A Sex and the City prequel: The CW's next flop?

Is there more Sex and the City on the way? According to Deadline, The CW is looking to adapt The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell's book prequel to Sex and the City, about the fictional Carrie Bradshaw's life as a teenager in the '80s before she became a sex columnist. Given the network's programming history — which includes an ill-fated reboot of Melrose Place and a running-on-fumes remake of Beverly Hills 90210 — it's a fairly predictable idea. But is it a good one?

Cheers to this: Grab a cosmo and get ready, says Shannon Vestal at Buzz Sugar. Though it was rumored that the prequel would get the big-screen treatment, previous SATC movies have floundered. The character's roots are on TV, an arena where Carrie Bradshaw-style storytelling has flourished. Carrie probably "did a lot of living before she got to her 30s, so let's give them time to show us how she got there." Besides, it would be nice to look forward to high-fashion entertainment on a weekly basis again.

"4 reasons the Sex and the City prequel will work better as a TV series"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Put down those Manolos: "This is a terrible, terrible idea," says Margaret Lyons at New York. Original star Sarah Jessica Parker has gone on record saying it would be difficult to pull off a prequel (her exact reaction to the news: "Wha-a-a-at?"), while series creator Michael Patrick King says he refuses to be involved with or endorse a prequel project. Given those high-profile condemnations, "why does anyone think this franchise reboot is a good idea?"

"Sex and the City prequel could be a CW show"

Besides, doesn't this already exist? A series on the CW that chronicles the lives of "privileged, oversexed ladies through a prism of total fantasy and flippant pun abuse" — sounds like Gossip Girl to me, says Sean O'Neal at The A.V. Club. And if The Carrie Diaries follows the format of Sex and the City, it will also share its snarky voice-over gimmick with Gossip Girl. Bottom line: "redundant."

"Sex and the City prequel could end up on The CW"