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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Sex and The City

143 replies

Theteenandme · 04/08/2025 13:40

I've never watched it before (apart from half the episode where Carrie loses her shoes and is a bitch about it). Its absolutely awful and such bad acting!

Did people really like it originally? Or was it one of those things people said they liked because they thought they should?

I dont think it's just looking at it through modern eyes. I cant imagine I would have thought much of it at the time either.

OP posts:
Bretonsoup · 05/08/2025 00:57

The original series — love it. Have watched it maybe twenty times since it originally came out.

ByLimeAnt · 05/08/2025 01:02

Loved it as a late teenager. Now I'm the same age as the characters my reaction is more WTF!

MuckFusk · 05/08/2025 01:09

I know people who to this day are obsessed with that inane show.
I would watch it if there was nothing better on and it was amusing at times. It was certainly not a high quality show.
I can't see any valid argument for thinking it was, but it was a fantasy that a lot of women liked. The very notion that someone who writes a weekly column could afford a large apartment in Manhattan is laughable. But I guess the people who loved it just suspended disbelief. One thing I will say for it is that it was a show about women, which there were none of at the time. So it was groundbreaking in that sense. It was good to see that happen, but I wish it didn't represent women as so superficial.

Isitreallysohard · 05/08/2025 01:19

JHound · 04/08/2025 17:35

The only different views they have are on sex.

Apart from that you can still get on. I was a super whore when younger and one of my closest friends is very catholic and did not believe in sex before marriage.

We still get on like a house on fire. Also Charlotte did spend much time with just her and Samantha.

I thought the friendship was the best bit about the show, they were all quite different but such great friends, even with the occasion fall out.

MuckFusk · 05/08/2025 01:22

OtherS · 04/08/2025 16:08

I watched them at the time, but never liked any of the characters. Can't stand Carrie, always found her really cringey. And none of the relationships made much sense to me, either the romantic ones or the friendships. Why would Steve want Miranda? Why would Baryshnikov want Carrie? Why would Charlotte be friends with Samantha, or vice versa? Didn't much like any of the clothes either tbh. But it was pretty watchable, and only short episodes. There probably was also an element of it being such a big deal it would be weird to not watch it. Haven't watched any of the reboot though as it looks dreadful.

It is dreadful. It desperately panders to every single social trend and most of the characters are batshit crazy. I admit I hatewatch it just to talk shit about it with my hatewatching friends.
This season isn't as bad as the last two, which were ludicrous. The gross part was they brought Aiden back, but he's left, thankfully. He was a boring, dimwitted character in SATC and that did not change in the reboot.
Carrie is still cringe-worthy. Actually she's even worse because she's now extremely rich and uber privileged. Even Mario Cantone isn't funny in this. He was funny in SATC. The writing is so bad that nobody in the cast could possibly save it.
So there is my short review which hopefully will make you happy you haven't watched it.

redrose115 · 05/08/2025 01:29

I never watched it properly. I have seen a handful of episodes but not in any order. I watched the two SATC movies. I have nothing against it and it is entertaining. I can’t quite place my finger on it why it doesn’t appeal to me to binge watch it.

x2boys · 05/08/2025 01:40

I think SATC appeals. To an era if you didn't watch it back in the day you probably don't understand it which is fine
I watch AJLT, because I waa a big fan of SATC but I dint expect everyone to like it

summertimeinLondon · 05/08/2025 01:48

ByLimeAnt · 05/08/2025 01:02

Loved it as a late teenager. Now I'm the same age as the characters my reaction is more WTF!

Similar - it was great fun fluff television when I was in my early twenties and living a rather boring life as a graduate student with no money. I went to New York for my 30th birthday and enjoyed having cocktails and going shopping (though it was more Anthropologie than high fashion!) But when watching it again in my 30s I could not believe how daft all the characters were and how little they acted like grown women in their 30s/40s (even Miranda and Samantha who are meant to be a corporate lawyer and a PR executive with her own agency).

So I think they were very watchable if you were younger than the characters, since they sort of make sense to younger women because they actually act a lot of the time like inexperienced twentysomethings. Once you’re the age the characters are actually meant to be, you can’t believe that thirtysomething professional women would be so ditzy and end up in quite so many silly situations 😆

DedododoDedadada · 05/08/2025 02:51

There was far less choice when it originally aired, so while i thought it was awful, I still watched it or had it on in background. Always hated the characters though.

Isitreallysohard · 05/08/2025 03:09

Vitrolinsanity · 04/08/2025 19:19

I don’t think we were supposed to love Carrie; I always saw her as a cautionary tale whereas even Charlotte had a game plan and was a genuine friend. Also the funeral flowers for Miranda’s mother was comedy hold.

i watched it in real time; everyone I knew modelled themselves on Miranda and Samantha Jones.

There were lots of funny moments, it was such a great show.

Isitreallysohard · 05/08/2025 03:13

HeadNorth · 04/08/2025 14:50

I loved it at the time. I haven't watched it since, or the follow up series. But I thought it was great at the time, I loved that the main characters could be shallow and selfish and fun, enjoy dressing up and going out and doing things that weren't worthy. And fall out with each other and be catty, then make up and support each other. At the time, that was truly ground breaking for female main characters.

I don't get all the the people scrambling to put it down now as if they are too superior to enjoy anything so frivolous. Get over yourself. It was a fun show - not a philosophy symposium.

Well said! 🤗

groovergirl · 05/08/2025 04:31

It struck me at the time that Carrie's story was a reboot of Jane Eyre: An adventurous young woman of uncertain origin, surviving on her wits and engaged with yet critically analysing the society around her. Meeting and making friends and allies. Falling for a rich older man (Big/Rochester) who seems to delight in tormenting her.

On a lighter note, my friends and I, as wanderlusty Australians, would howl over the crazy waste of money on stuff. There was an ep in which everyone was scrambling to buy a Fendi Baguette as a status symbol. Cue the Melbourne ladies: "Are they effing kidding us? For the price of that shit bag we could get a return airfare to somewhere amazing!"

Catladywithoutacat · 05/08/2025 04:58

Yes I liked it, funny and I like the two movies and the spin off

Hollieandtheivie · 05/08/2025 05:25

I actually thought they were getting into their stride in this series of AJLT. I'd started to enjoy it more, and was surprised it's been cancelled.

JHound · 05/08/2025 12:17

Hollieandtheivie · 05/08/2025 05:25

I actually thought they were getting into their stride in this series of AJLT. I'd started to enjoy it more, and was surprised it's been cancelled.

Same, I learned yesterday it was cancelled and that really surprised me.

Tekknonan · 05/08/2025 12:20

It was good in its day but hasn't really stood the test of time. The films were dreadful.

Strategies25 · 05/08/2025 12:30

SpaceRaccoon · 04/08/2025 13:45

having realised how much of a pain and a moan Carrie was

Weirdly, I'm doing a rewatch just now as I'm not gelling with much new stuff at present (I feel like I've watched everything recent that's good) - not only is she completely self-absorbed, a bitch to Samantha, but omg the NEEDINESS with Big is off the scale. I don't know how that man didn't run screaming in the opposite direction from her. She was a nightmare!

Yes I watched it at the time it came out with my flatmates- we were three single girls living in London- and we thought Carrie was so absolutely awful!!!

it was a freak show basically- but entertaining for being so extreme.

now I’m older I really like the fact that the main character is awful and unlikable (as are all the other characters)

I also tried to binge watch it years later and it left me feeling really low.

it’s a really weird show- but weirdly entertaining nonetheless

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