CW's new "The Carrie Diaries" has a lot to live up to and does a fair job of it, at least for younger viewers.

Syfy's new "Continuum" has an interesting concept, but a pretty humdrum look for a show that's supposed to mix time travel and futuristic ideas.

Both bring new choices to the Monday night TV lineups.

"The Carrie Diaries" is the ultimate of prequels: what life was like for Carrie Bradshaw, the protagonist of HBO's "Sex and the City," when she was just a 16-year-old growing up in Connecticut.

Yes, it seems a bit of a stretch to squeeze another series out of Ms. Bradshaw.

But this series has several things going for it, at least for younger viewers.

It should be welcomed by those who loved the original series, those who enjoy a coming-of-age story and those who admire young AnnaSophia Robb, who plays the young Bradshaw.

Though this reviewer certainly isn't the target audience for the show on this network aimed at those in their teens and 20s, the show wasn't bad.

First, this series that includes "The Carrie Diaries" author Candace Bushnell as an executive producer does a good job setting up a dramatic framework on several fronts.

We meet young Carrie, her sister Dorrit and father Walt just months after the death of their mother/wife, as the family is still reeling from the loss.

Something as simple as considering what to do with the departed mother's clothes provides a dramatic moment, one that will resonate with many viewers.

Aside from the family tension, the other two fronts include a pack of friends and foes on the high school front as well as an exciting and very different sort of acquaintance Bradshaw meets in Manhattan, where she has a one-day-a-week internship.

So yes, there's plenty of room for high school romance, jealousy and more even as the budding young writer gets a taste for a faster and more stylish world in New York.

None of this would work if young Robb wasn't both a likable and commanding presence here, something not so easy for an actress just a bit older than Bradshaw's supposed to be.