To ask your opinions on Sex and the City?

[mumofoneAlonebutokay]

I saw something on tiktok today that said 'Carrie was to Big what Janice was to Chandler' 👀👀😬

I rewatch it all the time tbh, it's my fave show but now that Gen Z have found it, there are a lot of hot takes available online

What do people think of Carrie, now that 20 years have passed? Who's your fave? x

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

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!)

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

This is the woman who voices all my thoughts, shes amazing and is on tiktok as well

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.

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.

I came across her channel very randomly a few weeks back but have now watched all of her SATC (and AJLT) related videos. I’m not sure if she has any professional qualifications in psychology etc or she is just very bright and insightful but she makes some excellent points and has a wicked sense of humour too. Her editing in some of the commentary, memes etc is a thing of beauty. Personal favourites - “I’m still a piece of garbage” and “Bye Ashy” in her final instalment of the Carrie & Big series when Carrie is scattering his ashes in Paris 😂

During the show’s original run I was 17-22, so whilst I watched a few episodes I certainly wasn’t a loyal viewer. I have watched them all since, plus the films and the two series of AJLT. I think the show is very much representative of its time, a bit like Friends which I loved. There’s a lot of things that writers just wouldn’t get away with now or would be seen as problematic.

My favourite was Samantha - completely authentic and unapologetically comfortable in her femininity and sexuality. A successful business woman and a true ride or die friend (diaphragm anyone?!) She was completely let down in the second film by the writers and just made into a caricature and the butt of the jokes.

It was very much of its time and I liked it (then) for the way it encapsulated youthful aspirations. It does feel dated now, but I think it was obvious it was going to even at the height of its popularity - it was all about encapsulating the zeitgeist not exploring more universal themes. It had some well written wit to it, which I always appreciate on TV. Much preferred it to Friends which I found a dull and annoying.

Hated Carrie from the get go, though. Always thought she was absolutely awful. She was a whiny, vacuous trope and I’ve never been able to see what others like in her.

Well this kind of makes my point! If these are the best...

She always had this look of a toddler raiding her mum's wardrobe - random, hilarious, over the top - but somehow not eccentric enough to be cool or edgy. Her tiny skinny figure and unusual face does not help!

I loved it then and love it now. It is a bit naff at times especially the older ones where Carrie spoke to the camera… but I still love it. I find it comforting to watch! I can’t say I feel Janice and Carrie are comparable. Carrie wasn’t annoying like Janice! Big loved her he was just stupid!

I liked how all the women were different and someone could probably relate to each one! I love how Carrie (SJP) has never had surgery and aged gracefully!

It came our while I was flatsharing in London in my early 20s. My flatmates and I used go "hate watch" it, it peals of laughter at how awful and self absorbed Carrie was and Samantha's improbable sexploits.

The idea it was some aspirational template for single womanhood was hilarious. It was so far removed from our single lives in London we may as well have been on the moon.

My favourite man was Harry.

When my dd was first born, she cried for the first 6 hours and I cried too as it reminded me of sex and the city Charlottes baby and how I would live my life with a baby that was constantly crying😂

I'm glad I watched it because many times in my life, I have taken a leaf out of satc and I recognise some of Carries erratic behaviour as I once in a toxic relationship.

I've never watched a single episode

I watched one episode and thought it was just puerile nonsense.

I grew up in catholic Ireland, so it's hard to convey now, how ground breaking it was in terms of women talking about their sexual experiences. My mind was blown.

It was a lot of fun too and I enjoyed all the fashion and designer stuff (though some of that has dated horribly).

So regardless of where it ended up, it meant a lot at the time.

I'm a similar age to the actresses and as above poster said, you have to realise it was ground-breaking at the time. A show set around 4 WOMEN! And talking so openly about SEX! There had been nothing like it before. To me, it was a show about female friendship and did touch on serious themes like sexism in the workplace, infertility, menopause, cancer etc.

And Samantha had the best lines; " I'm dating a guy with the funkiest tasting spunk... " 😂

'There had been nothing like it before. To me, it was a show about female friendship and did touch on serious themes like sexism in the workplace, infertility, menopause, cancer etc.'

Completely agree. I particularly love that Samantha was openly appalled by marriage and children, and completely unapologetic about it! It also showed some very relatable moments when the friends fall out / let each other down / make unreasonable demands of each other - it wasn't all happy happy gal pals. They were always the most interesting bits I reckon.

There are a million problems with the whole show of course. Horrible toxic relationships presented as 'love'. The gay men were portrayed as a cross between a pet and an accessory. Carrie is awful but I absolutely adore SJP and her outfits were (mostly) stunning so I can get over it! I still watch the show and still love it, overall

Carrie is an awful, selfish friend!!
And even all these years later in And Just Like That she's still an awful needy friend!

Loved it when it was on, think it’s aged horribly like most things.
When I’ve rewatched it I hated the fact that Carrie was so money obsessed,

Pressed too soon. She was clearly impressed by Petrovskys money, all that showing the girls his big apartment stuff and he was never particularly nice I don’t think.
Anyway, she got the cash in the end.

I agree with this. I found Samantha particularly desperate and cringy and never got the love for her - she seemed the shallowest of them all to me, completely superficial just a lot less little girly which perhaps made it less obvious. To me she was the narcissist because there was no depth, every man she met it was just about sex, every conversation she had, it came back to sex. I thought she was very one dimensional, she just had the cutting one liners but I didn't think she did women (as a whole) any favours with that character.

She seems to loathe men so why is so desperate for sex with them? I was always baffled by that one. I always thought she must have had a lot of childhood issues. Certainly very far from 'aspirational'.

The characters are all so awful and unrealistic but I think that's what draws people to it, You can watch their toxic car crash lives and be thankful that you have personality and depth and a life beyond shoes.

Agree with everything you said, as much as carrie is terrible, she's also great😄

Miranda is so awful in ajlt, so clear that she just didn't want to film with men 😬. Cynthia was obvs a lesbian but women can be tomboys without being gay!

Forgot all about the Russian 🤣This thread making me want to watch it all over again.

Defo watch it - I'll be honest, I wouldn't bother with the books at this point

😄 satc is everywhere, one of those shows that holds up so well, despite issues with some of the things that are said

I've not read 4 blondes