'Sex and the City' episodes ended. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't write many notes while watching this episode because I really wanted to get a feel for it. I feel like wanted more from this episode because I already knew all the storylines, but if we take that out of the mix then I can say that I really did enjoy the episode. The music was great, I loved the Manhattan storylines, I thought AnnaSophia Robb can play a good Carrie and the tender moments were my favorite, I look forward to more of that. I feel like I'll love all the other episodes more because I won't really know what's going on but like I said, this was still a great episode. It leaves me wanting more which is the point and it was really well written. Lastly, my favorite scene was the montage with 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by Greg Lazwell playing in the background.
Overall episode score:-
'Pilot' = A
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