The Carrie Diaries Information

The Carrie Diaries is an American teen drama television series on The CW. It is a prequel to the HBO television series Sex and the City and based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell. The first season of the show focuses on Carrie Bradshaw during her junior year of high school in 1984, and she explores life in New York while interning at a law office. On May 11, 2012, the pilot was picked up by The CW to series and premiered on January 14, 2013.

Cast and characters

• AnnaSophia Robb as Carrie Bradshaw; The protagonist and voice-over narrator of the series. She is a 16-year-old high-school student living in Castlebury, Connecticut, who dreams of being a famous writer. Carrie's mother recently died from cancer and as a result, Carrie's younger sister, Dorritt, is more rebellious than ever, and their father, Tom, is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own. She takes an after-school, once-a-week internship at a law firm in New York City which she relishes as a stepping stone to her quest to leave her small town behind her.
• Austin Butler as Sebastian Kydd; The new kid at Castlebury High School and Carrie's love interest. Sebastian moves to Castlebury after getting kicked out of his old high school for having sex with his art history teacher. He lives with his divorced mother who is never around.
• Ellen Wong as Jill Chen; Also known as 'The Mouse'. Jill is Carrie's nerdy and sweet best friend from high school and the ex-girlfriend of college guy she still loves. They broke up because both of their grades were getting low. In school, she is an academic overachiever who is said to be under pressure and driven to be the best at everything by her stern parents.
• Katie Findlay as Maggie Landers; Another one of Carrie's best friends, and Walt's sexually active girlfriend. She is a sarcastic and self-assured underachieving student whom barely passes her classes and is said to have an unhappy home life where her parents neglect and ignore her.
• Stefania Owen as Dorrit Bradshaw; Carrie's troubled, 14-year-old, rebellious little sister. She openly resents Carrie for being close with their mother, and for having more time with her.
• Brendan Dooling as Walt Reynolds; Carrie's other best friend. He is Maggie's ex-boyfriend. He doesn't know that she is cheating on him with a cop. In first episode ending, it's implied that Walt is secretly gay however in later episodes it is clear he is confused (and probably in denial) about his sexuality.
• Chloe Bridges as Donna LaDonna; The school's most popular girl, and she is the leader of a clique called 'The Jens' which is made up of all of the school's shallow and narcissistic 'mean girls'. She is Carrie's chief rival and also has a crush on Walt.
• Freema Agyeman as Larissa Loughlin; A hip, British, cutting-edge style editor at Interview magazine and party girl who acts as Carrie's mentor in New York City.
• Matt Letscher as Tom Bradshaw; Carrie's overprotective father.

Recurring

• Josh Salatin as Simon Byrnes; a local policeman and Maggie's casual sexual partner
• Whitney Vance and Alexandra Miller as The Jens; Donna LaDonna's two minions. They follow her around in explosions of neon doing whatever their leader tells them to.

Production

Development

In September 2011, it was officially announced that The CW network was moving forward with a television series as a prequel to the original series, based on The Carrie Diaries. The project is produced by Gossip Girl producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Former Sex and the City writer Amy B. Harris penned the adaptation.

On January 18, 2012, The CW network ordered a pilot of The Carrie Diaries. The project will continue to be helmed by executive producers Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Len Goldstein and Candace Bushnell. On May 11, the pilot was picked up to series.

Casting

On February 15, 2012 the series' first role was cast. Stefania Owen has landed the part of Carrie Bradshaw's 14-year-old sister Dorrit. She's described as rebelling in the most obvious of ways: dyeing her hair, getting arrested, acting out. Dorrit is desperate for attention and willing to get it any way she can. On February 27, 2012 it was announced that AnnaSophia Robb had won the role of the young Carrie Bradshaw. On February 28, Katie Findlay and Ellen Wong joined her. Wong will play Carrie's best friend in high school, Jill Thompson. Also known as 'The Mouse', Jill is said to be intelligent and loyal. Findlay will star in the project as Carrie's oldest friend Maggie Landers, the police chief's daughter. Whereas Carrie is beginning to explore Manhattan, Maggie has no desire to leave her town. On March 2, 2012, Deadline reported that Austin Butler has been cast as the male lead. Butler will play Sebastian Kydd, a brooding heartthrob and ultimate insider who always plays the outsider. His presence at Carrie's school will shake things up in a big way. On March 4, 2012, Deadline announced that Freema Agyeman has been cast in the pilot as Larissa, a hip, cutting-edge editor and party girl who works at Interview magazine and is Carrie's mentor. Also, joining the cast will be Brendan Dooling. Dooling will fill the role of Walt, Carrie's gay friend. On March 9, 2012, Deadline reported that Matt Letscher has been cast as Carrie's father. On March 14, 2012 it was announced that Chloe Bridges has been cast as Carrie's nemesis Donna Ladonna, the popular girl who is confident and savvy with more there than meets the eye.

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD release date
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	13

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Production code	U.S. viewers (million)
ProdCode = 276056	Viewers = 1.61	ShortSummary = Castlebury, Connecticut, 1984. Carrie Bradshaw comes back to her junior year of high school after her mother's death and meets her best friends Jill 'Mouse' Chen, Maggie and Walt Reynolds. During her time back in school, Carrie is showing her feelings to Sebastian Kydd, a new senior and transfer student who was kicked out of his former school. Carrie's father, Tom, informs her that she can have an after-school, once-a-week internship at a law firm in New York City which she relishes as a stepping stone to her quest to leave her small town behind. During her first day in New York, Carrie meets Larissa Loughlin, an editor at Interview magazine. Maggie and Walt are having a hard time as Walt thinks he's gay, while at the same time, Maggie is cheating on him with a cop, one of her father's employees. Mouse is trying to call her crush (whom she had sex with during the summer) but is left all alone in tears.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7302	Viewers = 1.27	ShortSummary = Carrie and her sister, Dorrit are finally getting along after their mother's death. Larissa asked Carrie to do a photo-shoot of her bag (that she got from her mother). Meanwhile, Walt is breaking up with Maggie as he once again struggles with his sexual orientation. Carrie finally gets closer with Sebastian as the two finally kiss in the pool, but Carrie's sister Dorrit tells their dad about the two and he comes in to take Carrie home. Tom then tries to protect Carrie by telling her that she should not be dating Sebastian any more.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7303	Viewers = 1.38	ShortSummary = As Carrie tries to convince her dad to let her go out on a date with Sebastian, she finds out he represented Sebastian when he got kicked out of his old school. She snoops though her dad's legal files, and discovers that he had an affair with one of his teachers, which she tells her friends about. Which causes her to doubt her feelings after she and Sebastian share a kiss. Meanwhile, Maggie tries to get over the fact that she and Walt are not getting back together by throwing away all the mementos from their relationship. Mouse finally goes on a date with her boyfriend, Seth and he finally reveals his feelings for her. When Carrie informs Sebastian that she knows about him and his affair with his former teacher, he decides that they should not see each other anymore.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7304	Viewers = 1.51	ShortSummary = Carrie is invited to a Halloween party in the city by Larissa, she decides to invite Walt to go with her to keep her company. Carrie is also forced to babysit Larissa, who has clearly taken too many drugs. Walt finds himself in an uncomfortable position after a male party guest kisses him. Elsewhere, Maggie convinces Mouse to go with her to Sebastian's Halloween party at the diner to help keep tabs on him. Mouse and Sebastian end up bonding and smoking marijuana, but almost get in trouble when the cop Maggie's been seeing shows up at the party. After Doritt's attempt to sneak out of the house is thwarted, she discovers hanging out with her father isn't so bad. Walt, in an act of confusion about his sexuality, loses his virginity to Maggie.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7305	Viewers = 1.20	ShortSummary = Carrie runs into an old friend, named George Silver (Richard Kohnke), at her internship and gets invited to his mother's dinner soiree in Manhattan, but her lingering feelings for Sebastian get in her way, until she see him with another girl... whom happens to be her arch-rival Donna. Mouse is excited about getting back together with Seth, but her worries about being bad at sex drive her to ask Walt for help. In order to hang on to a favorite booth at the diner, Maggie takes on the cynical and vain Donna LaDonna and her friends. Elsewhere, Tom loses his wedding ring, which makes him realize that Harlan might be right about starting to date again.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7306	Viewers =1.08	ShortSummary = On Thanksgiving, Carrie gets in way over her head when she tries to cook the perfect dinner for her family, as well as make a positive impression on her new boyfriend George and his father Harlan when they show up at the house. Overwhelmed by the cooking, Carrie enlists Mouse to help her set and prepare the turkey. With Tom oblivious to the chaos going on in the kitchen, the misanthropic Dorrit finds a new way to emotionally torture Carrie. Meanwhile, Maggie is excited to have Thanksgiving dinner with Walt's family, but when the topic of college comes up she realizes that she hasn't put much thought into her future. Elsewhere, Sebastian learns that his neglectful and divorced mother has decided to fly out of town with her much younger boyfriend, leaving him to fend for himself on Thanksgiving with nothing but a bottle of Wild Turkey whiskey.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7307	Viewers = 1.00	ShortSummary = Carrie continues to be torn between her new-found romantic feelings for George and her lingering feelings for Sebastian whom is still dating Donna. When Larissa (still unaware that Carrie is a 16-year-old high school junior) offers her a job working at Interview magazine, Carrie must make a decision that will satisfy her own interests. Later, Carrie accompanies George to her school's Winter Wonderland themed dance where she tries to make Sebastian jealous by dancing and flaunting her new-found romance with her new beau. Meanwhile, Mouse feels that her romance with Seth is interfering with her school grades when she gets her very first 'B' on a term paper in which she asks her teacher to take on an extra credit work to gain an 'A', but she cannot meet the deadline in order to accompany Seth to the Winter Wonderland dance. Maggie is forced to attend the dance solo with Walt being sick, which leads her to seek company with her secret lover Deputy Simon Byrnes. When Donna catches Maggie with Simon, she blackmails Maggie by forcing her to be her spy against Carrie. Elsewhere, Tom accompanies Dorrit to a local production of The Nutcracker in a further attempt to bond with her despite his lack of interest in the arts.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7308	Viewers = 1.10	ShortSummary = When she receives an invitation by Larissa to a hip party in New York City, Carrie decides to take advantage of her school's annual senior-junior shut-in to sneak out to the city to have some fun. After Sebastian ends with Donna, he seeks Mouse's advice to help him seek out Carrie to tell her about what he really feels. Meanwhile, Maggie refuses to cave into Donna's blackmail and decides to tell Walt about her unfaithfulness before he learns it from Donna, but she keeps chickening out on telling him. Elsewhere, Tom accompanies Harlan on a double date in the city with their respective dates and everything comes to a head when Tom and Carrie finally run into each other at the club which brings Carrie's secret world crashing down.	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7309	Viewers = 1.03	ShortSummary = With Carrie forbidden from going to New York City ever again, she is told to look after Dorrit for the evening. When Dorrit goes missing, Carrie seeks out (as well as lashes out at) Sebastian, the one person who can help her find Dorrit before their father comes home. Meanwhile, the overachieving Mouse butts heads with West (guest star R.J. Brown), a popular jock who took her spot as number one student in the class. Donna now focuses her sights on Walt to dig her venomous claws into him as her latest boy-toy, but Walt ends up surprising himself by refusing her advances and ends up confiding in Donna about his confused sexual interests. Elsewhere, Tom finds himself in uncharted territory when it comes to women and turns to Larissa for advice.	LineColor = FF2277 }} </ref>	DirectedBy = Michael Fields	WrittenBy = Terri Minsky	OriginalAirDate =	ProdCode = 3X7310	Viewers =	ShortSummary = As Carrie's 17th birthday draws near, she is torn between spending the day with her friends (and a possible chance to lose her viginity with Sebastian) or an opportunity to mingle with New York's literati with Larissa. Meanwhile, Mouse's continuing conflict with West brings out an uncharactistic vindictive side to her as she sets out to tries to impress a visiting Harvard alumi in order to land a scholarship that West also wants. Also, Dorrit looks for a gift for Carrie.	LineColor = FF2277 }} </ref>	DirectedBy = Jann Turner	WrittenBy = Jessica O'Toole & Amy Rardin	OriginalAirDate =	ProdCode = 3X7311	Viewers =	ShortSummary =	LineColor = FF2277 }} </ref>	DirectedBy = Patrick Norris	WrittenBy = Henry Alonso Myers	OriginalAirDate =	ProdCode = 3X7312	Viewers =	ShortSummary =	LineColor = FF2277 }}	ProdCode = 3X7313	Viewers =	ShortSummary =	LineColor = FF2277 }}

Reception

The Carrie Diaries received mixed reviews, The series was given a 57 out of 100 score on Metacritic, based on reviews from 23 critics. Gail Pennington of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said "The CW's attempt to capture the magic of "Sex and the City" in a prequel, set in 1984, could have gone very wrong. But The Carrie Diaries is surprisingly right." Marisa LaScala of PopMatters says "The rest of the show goes on to prize sweetness over superficiality." Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix describes "The new series succeeds on its own nostalgic terms."