Sex and the City Mr Big

[onlyconnect]

I watched this on and off years ago and am now watching it right through from the start. I used to root for Carrie and Big but Oh my, I think he's just awful. Vacuous, trading in his money and looks, never says anything interesting and nice, just snidey.
Is that the common view?
( I know I'm decades late to the party! )

He was hot in Mad Men but not in SATC “not all cats are the same in the dark” droopy bum, urgh!

I didn’t watch a lot of it but I did see the episode where Carrie guilts Charlotte into giving her the engagement ring.

I know you don’t have to like all main characters, but I didn’t really care about the storyline after that. Carrie was completely selfish.

@MyMarmite

🤣 dry and ‘pleated’

That wasn’t him….saggy bum was Samantha’s sugar daddy. Politician wanted to be peed on by Carrie.
I liked Big, but I think Carrie brought out the worst in all the guys. She was a total pain in the arse.
Of all the recurring men, Harry was the best.

Oh, you’re right! Just went down a rabbit hole

https://ew.com/gallery/carrie-bradshaw-sex-and-the-city-boyfriends/?slide=250354#250354

Very interesting reading. Can't wait to meet Aidan. I do vaguely remember him and definitely saw the trip to the cabin episode. I'm not sure how much of it all I've seen before.
I'm watching it on a box set which I'll be selling on eBay when I've finished.

What is it about Carrie everyone dislikes so much?

I didn't mind Carrie, I just found her a bit annoying at times, she was flawed, I think that was the point. I would have been friends with her, she was also a really good friend and had her positives as well.

I haven’t watched it for a few years but I loved Carrie. I first watched when I was a teen and rewatched in my 20s so perhaps there are things that went under the radar then that would bug me now.

I see a lot of people nowadays saying Carrie was awful and can think of episodes where she acted like a knobhead, but as I remember it tended to realise it and was at least – as we know 😆 – reflective. I thought the idea was that the character was flawed, not a hero. And her pondering everything, which I guess some people found annoying and self-absorbed, was the conceit of the show - the idea was to explore sex, dating and relationships, and when it was first on it covered a lot of things that had never been part of the mainstream conversation before (even just the idea of women enjoying sex for its own sake).

Above all it was a comedy, and SJP is a great comic actress.

When I rewatched it I just thought she was money obsessed. She liked the idea Big was wealthy and kept trying to commit. Same with the Russian and showing off his big apartment. She got the cash in the end though.

I think the only one that I did find annoying at times was Charlotte as she was such a caricature and had such predictable takes on everything. I’ve never known any women like her in real life but perhaps from a writers’ perspective she was there to be a foil for the others.

I didn’t dislike her but of all the characters I found her least relatable.

I remember a couple of times thinking she was self-absorbed to the point where getting her way trumped any integrity. One was when she lied and said she had an allergy to parsley because she didn't like it and another was to do with some shoes being stolen and her making the host pay for them.

I wasn't keen on Charlotte either as the series went on. As soon as she met trey she became this judgemental person, especially towards Samantha who was actually a really supportive friend to them all. When you think who little time she was actually married to trey and she got an apartment on Park Avenue for it!

Trey was a doctor who wanted a simple life outside of his no doubt intense stressful job. Their fertility problems were too challenging for him such as the hormones she was taking, the tests, the emotional stress and he wasn't from a family (a family she wanted to married into because they were rich, white upper-class well bred types) who accepted adoption of "foreign " kids from abroad. So her "wanting marry perfect" ended in shooting herself in the foot. Tray was right in saying he's 43 now, when would this get any easier? Total mismatch.

I remember that one! Quite an anti climax re his “work”.

But as I said, “Misha” the actor, a world famous defected ballet dancer, was one of my teenage crushes!

Great actor though😃and lets not forget his mother Bunny! I dont understand why people say it hasnt aged well. Who cares? In some ways it was ahead of its time. Women enjoying sex, it put rabbits on the radar, most of them had careers and had to deal the the crap that comes with been successful in cut throat New York. They were impressed by the latest hot new thing which is typical of the time. They explored their sexuality and I think mist of them dabbled with women at some point. They were most definitely friends friends with the gay/community. It was of its time and unfortunately the new one has gone the total opposite way. Im hoping the new season has toned it down.

Mostly I miss Smith! He was the best!!

For me she just irritated me, floating around New York in ridiculous outfits (I did like some of the fashion), tripping over, being a bit ditsy but yes also money obsessed and selfish. I’m more black and white and direct in my flirting/socialising.

It was a good show in that it did flag up sex, dating and other issues and made it less taboo (the characters and their boyfriends being examples).

The two women I know who both loved this show (knew them at different times) both thought the female characters and then themselves (basing themselves on them) were amazing/groundbreaking/hilarious but they are quite loud and will talk about and consider themselves experts in certain areas.

I agree! It was set in the days of dating with no mobile phones in the beginning and only becoming "the norm" in the latter seasons. When people used landlines and answering machine messages (some storylines were centred around the messages on the machine!)

When people went out clubbing/to bars and met people/dated/had one night stands before internet dating. The internet was only mentioned in the last season (Samantha "leaking" a sex tape of her and smith) and certainly wasn't a thing in the show. Email was mentioned, but again, it was brief. Magazines and newspapers were still big and were used in the show (wedding announcements/Big and Natashas engagement/carries "Single and Fabulous?" cover/Mirandas gossip Magazines/Carries fashion magazines. A very different world!

Dating was completely different then, and I think the show gives a good representation of that!

My absolute favourite character for me (loved her even more when I found out she’s a scouser (British)), is Samantha! I could watch her all day long.

I think if you watched the show you related to one character. I’m not all Samantha by any means, but I liked her sassiness, ballsy-ness, no nonsense talk the best! Charlotte was irritating and tight laced. Miranda was interesting.

You’re right. It was set in a different time, I’m 51 but my 20s was like SATC but sort of before it came on the scene. Certain things we didn’t do. We don’t multiple date here like I heard some New Yorkers do/did.

Magazines, if you could afford them were our bibles, everything from Cosmo, Company, Vogue and More! The internet wasn’t invented or not as widely as now.

Certain sexual practices (golden showers etc) we didn’t really know about. I recall hearing about golden showers when my best friend told me one of our male friends was into it, we were both disgusted!

Certain best friends of mine were wild and used vibrators and other sex toys/activities (not me!) - SATC did give women a licence to explore.

I fancied him too back in the day! I could still recite large chunks of the (dire) dialogue of White Nights.

I can’t think of a single SATC character of either sex who isn’t god-awful.

Carrie is like a whiney selfish teenager. I agree when she convinced Charlotte to give her her ring I thought that was very spoilt too.
She went on a night out with Aidan in the film, got all dressed up and was flirting like mad with him and then kissed him, then came back screaming to the hotel ‘listen up, everyone gather around me, girls, listen to me, he KISSSSDED MEEEEEEE!!!’
I was like, you are 50 years of age. Cop yourself on.

Aidans head is absolutely huge too. It’s at least 2.75 times the size of Carries head.

I’d still watch it again though!! 😁

Stannie was adorable I cant remember him not been nice?

I think it was just how self obsessed Carrie was, imo and made everything go back to her problem. She also went to great lengths at times to try to control what people said/thought of her because of her bad behaviours. Examples I can think of:

Big always made it clear who he was in the early days and Carrie just tried to change that and rush things when he clearly didn't want to. Even stalking the church he took his mother to (the impression was he enjoyed that time with his mother and wasn't a "Carrie" focused moment). She also stalked his ex wife and made up some story to pitch a book idea to her!

She then whined/spoke constantly to her friends about the break up until they sent her to therapy. Then the next year went back for more!

Had the affair with Big, then on hearing he and Natasha split she had the cheek to find out where Natasha was having lunch (after it was made clear Natasha was never going to return her call) to go and "apologise" to her, only it was only ever about mending "her" bad karma, not because she was actually sorry.

She made a big deal of getting Aiden back then pushed away all attempts made by him to move forward (engagement/moving in) like a normal relationship. I know people said Aiden was trying to force her into these things, but he was just being normal wanting marriage/live together. She even invited Big to his country house!

Miranda called her out a few times, notably with "the bullshit bagels" Carrie brought over as a ploy to talk about Aiden and their argument when Carrie was meeting Big for lunch and Miranda argued she keeps going back for more.

When her and Aiden split the first time after the affair, Carrie didn't seem upset at all in the following episodes or even mentioned Aiden! She just had a few dates/shags with various guys and Aiden only gets mentioned again when they see him and Steve in the street having a drink together. Then the first thought is 'oh they must be talking about us!' (they weren't, they were with their new girlfriends).

Also when she stalked the "face girl" so she could tell her not to judge etc, and that's when stanford calls her out for talking about that woman for 10 blocks yet just says "nice" when he asks her opinion on his new boyfriend!

Oh and having a go at Charlotte for not offering to lend her the money to buy her apartment!

So many! I'm sure there's loads more examples!

There was a great podcast talking to the creators and cast. The ring episode was a split issue even when it was written.
Can you imagine a post on here. ‘I work barely a few hours a week and spend thousands of pounds on shoes and designer outfits. AIBU to ask my friend to sell her jewellery to pay for my flat deposit?.’

I rewatch it every few years and Samantha is the character that holds up. It’s such a pity she was treated so badly and has not come back as the new series needed her desperately. I remember Stanfield was bitter about the 3rd movie being cancelled because she wouldn’t sign up, not sure what they expected after film no.2.

Ive rewatched Girls a few times as well and my opinions on that changed a lot from first viewing too.

I went to see White Nights twice alone after going once with friends! Loved the dancing in it.

We had modern (jazz?) dance lessons in our secondary modern girls school and I’d done lots of ballet too so we were dance obsessed!

I agree with you re SATC characters being god awful on the whole. I watched it but came late to the party on watching it.