I was never a fan of SEX AND THE CITY.  That’s not to say that I didn’t watch an episode here and there, but really, the show served as something to frustrate me at awards shows (much like GIRLS does now…but I digress).  So I wasn’t too interested in watching the newest CW offering, THE CARRIE DIARIES, which premieres tonight at 8/7c.  The show (based on Candace Bushnell’s prequel books) follows 1984-Carrie-Bradshaw, before she was the girl getting soaked by a bus in a puddle, before she was the famous writer toppling over on a catwalk, and before SJP inhabited the role and ran off into the sunset with the man she chose.   My lack of interest was just plain wrong, as the show charmed me to no end, and I’ve been dying for new episodes since I caught the screener over the summer.

AnnaSophia Robb is a new Carrie Bradshaw for a new generation and she pops on screen with an exciting energy that you don’t often find – she’s troubled by the loss of her mother, struggling to get along with her sister Dorrit (Stefania Owen from the short-lived RUNNING WILDE on FOX), and dying for a world full of color in New York City.  She finds that world when she gets an internship in the city, a fact her father remains proud of and worried about all at once (Matt Letscher, my only low spot in the cast; he feels wrong in the role).

Rounding out the cast are Carrie’s best friends – Mouse (Ellen Wong) and Maggie (Katie Kindlay of THE KILLING) – polar opposites dealing with trouble in love, Maggie’s boyfriend Walt (Brendan Dooling) who is dealing with a discovery of his own, new boy in town Sebastian (CW stalwart Austin Butler), scheming nemesis Donna LaDonna (Chloe Bridges), and Carrie’s exciting new city friend Larissa (DOCTOR WHO’s Freema Agyeman).

Don’t talk yourself out of watching this show just because you did or didn’t watch a now defunct series.  TCD stands on its own as a prequel series and a charming bright spot on a Monday night. I promise that you’ll be as smitten with THE CARRIE DIARIES as I was – it’s the surprise of the season for me!