Zeba Blay

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.

The most interesting thing here is the show's willingness to take risks: killing off major characters, running about 18 different plot lines at once, incorporating racy psycho-sexual and religious undertones, asking more questions than it intends to answer.