Set in the late ’80s at the peak of Madonna’s reign of the music business,The Carrie DiariesstarredAnnaSophia Robbas a teenage version of the unforgettable Carrie Bradshaw, as she finishes high school alongside her childhood friends and begins to take her first steps into the big, scary world — namely, New York City. Although the series didn’t exactly line up with the books or the wildly popularSex and the City, like with the creation of Carrie’s sister Dorrit (Stefania LaVie Owen) or Carrie losing her virginity to Weaver (Chris Wood), the series did a wonderful job at honoring what came before while establishing itself as something in its own right. With all the controversy and blow back that HBO Max’sAnd Just Like That…is receiving, it seems like a great time to revisit the canceled-too-soonTheCarrie Diaries, and why this is the spin-off that should’ve been given a chance to shine.
There was a lot to love aboutThe Carrie Diaries, from Robb’s perfect encapsulation of Carrie Bradshaw to the delightfully wonderful and/or zany people that made up her close-knit group of family and friends — looking at you, Larissa (Freema Agyeman). Considering where Season 2 left off, it’s clear that the show was finally about to blossom had it been renewed.
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In theCarrie DiariesSeason 2 (a.k.a. the series) finale, Carrie’s life begins blowing up. As she and her friends are graduating, she deals with her plan to attend NYU later that year falling through. Larissa has also been fired from Interview Magazine and the position Carrie has been offered is gone, effectively ruining Carrie’s plan to work full-time instead of attending college. Unsure of where her life is headed as she walks out of her high school one final time, she later turns Sebastian (Austin Butler) down on his offer for her to accompany him to California as he starts a business. Then, Larissa unknowing slips that Carrie lost her job, cementing a decision that her father Tom (Matt Letscher) has been mulling over: Carrie will no longer be allowed home. In the end, Carrie makes the hard decision to stay in New York City with Samantha (Lindsey Gort) and pursue her writing career while working as a waitress to make rent.
Over the course of two Seasons, life drastically changes for our beloved residents of Castlebury, Connecticut. Drama unfolds with every turn, every decision, making some very delectable television. But, what really makes the show work is its relationships. As the protagonist of the show, everyone is connected to Carrie. Carrie’s friends in Castlebury — Walt (Brendan Dooling), Maggie (Katie Findlay), and Mouse (Ellen Wong) — have such deep connections with Carrie (and with each other, as childhood friends), which makes every scene between them captivating. The friendships are all so touching and powerful, and this is particularly true of the relationship between Carrie and Walt. As a closeted gay man in the ’80s, Walt questions his future in a time when that was a major topic of discussion around the country, and it wasn’t safe for him to be open about his identity, especially in Castlebury. When the series begins, he doesn’t know anyone who was out, which helps lead him to New York City for comfort and shelter alongside Carrie. Upon Walt coming out to Carrie, and his parents subsequently kicking him out, Carrie accepts him immediately. There is no doubt, no question, of whether this is a connection she wants to maintain.
From the very start, Carrie simply accepts her best friend for who he was, which seems incredibly intentional and precisely done on the part of the writers. Looking back, it’s something that improves upon Carrie’s character from the original series and makes her more lovable. Given the time frame when the original series aired (1998 - 2004), some elements of the show were incredibly distasteful and problematic looking back, like the unsettling slut-shaming that Samantha endures from her best friends. With Samantha inThe Carrie Diaries, this is thrown out, as this version of Carrie starts her life in New York as someone with an open mind (and, well, working on opening it further every day with the help of her new bestie Sam and her boss Larissa).
Without a doubt, the strongest aspect ofThe Carrie Diariesis the writers’ ability to balance characters, stories, and relationships. Despite following Carrie Bradshaw, every character has their moments, and everyone is so wonderfully interconnected that it doesn’t matter who is or isn’t in a particular scene for it to work. The relationships with Carrie potentially could have been stronger, but that’s to be expected, and likely could have blossomed more had they been developed in future episodes. To see the beginning of Carrie and Samantha’s friendship brings another layer to their story. We really see how these two very different women first become so close to one another. Charlotte and Miranda had yet to make their way into Carrie’s lives when the series wrapped, which is yet one more disappointing reason the show shouldn’t have been canceled.
Plus, the series had the ability to tackle important topics, like in “Date Expectations” where the AIDS epidemic hits close to home for Walt as his boyfriend, Bennet (Jake Robinson) learns that one of his previous lovers has the virus. It’s an issue that spans time, which is something that the series was quite good about doing and would have had an abundance of opportunities to explore once things moved to New York City in a more permanent capacity with a Season 3. Another instance of this is Larissa and Samantha’s hookup when their planned menage-a-trois with Harlan (Scott Cohen) goes awry and he gets stuck in traffic, not shying away from showing the more fluid aspect of human sexuality. Or, another being Maggie’s unexpected pregnancy after having a sexual relationship with an older man. The show begins to detail how inappropriate that relationship is, how wrong it is for this older man to pursue Maggie while she is a junior in high school, and the toll it takes on Maggie. That’s a rare sight on television, truly. However, the biggest example is the exploration of grief after the death of Carrie’s mother. With Carrie and Dorrit, the series takes very different paths when depicting how losing this vital person in their lives changes them, short and long-term, and doesn’t pretend that they are suddenly fine due to the passage of time.
While being a lighthearted, mostly fun show about a young woman pursuing big dreams, the harder hitting topics are interspersed beautifully amongst the less serious stories — usually surrounding one of Carrie’s Interview Magazine adventures — while relationships are depicted with such care and love put into every scene. Even though it is a prequel,The Carrie Diariesis a one-of-a-kind television show, and had the potential to be far better than the original if only it’d been given more of a chance.
