Sex and the City, Seasons One and Two
c. 1998-1999
Carrie Bradshaw, protagonist and sex-columnist, you aren’t as fabulous as you seem to think you are. At least, not yet.
For years, person after person has told me that I need to watch Sex and the City. My sister, my friend Lauren, the Emmys, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, People magazine, TBS . . . the list never ends. We even watched the foot fetish episode in my Sociology of Sexuality class a couple years back. I felt about this show the way other people probably feel when I start talking about Battlestar Galactica: “Shut up, already!”
When I watch a TV show for the first time, I turn off my critical brain and try to enjoy myself, to lose myself in whatever world I’m being sold. I watched all twelve episodes of SATC Season One in about a week. The episodes are short and easy to fit into a busy schedule . . . but I wasn’t that impressed. “Just keep going,” my sister tells me, “the first season sucks.” “It gets better,” says Lauren. And I believed them, so I rented Season Two. It took me a month and a half to get through. That is a really long time to watch eighteen episodes of any series, let alone one that has episodes which are only thirty minutes long (as an example, I once got through twenty-two hour-long episodes of Veronica Mars in just one day). So, unless seasons three through six take a drastic turn in style and plot, the SATC universe and I are most likely not meant to be bedfellows.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that this is bad TV. There have certainly been worse things to air in the past fifty years. The writing is competent, even engaging at times, it’s almost always well-structured and filmed, and rarer than I would have thought (seeing how this is supposed to be a comedy), is even funny on occasion. But see, that’s the thing. I don’t find Carrie & Co.’s world to be funny or amusing or touching or whatever else my sex-starved, man-centered generation finds it to be. I find it horrifying. It’s like when you’re watching one of those documentaries on the Discovery Channel about penguins or hyenas or whatever, and you’re just like, “Motherfucker, I’m glad I’m not a hyena.” And then the hyena eats somebody’s bowels and you drink more alcohol and go put on some pajama pants and celebrate the miracle of evolution.
Here’s my problem: this isn’t a show about characters, it’s a show about sex. Darren Star (and Candace Bushnell) are depicting a way of life. Each episode is like a portrait, a mini-lesson, about their views of the world. Maybe it’s because I live in a world that is the polar opposite of that one, or because I’m the type of person who would never inhabit that world if given a choice, but I find the whole premise shallow and blah. How much can we get away with? they seem to be asking. Aren’t these clothes pretty? Will you love me with my curly hair and pretend-writer skills? Okay, now I’m being bitchy. Let me give you some more concrete examples. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha are not characters (at least, as far I’ve seen). They are merely tools through which these stories and “groundbreaking” images can be broadcast. Mind you, the one or two episodes I saw on their own and out of context entertained me greatly, far more than any of these episodes did in sequence.
I’m tired of seeing Charlotte act like a prude. She’s not a prude. If this is what people think a prude is, then I think my definition needs to be adjusted. I’m tired of Carrie & Co. pretending they are poor. Newsflash: you’re buying $700 shoes? Shut the fuck up and stop complaining. You aren’t poor. I’m tired of the two-minute relationships. There is no fucking way these women meet that many men in a year. It’s just not possible, unless they were hookers. I’m tired of all the losers. Half the men (plot devices) most normal women wouldn’t stay with if given half a second, but Carrie and Charlotte and Miranda, so desperate and lonely, have to at least keep on trucking ’til the end of the episode. Get higher standards, ladies. I’m tired of Carrie expecting Mr. Big to be anything other than the man she fell in love with (dangerous, unstable, undependable, commitment phobic) and then freaking out when he breaks her heart. And most of all, I’m tired of hearing about sex. It’s like Miranda says in one Season Two episode, “Can’t we talk about anything other than men?” (One of the reasons she’s my favorite.) The answer, by the way, is apparently “No.” Sure, I talk about sex. But I also talk about work and school and family and chores and cooking and pooping and politics and television and coffee and whatever else. I fucking talk about doing the laundry or whatever.
There have been bright spots, coming from Miranda, mostly. She seems to be the only one with her head on straight (mostly). In the last half of Season Two, I did feel for Carrie and Samantha a couple of times. Twice for Carrie: once when she dumped Big, and then again when she barfed on the beach in the penultimate episode. It was a raw, emotional moment for the character that had nothing to do with rationalization. This show needs more of those moments. The one time I felt something (besides contempt) for Samantha was in the Season Two finale, “Ex and the City” (which was actually the best episode of the series so far). Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda are serenading Samantha with “The Way We Were” (which she’d never seen) and she just bursts randomly into tears and says, “I miss James!” James, being the man she loved, but dumped because his penis was very very tiny. But then the good feelings that moment made for me went away because I remembered how mad I was when she dumped him in the first place. If you are fucking lucky enough to fall in love, you shallow bitches, YOU DON’T DUMP SOMEBODY BECAUSE OF PENIS SIZE! IT’S CALLED ORAL SEX!
So, yes, Sex and the City (Seasons One and Two) is a cultural milestone, a damn ground-breaker, nothing like it before on TV, blah, blah, blah . . . but it paints a picture I have no interest in seeing. Certainly not one I would ever hang on my wall and look at on a daily basis. Oh, gross. Think about that one for a second.
Dear Ashley,
I <3 U.
An old friend of mine once concluded that Sex in the City had corrupted all of the women she knew. They always began to act more like the characters once they began watching the show. To her this was a travesty.
Yeah, it horrifies me too. But I thought it was just because I was one of those guy-prudes.
-P-
While IRL I’m like the anti-sex and the city (I can barely manage wobbling from the house to the car in heels, and the only guys I’ve slept with I’ve been married to) I got really, really, really into that show for a while. Now, when I catch a stray episode on TV, I feel mostly the same way you do about it, but man – it provided some nice fluffy escapism when I needed it to.
Escapism is nice :) Although, when I do it, there are definitely spaceships and monsters involved.
I think I like Sex and the City because I CAN’T relate to it. I have no interest in living like that and I think that everyone except Miranda is an emotionally-stunted idiot. I do, however, find them entertaining. It’s an escape.
The later seasons get better, trust me. Plus, Carrie gets better. And do not, under any circumstances, read the book or anything else by Candace Bushnell. VOMIT. Worst books ever. I couldn’t even finish Sex and the City and I’m a pretty big fan of the show. Somehow, the TV shows based on her books have more well-developed characters and plots than the actual novels.
I was, and am, a long way from the target demographic for this show, but I watched it–not just once or twice, but the whole thing–and I think your assessment is pretty much right on. When the show was still airing, someone asked me if I thought it was as ground breaking as it was made out to be, and the opinion I had then is the one I still have now: If it weren’t for the fact that they were on HBO and could say and show things that other shows couldn’t, it wouldn’t be considered to be anything remotely new.
I never really grew to care too much about any of the characters, and, in fact, probably cared the least about the main character. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy laughing at things some of the time, but if I ever stopped for even a moment to contemplate anything about it, I liked everything about the show less.
There is one time I can still recall feeling an emotional connection for what was happening to one of them (it was in a later season, so I won’t get into the situation), but times like that were far more sporadic than I feel they should be.
Does it get better? That’s a hard question to answer. Do they grow over time? Yes, but very slowly and some more than others. Do the issues you raised ever go away? No, not really. May it’s less that it gets better and more that it wears you down. (Too harsh? Ok, fine: You become accustomed to it.)
Also, I wish I had words for how hilariously awesome it is that in your list of other topics you discuss you’ve got all sorts of serious and/or mundane topics, but then have pooping thrown in there along with the rest.
“Look! Swearing! Naked! Let’s give them an Emmy!” Yeah, I see what you mean.
I think it does get better in the third and fourth seasons, but then goes way downhill, mainly because Carrie is so annoying. I don’t heart the show all that much, but it does hold a special place in my heart because my friends and I would watch it a lot in college. So really it just reminds me of college and being with my friends. That is all. Hi!
Oh, nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that.
PS: the movie sucks hard, don’t watch it.
I’ve managed to see most of the episodes kind of by accident, mostly due to living in a dorm for half the time the show was on.
It does get better in terms of character development and giving all the characters more arc — in the later shows they turn less into “types” and more into people — but it’s still working from the bizarre “the prissy one, the slutty one, the smart one, and Carrie” framework, so you know.
I have a weird relationship with Sex and the City, because I totally can see all its flaws — shallowness, hollow world view, etc. — but I still find it totally compelling and entertaining, and I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. I don’t really recommend sticking with it if it hasn’t worn you down yet though.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I can objectively see how people might enjoy it, but it just doesn’t do anything for me. Usually, any sort of guilty pleasure that I watch involves cheesy space opera and all that goes along with that.
I agree with Jen above, and Brenda as well (she’s actually spot on about how I feel about the show).
The show is definitely an escape for me. I like living (for brief periods of time) in a world that I would never actually want to live in. I love their clothes, their jobs, the crazy city they live in, and I enjoy Carrie’s sense of humor in her writing. I don’t relate to most of what they have going on, but I can relate to certain emotions and situations that occur. Carrie can be annoying, but I’ve come to a greater understanding of her through my *many* re-watchings of the show. Miranda is and always will be my favorite character though. I love her story arc, her sarcasm, and (in later seasons) her fashions and style. But I guess I like each character for different reasons.
Seasons one and two are NOT my favorite. I pretty much love Seasons 4-6 (6 being my favorite). I think the first couple of seasons just set things up, and they relied too much on being shocking. You may not agree once you get there, but around Season 3 and beyond, I think you will start to feel something for the characters. You may hate them still (I’m pretty sure you will always hate Samantha, just because I know you, although you may appreciate her more in the later seasons). But I think you will be more interested in them.
Oh, and I, personally, enjoyed the movie. I’ll be interested to see what you think, if you make it through the show. Don’t waste your time on the movie if you don’t finish the seasons of the show.
Sometimes I still can’t believe I love this show so much, and sometimes I’m not sure why. I don’t know what it is, because I am not a chick-flick type of girl. Maybe it has to do with the fact that a tiny part of me would love to live a vapid life filled with men and clothes and being really rich. But then I remember I have a brain and care too much about things to ever actually live a life like that.
:) Lauren
Dear Lauren,
You like this show because you like sex.
Love,
Ashley
No, but seriously, thanks for your (long) comment. I love long comments. They make me feel special. And yes, you do know me. I believe that I shall always hate Samantha. She’s probably my nemesis.
Okay, so I also agree with the assessment. HOWEVER, I can’t help but like it. It DOES get a little better, but yes, Miranda is for sure the most level-headed of the bunch.
Now, I’m going to try to explain why it’s actually on my list of favorites on facebook. It IS fluff- I’m certainly not looking for a deeper meaning or a Buffy or a BSG in it. The characters are far too underdeveloped and the plot is far to shallow. But you sort of come to appreciate the characters as being more of representations of different types of women. You come to appreciate the plot, merely because these women- successful, confident, and independent- STILL endure heartbreak, just like me. But then, the moral of the story is that you’re still awesome and have cool friends and fun clothes and a career and someday the next guy will come around. The last thing Carrie says in the series is something that after watching ALL the seasons made me realize what the show’s about. It’s not necessarily JUST about SEX. It’s about being true to who you are.
Shallow and vapid, yes. A little cliche, yes. Occasionally horrifying, yes. But sometimes funny, and a little endearing in all it’s flaws.
And to tell you the truth, I find it slightly educational…
Oh, Lindsay. Educational? Ha ha.
THANK YOU LINDSAY! You are so much better at expressing yourself than me. You hit the nail on the head. The final line of the show is one of my favorite quotes ever. It’s perfect, especially for my life presently. Working on your relationship with yourself really is the most important thing :)
Quit watching it and start Star Trek TNG.
For the millionth time! I’m watching TOS first!
Wait, you haven’t seen TNG?? What the heck are you doing watching SATC, then? You’ve got more important things to do! ;)
Thank you! She has the entire series sitting on her bookshelf yet she won’t watch it. Crazy.
Good news: I’m stopping with SATC (for now), and I shall be getting to TNG presently, as soon as I’ve finished with The Original Series. At least, the first season.
To Everyone Who Commented:
Thank you for your thoughts. I think what I have decided to do is stop watching this show. At least, for now. I want to finish Stargate Atlantis and start Star Trek: The Next Generation and I also want to watch Eureka and Burn Notice. Maybe in August I’ll pick SATC back up and if I’m still not enjoying myself after Season Three (and maybe Four), I’m gonna give it up. Even though that’s probably actually a lie because my OCD will not let me give up and I will have to watch the whole thing.
I’ve seen all those shows except Burn Notice. GREAT picks. I really like Eureka – especially Season 1. I think I’m going to go back and watch it again.
“Motherfucker, I’m glad I’m not a hyena.”
It’s my new life motto.