TV Review: The Carrie Diaries 1×02 – “Lie with Me”

From left to right: Ellen Wong, AnnaSophia Robb, Austin Butler, Freema Agyeman

The second episode of The Carrie Diaries, “Lie with Me,” is better than the first. The first episode filled me with intrigue, but it didn’t satisfy me. This episode was filled with a little more substance than the last. I’m glad that we’re finally adding some layers to these characters, I mean, there’s only so many jokes that I can make about how one-dimensional they are.

To my great dismay, Carrie is still mooning over Sebastian Kydd, something that confuses me greatly.  Sadly, she’s not the only one who’s into Kydd. Resident mean girl Donna LaDonna has set her sights on Kydd as well. Kydd and LaDonna coincidentally meet up at the local country club, and while LaDonna tries her hardest to hook up with Kydd, Sebastian refuses. Instead of deterring LaDonna, it just makes her even more aggressive.

Unfortunately, He’s Just Not That Into You has yet to be written so neither LaDonna or Maggie gets the hint. Maggie is still trying to jump Walt’s bones, which by now the audience knows that will never happen unless Maggie can shape shift into Rob Lowe.  Later, the two lovebirds have a fight over the fact that they have yet to consummate their relationship.  While Walt may not be interested in having sex with Maggie that doesn’t mean that “random older cop” isn’t.  Maggie doesn’t need a boyfriend; she needs a therapist.  Her affair with “random older cop” (who until I learn his name he will now be known as ROC) makes me feel bad for her. She looked so lost when after their tryst she asked ROC to just lay with her.  It’s clear that “lying down” is that last thing ROC wants to do with Maggie.  Walt tries to fix things between the two by heading over to her house to have sex, but Maggie isn’t home as she is too busy with ROC. When she finally does show up –after Walt’s been stuck waiting for 4 hours- she and Walt have a heart to heart about how their relationship isn’t going anywhere. Walt ends the relationship which causes Maggie to breakdown about how Walt doesn’t love her.  So far Maggie’s storyline is my favorite.

Carrie is under punishment for coming home past curfew after her dalliance in New York, but being grounded isn’t her only problem. With Donna LaDonna setting her sights on Kydd, her friends are pushing her into making a move on Sebastian, but Carrie is hesitant (as she should be).  Carrie’s internship is going as swimmingly as expected, though she has yet to follow the rule about “No Personal Calls” which she makes on the regular.  One of these calls was to Larissa Loughlin, our free-spirited thief. Loughlin (while using her brick of a cell phone) lets Carrie know that a photoshoot is currently going on, and she needs Carrie and Carrie’s bag.  Carrie makes a quick excuse to her boss about binders or printers and struts away down to D.U.M.B.O and meets up with Loughlin. I have no idea what this photoshoot was about, something to do with one of the Coreys and a zebra. But I do know, thanks to years of watching America’s Next Top Model that photoshoots take hours to do. So it seems odd that Carrie was able to get there, watch the photoshoot progress and then trek back to the office without tipping off her boss. The whole scene was very strange; the plus side was the use of Violent Femmes playing in the background.  Maybe I shouldn’t doubt Carrie’s supergirl powers. She managed to pull off her little adventure without a sweat, and she ended up scoring some brownie points with her surly boss. Maybe I should take some tips from Carrie’s book.

Then again maybe not, while Carrie’s career seems to be on point, her family life still seems to be off the mark.  Carrie makes the mistake of ditching her wonderful sister Dorrit to hang out with Sebastian. By the way, Dorrit has grown on me considerably since the last week. Even after the Bradshaw healing session last week, Dorrit still continues to wear too much make-up and acting like she’s “too cool for school.” You can’t help but love her. When Dorrit arrives home visibly upset after being ditched, Tom Bradshaw is sent into a tizzy. Putting his parenting skills to use, he makes his way to the school where Carrie and Sebastian are lip-locked in the pool for the second time (seriously, what is with these two and pools?).  Upon arriving home, daddy Bradshaw makes it clear to Carrie that she isn’t allowed to date Sebastian because he doesn’t like him (and thus cementing Tom Bradshaw as my favorite character on this show).  Carrie and Dorrit make up just in time for Mouse to show up to their house, and the three of them watch Dorrit’s bootlegged version of Purple Rain (oh Dorrit, you little pirate). After the movie, Maggie arrives to cry about how Walt broke up with her, and the four young ladies bond over peanut butter, which is something I can 100% get behind.

The highlights of this episode where definitely Maggie and her problems, I wish Mouse was given a bigger storyline than the one she currently has, hopefully that problem is rectified as the season goes on.

Episode rating: 5.5/10

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Promo for episode three “Read Before Use”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1XXGRIQqWk

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