New teen drama 'The Carrie Diaries' received mixed reviews after airing on Monday night (January 14th 2013) on CW with critics calling the show 'bland' and 'inept'.

The series was made as a prequel to 'Sex And The City' looking into the teenage life of Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker in SATC) in the '80s in Connecticut. Young Carrie is played by AnnaSophia Robb who appeared alongside Johnny Depp in the 2005 adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. However, many critics have slammed the show for a number of different reasons. Matthew Gilbert from The Boston Globe called it 'somewhat bland' before knocking the appearance of the actress in comparison to Sarah Jessica Parker. 'She's not as small and angular, and she has a softer temperament', he said. 'I spent too much time during the premiere trying to morph Robb into Parker in my mind's eye.' Matt Zoller Seitz from The Vulture was even more cold about the show. 'The characters are bland', he said before calling it 'an inept spin off that dishonours its source' and accusing it of 'wanting to cash in on 'Sex and the City'.

The slightly warmer reviews came from Robert Lloyd at the LA Times. 'The situations are stock - John Hughes wrote this playbook pretty thoroughly - and the dialogue does not exactly crackle', he said, while Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter said: 'It's kind of quaint and far less cynical than 'Gossip Girl''.