Finding Carter new MTV series has debuted its pilot episode "The Birds" and the reviews have come out mixed but we see great promise for the show with its striking resemblance to the beloved 1990 novel "The Face on the Milk Carton" by Caroline B. Cooney.
The new MTV show, just like a lot of other new shows, centers around teenage drama but with a twist. The main character, Carter, played by Kathryn Prescott, learns of her true identity after she got apprehended by the police for breaking fairground in a carousel. This led the police to identify her as a missing person and that the woman she calls mom actually stole her away from her birth family. Not long after, she gets reunited with her true family- her birth mother, Elizabeth played by Cynthia Watros, and twin sister, Taylor played by Anna Jacoby-Heron.
The pilot episode of Finding Carter opened to solid ratings on Tuesday, which is a big deal since it was a very busy night in cable for scripted originals that also included big and popular shows like TNT's "Rizzoli & Isles" and ABC Family's "Chasing Life" and even FX's "Tyrant."
The pilot may be deemed as a success considering Nielsen estimates of an averaged "0.73 rating in adults 18-49 and 1.69 million viewers overall in the 10 p.m. hour, virtually matching its "Catfish" lead-in in 18-49 (0.75) while building on it in adults 18-34 (1.01 to 0.98) and total viewers (1.69 million to 1.32 million)".
The story is of a teenager who got the rug pulled right under her after finding out that the woman you've always thought of as "mom" is actually a criminal who abducted you from your real family. The show ranked as cable's No. 2 original series Tuesday in adults 18-34 and young female demos, behind only ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" at 8 o'clock.
According to A.V Club reviews, the new show "is neither self-consciously hip nor glamorously soapy; its dialogue is straightforward, its dramatic elements are understated, and its characters are good looking in a low-key way rather than being regulation CW hotties. I'd compare the result to ABC Family's recent rash of family dramas (Switched at Birth, The Fosters), but they're a little more after-school-special-y than Carter; more than anything, actually, the new show resembles an early '00s teen drama, like South of Nowhere or Caitlin's Way."
