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I love Sex and the City. I love it because it’s fun, hilarious, entertaining and light. I love that it isn’t like rom-coms; it talks about a host of women’s issues – marriage, friendship, career, class, race, motherhood, sex lives, relationships – in a more down-to-earth way than rom-coms with their ‘happily ever after’ crap. Of course it isn’t a ‘great’ show like The Sopranos, Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad – it’s comedy with romantic elements, about life and love and finding yourself.
It’s not realistic either; the four women are all upper-middle class, go to parties and fancy restaurants and have high class friends and trips to the Hamptons. Samantha works in PR, Miranda is a lawyer, Charlotte is an art dealer and Carrie is a well-known columnist. It presents an idealized vision of New York with all these wealthy models and businessmen socialising with one another. The girls are meeting men all the time at fancy social events. But TV is a form of escapism; it’s made to be entertaining not ‘realistic.’
I love all of the women. Samantha is my favourite; she makes me laugh, I love her confident attitude – not just to sex but to life in general – and she’s very optimistic and a go-getter. She dealt with breast cancer in an admirable way. I think I’m most like Carrie; neurotic, witty, smart, an observer, a writer and a loyal friend, although I DON’T share Carrie’s taste in men (screw Big, gimme Aidan any day). Carrie can be a pain but she’s human and relatable. I think at times she can get very emotional and create problems which aren’t there (like myself) and exaggerate things (like myself; oh boy). She’s a little bit careless, with money and guys, but has a heart of gold.
Charlotte is adorable; it’s hard to watch a scene with her without going ‘AWWW!’ She can be very prissy and conservative at times, like when she made remarks about Steve being working class compared to Miranda’s yuppie-background (like who cares? Steve is incredible!) I think Miranda initially comes off as a bitch, especially in early seasons from the way she messes around Skipper, but she has a heart of gold like the others and is a caring loyal friend. Plus her cynicism can be funny. I think Charlotte and Carrie are more heart-on-sleeve people whereas Samantha uses her confidence and Miranda uses her dry sarcasm as shields to cover their true feelings.
My favourite guy is, of course, Steve. I can’t stand the way Miranda treats him, especially in the first movie. Of course she had every right to be upset about him cheating on her, but given his character I think (and her friends also thought) that she overreacted by separating and made a huge mistake. (Different if Steve was like Big). They should have talked it out and she could easily have forgiven him, I reckon. Clearly I’m just too kind-hearted, but if I had a guy like Steve in my life there’s no fucking way I’d let him go if he slept with eight other women. (Exaggerating). Miranda’s a good friend, but I would hate to be in a romantic relationship with someone like her; I wouldn’t feel comfortable.
I also love Harry, Smith and Aidan. They’re all the kind of guy I would want; someone caring, sensitive, hard-working, loving, passionate in the bedroom (so unlike Trey or some of the guys Carrie dates), just a nice guy you can introduce to your parents who you can have fun with, who supports you and is there for you and makes you feel loved.
I can understand why Big would seem attractive to women – he is hot, physically, and he’s very charming (which I find cringey), dresses in suits, is very old-school 50s romantic, the ‘brooding’ type. Not all girls/women want men who are sensitive; some people find that very off-putting. I am one of the people that was watching Carrie and Aidan and thinking ‘why’ and ‘how’ and ‘you idiot.’ Truthfully I think Aidan was too good for Carrie – she’s great, but her cheating on him with Big was far from cool. I can’t believe he took her back; that shows strength of character and also how deeply kind and lovely he was.
Big isn’t ‘horrible’, he does love Carrie. He just jerks her around throughout the entire show, and right at the last minute comes to the ‘rescue.’ It’s bittersweet; great that they’re happy but sad because of how he’s treated her all those years. He’s definitely a prick at first, dating other women at the same time and then nonchalantly leaving her for Paris without telling her (not like Petrovsky, who I liked for the most part, who actually took her with him!). She’s too emotional and he’s too detached; they’re not a good fit. But it is only a TV show (hehe), and it shows the good and bad sides of everyone. Is it a feminist show? I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘feminist’, although the scene when Charlotte tries to justify leaving her job to spend more time with Trey to Miranda is hilarious ‘my choice is my choice!’ Ok, Missy York, we get it. I think it’s just a fun show about women, for women, that is entertaining but shouldn’t be taken ‘too’ seriously.
End Note: I know the second SATC film received mixed reviews, but I love it and prefer it to the first one. I think it’s much funnier and less ‘depressing’; Big and Carrie are finally happy (besides Carrie’s silly slip with Aidan), and there are the great sub-plots: Stanford and Anthony’s wedding, Charlotte’s busty babysitter, Samantha’s menopause moments and the fun trip to Abudabi, a country that is gorgeous but so backward when it comes to sex and gender roles. And I think Miranda is the least ‘bitchy’ and happiest she’s been in the second movie.
