To ask your opinions on Sex and the City?

No way would Carrie have voted Trump! They were all clearly Democrats, even if Charlotte might have started off Republican 😆 Carrie would have so been a Hillary girl.

I once tried to read 4 Blondes - at the time Candace Bushnell books were always being given away for free with magazines (Gen Zers missed the era of the fashion magazine which is partly what formed the culture of the show…and in the early 2000s women’s magazines were a big deal, with a kind of free gift war going on - free books, free CDs, free beach totes, free clothes - I still have an excellent All Saints vest that came free with Elle in about 2005…<sigh>) Anyway, I found Bushnell’s actual writing impossible to get into. It’s written in a really odd style and it’s really hard to keep track of the narrative - not like the TV show at all.

Loved it then, love it now. It's The Thing to hate Carrie now but I always loved her. She was flawed, dramatic, self centred yes, like I imagine many young women might be who are jostling for social position in a city like NYC, but this blanket assertion that she was a terrible friend never rings true for me. She was the focal point of the show so of course you'd see her more often and at her very worst at times, for dramatic purposes. Miranda as she is now in AJLT, is a horrendous character and it's self inflicted. This is what the actress wanted! I think the producers and writers let her have her way because KC wasn't coming back & they knew they couldn't make it work with only two of the main four.

Gen Zer here- watching w interest as I read an interview w Candace Bushnell in the New Yorker- I'd always though S & C sounded flimsy, but now am interested. Has anyone read 4 Blondes? She thought that was her best book.
I read the tradwifey Evie magazine out of curiosity & they recently claimed Carrie would've voted Trump! They don't support sex before marriage so I was quite amused at the endorsement

Loved it when it originally aired - but because it was well-produced, funny and entertaining, not because I thought it was deep or wonderful. I was in my early 20s and so it was (at least the first few seasons) ridiculous yet quite sophisticated fluff, basically - something to look forward to with a gin and tonic after dinner on Saturday night. There wasn’t anything else out there like it, silly as it often was.

The fashion and storylines were also a lot more believable in the earlier seasons - the later ones when it all got a bit too OTT, and especially the ghastly and totally implausible Russian boyfriend character played by Mikhail Baryshnikov, got a bit too much. Didn’t mind the first film though it was a bit predictable - but I remember seeing the second on a plane and being just open-mouthed at how bad it was. Couldn’t bear to watch And Just Like That after reading about some of the storylines, ffs. Best to just pretend doesn’t exist 😆

Miranda was always my favourite - but I think, watching it in my early twenties, I didn’t quite realise that all the characters act as though they are in their twenties, rather than thirties and then forties as they are meant to be. By the time I was in my thirties I could not have imagined acting like any of them do - they are as daft as schoolgirls at times and seem perpetually unable to make normal decisions. Watching it again in my mid thirties I was shocked at how juvenile and silly Carrie is and how little poise and dignity they have (and all of them, including Samantha!)

I also love the new characters in AJLT & the bigger role for Anthony!

I adored SATC, loved the movies (as thought they were fun fluff) & loving AJLT.

Friendship is at the heart of it & they're imperfect people (as is everyone!) & it's a great piece of nostalgia!

Check out a YouTuber called Aspyn J. She has a number of videos analysing SATC and some of her takes are really insightful. She has a full series around Carrie and Big and just how toxic it was:

Apologies, Lisa Todd Wesley, from AJLT. Charlotte is desperate to befriend her and refers to her by her initials. As I do with SJP😂

Shite!

...and like counting how many times per episode Carrie breaks into that silly hopping run in the middle of walking anywhere and presses her palm to her chest to show when she's being earnest.

Carrie was self-centred, but so charming, that I never even noticed. Samantha and Miranda were amazing and Charlotte was a complete dullard.

Aidan had bad hair and a dad bod.

Once the layers of mystery were removed from Big, he was actually boring.

I still love watching it, though.

I’m in my mid 30s and I haven’t watched it either. Thought I might have missed out, but it doesn’t look like it would stand the test of time so we clearly haven’t missed much.

I always thought it was naff

I watched it as a child, so had no opinion at the time because I barely understood what's going on, but in hindsight after watching some episodes as an adult I think Carrie is horrid. She suffers from main characteritis - meaning she does so many awful things but the show doesn't treat her as awful because she is a main character

Shit things that Carrie did:

Made her boyfriend and the guy she'd been cheating on him with go camping together.

Asked her friend to sell her wedding ring so she could have the money.

Interrupted her friends having a heart to heart about their kids so she could whine about cheating on Big with Aidan in Morocco.

Blamed miranda for her husband jilting her because she made an offhand comment about marriage being stupid.

I could go on. She was atrocious. At best, it is hangover, chewing gum telly.

Oh yes.

Very, very dated really.

Brilliant writing still. I couldn't be arsed to watch the new series apart from individual clips. Had it on my to-do list but life's too short.

I also find the fashion and attention seeking behaviour absolutely horrendous/cringe now.

Now that I've got more life experience, can see how awful Carrie was - or maybe that was the point?

Samantha seems to have been absolutely parodied in the (rubbish) second film. Probably the best true feminist there

Still would watch an episode or couple clips for old times sake!

Not my theory here but doing the rounds on X!

1. Big is actually damaged goods in his own (super rich) social class due to his first divorce, sleeping around too much, hanging with models.

Bit like beautiful normal posh women not wanting Elon Musk - if you're already from a rich family and have a nice life, a weird rich man with problems isn't attractive.

1. This is why he dates Carrie as she's so easy to impress/dismiss, he moves to France not only for work but to make a new start socially. Carrie has no power, she doesn't have a rich family to back her up.

All the rich A list women in New York don't want to marry Big or have a serious relationship with him. He really was obsessed with dating a successful actress in one episode - but she wasn't interested.

They might sleep with him but despite his wealth, he's seen as a bit odd/outsider/the fallback guy.

Carrie isn't in his social circles or anywhere near his social class so she doesn't hear how undesirable he is as she's not friends with his friends.

He doesn't tell his mother about her, and the only 'friend" of his she meets is a guy who owns a restaurant he visits often.

1. Natasha is younger and they meet in France so Big had some space to get to her and charm her, and is now "back in" with the posh rich set. The new start worked.

But Bigs promiscuity crops up again with the affair.

1. Big only considers marrying Carrie after Natasha divorces him as (with two divorces, Natasha's family bad-mouthing him in New York) his reputation is now completely gone.

No one of his class wants the drama he brings. He settles for her....even doesn't want the big public wedding with her (although it's her first and only wedding).

If he'd been marrying someone from a rich family he'd have agreed to a big wedding with as many prominent people there as possible. He's still essentially embarrassed by Carrie.

Even the SATC2 storyline with Big not wanting to go out with Carrie to premieres and parties ...still all about him not wanting to be seen as a couple in public life.