Image via Automotive Rhythms Flickr
Have you ever done that thing when you make a cup of tea and leave the tea bag in for too long? The result is a bitter and disappointing beverage that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.
That is how I’m feeling about film and TV execs. refusal to leave Sex and the City alone. The original show was good, much like tea. The first film was a tad too much – a bit like when you over-enthusiastically squish the tea bag with a spoon. The second film was over steeped and over squished, with a hefty teaspoon of cringe inducing racial stereotyping and the unforgiveable “Lawrence of my labia” line.
News that US TV network, The CW has green lit a pilot of a Sex and the City prequel series, based on Candace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries, is making it tricky for me to extend this simile without introducing excrement to this already overwrought cup of tea.
Rumour has it that Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage will produce the show. Now, I love these guys; they gave the world Seth Cohen. The OC is my ultimate DVD box set indulgence. They produced Gossip Girl too, which is essentially The OC relocated to New York. They excel at telling far-fetched stories of beautiful, spoilt and one-dimensional young people. They also excel at recycling ridiculous story lines. With The CW as the network and this powerhouse producing pair at the helm, there is no doubt that The Carrie Diaries will be glossy, groomed and full of supposed teenagers talking like grown-ups. There will be stories of mistaken identity, masquerade balls and a sensitive “outsider” love interest for young Carrie.
I’m just not sure what a Schwartz/Savage back story will add to the Sex and the City franchise, other than more $$$$ in Candace Bushnell’s bank account. I will put my hands up and admit that I haven’t read the Carrie Diaries book. It is aimed at the “young adult” market – the young women who have probably totally missed out on the TV show and films. My fear is that this is merely the beginning of an endless cycle of Sex and the City reboots. Saved by the Bell: The New Class and The College Years should have taught people the error of these ways.
The fact that they are considering Blake Lively to play Carrie sets even more alarm bell ringing. She is, how can I put this, not exactly charismatic. She can wear beautiful designer clothes but still exude as much charm as a tin of Dulux matte emulsion in “Natural Calico”. Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie has charisma and charm, as well as a unique and unconventional look. Blake is pretty, but it ends there.
Other names linked to the role include Miley Cyrus, Emma Roberts and Chloë Grace Moretz. Miley and Roberts I can just about grasp, but Moretz IS 14!!!! Yes, she is most famous for dropping the c-bomb on screen at the tender age of 12, so she makes some of Samantha Jones’s shock tactics look, quite frankly, banal. But these TV shows are meant to have twenty-somethings playing teenagers, not actual real teenagers. You don’t mess with the magic.
Casting decisions aside, the art of good film and television is knowing when to stop. Sex and the City could, and should, have been great, yet with every sequel and prequel the original show loses some of its sparkle. I find it hard to think of the Sex and the City “brand” without phrases like “cynical exploitation”, “product placement” and “big money merchandising deals” springing to mind.
Listen carefully and you can probably hear the soft plop of two turds falling into the already undrinkable Sex and the City brew (served in a pink and glittery Sex and the City 2 official branded mug).
BBxx
YES- I completely agree with this whole post. Whilst I do love me some OC (I have a similar obsession with Mr. Cohen)…I really, really think SATC should be left alone. I love the TV series, but the movies really were spectacularly crap. I hate that originality is harder to come by in the TV/Film industry today…people just seem to be recycling the same old shit, making sequel after sequel and spin-off’s galore.
Annoying!