The Carrie Diaries
The CW | CW | Release Date: January 14, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
8
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
75
HitfixAlan SepinwallJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The new series succeeds on its own nostalgic terms. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: [AnnaSophia Robb is] compelling, and the show has a sweetly corny charm. [18 Jan 2013, p.71]
70
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Rick PorterJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: Through its first three episodes, The Carrie Diaries works quite well as a coming-of-age story, thanks in no small part to Robb's winning performance and a pretty solid cast of young actors around her. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The situations are stock--John Hughes wrote this playbook pretty thoroughly--and the dialogue does not exactly crackle. But it is all well-staged and believably played and at times it becomes quite lyrical and, even, moving. Read full review
70
SalonWilla PaskinJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: Unlike the teenagers on the show it replaces on the CW schedule, "Gossip Girl," the characters on The Carrie Diaries are neither disturbingly precocious nor voracious, instead working a welcome John Hughes vibe. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: They are real people with plausible emotions. And in the hands of Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl, The O.C.), Amy Harris (Gossip Girl), Bushnell and two other executive producers from the CW's Hart of Dixie, the storytelling has a chance to be handled maturely. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's a step above the typical CW soap, and worth penciling in an appointment in your own TV diary. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: This is a different series, one whose good start has to do with its capacity to be affecting, which it is in its picture of loss and longing--a sense this young Carrie projects persuasively. Read full review
70
Washington PostHank StueverJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Pleasant surprise, The Carrie Diaries's premiere episode is a nimble and entertaining trip back to Carrie Bradshaw's high school years. Read full review
67
NewsdayVerne GayJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Mostly boilerplate teen soap that lacks the (umm) zest of "Sex and the City"--a good thing, in case you're wondering. Read full review
60
PopMattersMarisa LaScalaJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The rest of the show goes on to prize sweetness over superficiality. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: We've seen all the parts of this story before, and frankly, we've seen them told better. Read full review
50
Uncle BarkyEd BarkJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: AnnaSophia Robb is appealing enough in the title role, but Monday's first episode starts to sag from all the CW-ian title character narration and overall pop tune heaviness. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's a sweet, somewhat bland portrait of an Everygirl coming of age in suburban Connecticut in the 1980s, dealing with the class Heathers--here, they're Donna LaDonna and the two Jens--and crushing on the cutie transfer student with long blond hair. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The CW series that takes "Sex and the City" fashionista and sexual anthropologist Carrie Bradshaw all the way back to 1984 Connecticut, and high school, the fit's a little off. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian LowryJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The '80s setting does allow the show to be more frank in tackling issues like sex and drugs, but other than that, the premiere deals in typical teenage girl stuff, the sort one can find in any number of ABC Family shows. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Writer Amy B. Harris has crafted a clever, credible script, carefully adding a few veiled life lessons within the witty dialogue: One of the girls will learn that hooking up with a boy you think you love may not always end in happily ever after. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMike HaleJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The memory of how that touchstone HBO show, at its best, wrapped heartbreak and satire in high comic style makes the ordinariness of The Carrie Diaries a little more disappointing than it would be otherwise. Read full review
38
People WeeklyTom GliattoJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: Diaries is lukewarm and earnest. [21 Jan 2013]
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: The problem is that The Carrie Diaries is an inept spinoff that dishonors its source. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinJan 14, 2013
Season 1 Review: Carrie's antics in New York are a kind of chick version of Matthew Broderick's madcap adventures in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But Schwartz can't cut the umbilical cord--perhaps fallopian tube is a more apt metaphor--to his original source material, and that's where The Carrie Diaries goes off the rails. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineZeba BlayJan 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: While it's not surprising that The Carrie Diaries is unlikely to appeal to fans of the HBO franchise, it's still disappointing that much of what made that series work has given way to cliché and oversimplification. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL