It’s striking just how much of a role innocence—and the loss of this innocence—drives the emotional narrative on The Carrie Diaries. There was a time when teen dramas were fixated on these themes, but slowly, the genre has evolved into a far more flashy and cynical affair. It’s this show’s studied portrayal of innocence and how that innocence shapes the character’s worldviews—more than the neon clothes or the 80s pop hits playing on the soundtrack—that makes it feel like a throwback to days gone by.
Second episodes are notoriously difficult, and this one was not without its bumps, but the one thing it did nail down was the intended emotional tone of the series. The center of everything is obviously Carrie and her sort of slow shift into a more grown-up version of herself, and Carrie as a character just completely works. Her central issue tonight was nothing groundbreaking for the genre; young girls have been obsessing over their crushes for ages. What the episode got right was how all-consuming those early days of a flirtation can feel, how insecure they can make you, and how many out-of-character choices they can cause you to make. Rival Donna’s overt, predatory interest in Sebastian is a glaringly obvious choice, but the writers use it in smart ways here: to flesh out Carrie’s own issues of self-confidence, and to demonstrate the character of her (otherwise fairly silent) love interest. These small steps go a long way toward making Carrie’s high school world feel natural and lived in, and imply this is a show that seems to care about the why of who people are more than simply the what, which is encouraging.
The thing that comes across loud and clear is how the show is creating a different kind of central female teen character. For all the things Carrie does wrong, she remains immensely concerned about how those actions ultimately affect others. She’s innately good in a way that feels so refreshing to see a teen character be allowed to be. For goodness sake, her big indiscretion of the episode was to ditch her little sister in order to invite a boy to the public pool with her! The Upper East Siders of Gossip Girl may scoff, but I rejoice in this preservation of a gentler portrayal of high school.
Less successful this week was the integration of Carrie’s adventures in New York. What felt like wondrous discovery last week felt more shoehorned in here, only existing because the premise set up that we need to spend time with these New York characters every week. The one thing Carrie’s attempts to get her purse in Interview magazine while still getting all her work done at the law firm showed was her fierce ingenuity and commitment, which are all great qualities. But her boss is nothing more than an obstacle in a stuffy suit, and while Larissa is a sort of cipher of a character so far, she does remain a lot of fun. It just feels like these stories will need to get a bit more weight to them or else the ones back at high school will be destined to always outshine everything in Manhattan. (Carrie randomly holding a zebra was a lot of fun, though.)