My wife and I, relatively, recently saw the entire six seasons of Sex and the City. The story of four New York women in their 30’s. The series is as much about being single and female in your 30’s as it is about living in Manhattan as it is about New York.
The first four seasons are the best of the show. We follow Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) from her failed relationship with Mr. Big (played by Chris North) to her engagement and her final realization that she’s not the marrying type. In the middle we see her all of her friend Samantha’s sex lives, her WASPish friend Charlotte York’s marriage and divorce to the perfect husband, and Miranda Hobbes on and off again love affair with Steve Brady.
What makes the first four seasons so entertaining is that the characters are never pathetic, the story line is funny, and the focus is on the good and the bad of New York. Some of my favourite episodes involve New York and the challenges of trying to find a relationship.
In Season 1, Carrie remarks that single people when they are the guests of married people are expected to share the sordid details of their single life. This way the married couple can both vicariously live through the single persons’ life AND be relieved they are married. I often thought that was how I watched the show.
Unfortunately Season 5 and 6 were collarateral damage of 9/11. Season 5 took place in 2001, and it was hard if not impossible to write about New York without breaking your heart. So much so that the characters actually went to West Coast in season 5, and fled all the way to Paris in season 6. Worse, whereas Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda grew out of their 30’s, Carrie remained stuck. And somehow her stuckedness was pathetic not liberating or exhilirating.
The series finale involving Carrie fleeing to Paris only to be rescued by Mr. Big in a scene straight out of Sleepless and Seatle was disappointing if not downright irritating.
The series was great for four seasons, fine for a fifth, and ended miserably.
But it did have it’s moments.