Girls gabbing about sex, questionable fashion choices, and earnest voiceover narration. Ladies and (maybe a few) gentlemen, Sex & The City is back! (Kind of.)

Carrie Bradshaw fans the world over can let loose a big sigh of relief, because The Carrie Diaries is nowhere near as bad as it could have been. In fact, it’s pretty good.

The CW series premiered last night to so-so ratings, bringing one of the most beloved TV characters of recent years back to the small screen. And even though we’re normally skeptical about revamps of our faves with new casts and a different approach, this time around we’re surprised that, on the whole, it works!

Here are a few of the ways The Carrie Diaries gets this Sex & The City prequel right.

1. It’s Not Afraid To Be Its Own Show

The Carrie Diaries would have been super annoying if every other scene was peppered with wink-wink references to the original HBO series. If, say, we caught a glimpse of Samantha strutting down the street in the pilot, or God forbid, Carrie bumped into a charming finance intern named John James Preston. We’re sure The Carrie Diaries will eventually get around to re-introducing Sex & The City characters, but thankfully, it’s in no rush to cram these in and ruin everything. The Carrie Diaries works as its own show even if you’ve never even heard of Sex & The City. (But if that’s the case, climb out from under that rock get familiar!)

After all, The Carrie Diaries is based on the book by real-life Carrie Candace Bushnell, not the HBO series, exactly. Sex & The City changed quite a lot from Candace’s original columns, so it makes sense that this show wouldn’t be 100% consistent with the HBO version. For example, in Sex & The City episode “A Vogue Idea,” Carrie told an older suitor that her father abandoned her when she was young, but in The Carrie Diaries, her dad is a loving and supportive part of her life. It’s a lot more important that Carrie Diaries stays true to the spirit of the character rather than try to match up exactly with every detail of the original series.

2. The Casting

AnnaSophia Robb had some pretty iconic shoes to fill (literally) in playing Carrie Bradshaw, especially since Sarah Jessica Parker made the character so unique. From the hair to the clothes, AnnaSophia sure looks the part, and her performance gives Carrie just the right amount of spunk without seeming like a caricature or a total carbon copy.

For that matter, almost the entire cast is worthy ― if not quite as attention-grabbing as Kim Cattrall, Kristen Davis, and Cynthia Nixon ― from Carrie’s scene-(and clothes)-stealing bad girl pal Larissa (Freema Agyeman) to Carrie’s closeted buddy Walt (Brendan Dooling) to high school temptress Donna LaDonna (Chloe Bridges). And we haven’t even gotten to Carrie’s two best girlfriends ― Mouse (Ellen Wong) and Maggie (Katie Findlay), who, thankfully, are not just clones of the infamous “Samantha,” “Miranda,” and “Charlotte” archetypes. All of these performers are promising enough that we want to see where the series takes these characters.

3. "Mr. Small"

Carrie’s high school dreamboat Sebastian Kydd (Austin Butler) is neither too perfect nor too much of a jerk for us to buy that he’s A) a real person, and B) someone Carrie would be interested in. Obviously, we all know Carrie will end up with Mr. Big in the long run, but Sebastian has some John James Preston-like mystery about him where we can’t quite tell if he’s good news or bad news for Carrie yet. That should be good for at least one season’s worth of drama.

4. The Clothes

Yep, Carrie’s fashion sense is intact ― she may not be dressing in Manolo Blahniks quite yet, but we can definitely see the seeds of Carrie’s future status as a fashionista... oarticularly when it comes to some more daring choices in apparel. (But hey, at least here she has an excuse ― it’s 1984.)

5. The (Lack Of?) Sex

Sex & The City was all about the sex (duh). When the show debuted, that was its whole selling point. The Carrie Diaries could have gone that route and aimed for titillation and shock value, a la Gossip Girl. Instead, the CW Carrie is as thoughtful about sex as the HBO Carrie, just not as experienced. In the Carrie Diaries pilot, she discovers that she’s the only one of her girlfriends who’s still a virgin. The show’s take on teen sex is realistic rather than sensational, allowing the focus to stay on Carrie the character rather than Carrie the future best-selling sex columnist, and wisely not trying to compete with the explicit HBO-ness of the original.

6. The Cheesy Narration

One of the guiltiest pleasures of Sex & The City was Carrie’s terrible (and terribly lovable) punning in her columns. Sure, they made us groan, but it was part of the charm, and we admired Carrie for just going for it, no matter how corny. In The Carrie Diaries pilot, we get this little gem of a Carrie-ism: “Maybe it was the champagne or the dancing or that I was out of breath racing for the last train. Or maybe it was the realization that I might have just lost innocence. My virginity. And not to the guy I had hoped, but to a different man: Man-hattan.” It’s a sure sign that this Carrie is still our girl.

7. Carrie

Obviously, the most important aspect of The Carrie Diaries is getting Ms. Bradshaw right. And not only was she cast properly, but the writing of the character feels pretty in sync with the woman we’ll catch back up with in 1998 (when Sex debuted). This Carrie values her friendships and has an adventurous spirit. She interns at a stuffy law firm (a fashion magazine would've been too on-the-nose) but spends her time making personal calls after being told not to. She's a bit of a mess and can't turn down a good party. Best of all, she values her individuality more than her romantic prospects, which is why her coy confidence in dealing with Sebastian is so perfect. (It helps explain how Carrie will stay single for the next 14 years.)

Alas, though, The Carrie Diaries isn't entirely perfect. So allow us to address one area where we think the show could use some improvement:

1. The Family Drama

The original Sex & The City was almost strangely absent siblings and parents. None of the four main women seemed to have close relationships with any family members that we were ever privy to. But family is a much bigger part of The Carrie Diaries. The recent loss of Carrie’s mother explains one reason why Carrie might stand out from other women (as she does) and provides a decent motivation for her obsession with fashion (not that we really needed one). But in a show that’s already balancing Carrie’s excitement in the big city with her suburban high school circle, the one thing about the pilot that didn’t really work was Carrie’s typically bland dad and rebellious younger sister. Carrie Bradshaw has never been a mothering type, so her role as a surrogate mom for her sister doesn’t really fly, and since the original show didn’t feel the need to get into a lot of family drama, we hope The Carrie Diaries will follow suit and focus on more unique aspects of this show, like how Carrie is torn between her roots in the suburbs and moving on to bigger and better things in the city.

Overall, though, The Carrie Diaries is off to a promising start, and hopefully will stick around awhile. It has just enough in common with the original while also blazing its own trail. (And hey, it still feels truer to Sex & The City than “Lawrence Of My Labia” AKA Sex & The City 2.)

Will you keep on watching The Carrie Diaries?