Sex and the City TV Series 19982004

A sensuous and ironic sitcom about four young desirable virtually inseparable New York bachelorettes who lead and confide in eachother their ever changing and confusing sex lives as different as their natures. Carrie Bradshaw is a charming petite columnist and often the narrator of the story either writing her copy or off screen constantly tossing up and rejecting different views on just about anything that does or might impact modern womens sex lives she tries almost everything is constantly disappointed but always seems to return to a certain Mr. Big. Miranda Hobbes is a redhair lawyer determined to score professionally and to be tough in love to yet her only faithful lover is an insecure nerd. Charlotte York is a gallerymanaging wasp from a prestigious superrich family with high oldfashioned moral standards for her lovable but insecure self but unfortunately almost impossible to live up to for any lover whenever she can find a socially acceptable one. Samantha ...

Review

I first caught SATC in the late nineties and thought it was great. At the time the show really captured a certain nineties sensibility it was cynical tongueincheek adult. Though not your average SATC fan heterosexual thirtysomething male working in IT I became obsessed and was sure to see each new episode the first time it aired. However over time I became disillusioned with the series.

First I eventually read the book. Despite the author's reluctance to say anything the show never was much like the book and has over the years strayed far far away. The book is like most of Candace Bushnell's work insightful and witty with its humor derived from a certain urbane severity it shares more with the works of Carrie Fischer and Tama Janowitz than any of the stuff now labeled Chick Lit.

Bushnell's characters may fall in love even marry. They may have Manolos and Birkin bags but this is all background noise of sorts. Bushnell is an underrated popanthropologist depicting the tribes that inhabit the big city. We may no longer be hunting our food or struggling to keep the fire going but it is still all about survival. Bushnell is great at depicting the primal hunger that while it once made man fight to the death over territory or a fresh kill now makes women deck themselves out in top gear and hunt down that Banker or Fortune 500 Executive or fight toothandnail to break through the glass ceiling.

Second somewhere midlife SATC the show got lost. All that incidental stuff the shoes and bags and placestobeseen moved from the background to the foreground. The show became one long glossy luxury goods advertisement the kind found in Vanity Fair. The movie underlines this while there are great story lines etc the theatrical release is one obscene orgy of consumerism and decadence.

Too bad. The last years of SATC is an insult to both the book and the early years of the show. It is certainly an insult to the public but considering SATC was most popular in its later years maybe the insult is much deserved.