Monday, April 02, 2012

TV TOPIC: CW's Upcoming "Sex and the City" Prequel "The Carrie Diaries" Seems Redundant

Do you know what's at the core of every teen series? True love.

"Gossip Girl"? True love + money
"Vampire Diaries"? True love + vampires
"Secret Circle"? True love + magic
"One Tree Hill"? True love times a billion

It's what drives the plot and the character evolution. Without the audiences choosing teams—whether it's Team DAIR vs. Team CHAIR, or Team Damon vs. Team Stefan—they won't be invested in the romantic lead's future. So how can we be seriously devoted to teenage Carrie Bradshaw's romantic destiny when we already know that she'll end up with Mr. Big?

I know what you're thinking. (Yeah, I'm psychic.) This series is for teenagers, not necessarily the "Sex and the City" fanbase, which spans the ages of 25-60. The chances of die-hard SATC fans—the kind that buy tickets in advance, dress up for the screenings, and even pretend the second one was remotely bearable--watching this series aren't that high. It's more likely that it'll appeal to a demographic that won't necessarily have seen the series or films, and are just interested in watching a blonde fashionista take the world by storm.

However, what if this generation of teenagers, who, let's be honest, are far more sexually and romantically advanced than the last generation was at their age, stoleborrowed their big sister or mom's box set or even just saw the PG version on TBS? Won't they become as uninterested as older viewers desperate for the world of SATC again? I mean, what's the point of getting excited about potential love interests when we know that there'll be a post-it-note-dumping wannabe writer, a secretly perverted politician (talk about redundant), a 20something pothead, a hippie carpenter, and a Russian ballerina before there's an emotionally bankrupt, dapper businessman who'll attempt to slide a ring on her finger not once, but twice?

The only way I could really take it seriously, and I mean really get into it is if they at the very least alluded to the possibility that maybe Mr. Big isn't her one-and-only, and maybe there's one that got away—one that could help the original SATC crew redeem themselves in a third film. I assure you that every single SATC fan—even the ones that are Team Big—would watch that series even after the movie hit theaters, because there is no love story more juicy, more tantalizing, more epic than the story of how two people, who are destined to be together, met.

*sigh* But if all else fails, I guess we could tune in for the clothes. After all, the series did steal the wardrobe goddess of "Gossip Girl"...which explains so much.

Side Note: Don't even get me started on how it's set in the 80s, which is like teen-TV Kryptonite. Just ask the creators of "Gossip Girl" and "That 70s Show" who tried to spearhead spinoffs set in the 80s and failed.

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