It's been almost 20 years since Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda first offered a look into the lifestyles of young women living, loving and working in New York City through "Sex and the City." It's been long enough since that show debuted to open the door for a new generation to have its own look at life from the boardroom to the bedroom.
That modern perspective comes in the new Freeform series "The Bold Type." The series looks at the living, loving and working involving three BFFs working at Scarlet, a women's magazine that goes beyond telling you "The 10 signs your significant other's cheating on you." As was such a constant theme in "Sex and the City," the new cable series will reflect how the personal and professional lives of the three women blur.
This modern day trio of smart, spunky and social media-supported women includes Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens of "Faking It"), Kat Edison (Aisha Dee of "Chasing Life") and Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy of "Necessary Roughness"). Each represents a distinct type: Sloan has anxieties over her creative skills. Edison has an awakening political and social issues side. Brady's a bit of a wild card as she's not had the career success of her friends, but that's not from a lack of sleeping with her boss (Sam Page).
The series was inspired by Joanna Coles, the chief content officer for Hearst Magazines (which includes Cosmopolitan).
In the opening episode, Jane's forced to face her own painful relationship issues for a magazine piece on stalking an ex-lover after all of her other story pitches fall flat. It's the first step by her editor, Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin), to get the novice writer thinking beyond the norm.
Kat, the master of all social media for the publication, gets involved in an international situation because of her efforts to convince a controversial photographer to let Scarlet tell her story. That assignment begins to change the way Kat thinks.
Only so much can be done in an hour and the victim of the time squeeze in the first episode is Sutton, whose tale of a secret affair is handled with so little originality it never gives Fahy enough to do. Switching the focus or at least giving the character more layers in future episodes will be a big help.
From the modern offices to the stunning haute couture fashions in the open scene, this show's high production values immediately create a world that looks and feels as rich as the characters.
That's just one example of how the team behind the series _ including Coles as one of the executive producers � have already shown they aren't going to follow the standard path for this kind of workplace drama. The tendency in TV and film productions when a woman is in charge is to make a female boss at a publication be so demanding and commanding that the only thing people can do is quake in her presence.
Hardin's portrayal of the magazine boss is certainly one of a strong character. But in an anti- "Devil Wears Prada" approach, Hardin's allowed to show that this magazine boss has a human side that wants to nurture young talent rather than reducing them to weeping piles of failure. The character can be tough, but by giving her a personality that goes beyond verbal abuse and intimidation, the series has a much wider base for stories. Hardin provides a solid center for the three young actors.
All three young women bring the kind of enthusiasm and wide-eyed look at life in the big city that made "Sex and the City" such an instant hit. As long as the show can keep making these characters a reflection of the complexities of modern young women and not give in to stale storytelling, then there will easily come a day when people will be arguing whether they are more of a Jane, Kat or Sutton.
