Sex and the City

There are some series that really take you back to a certain era. Series that have characters that stick with you as you move through your own life. Sex and the City does that, and it is always wonderful to re-watch it.

I would never have imagined that Sex and the City would cause such a negative reaction. It is particularly surprising that anyone from London would dare be self-righteous enough as to spew a lengthy harangue of moral rights and wrongs. Since when is London high on morality? The show is something to be taken with a grain of salt. For those that think that it send the wrong message about sex, it's not an after school special and there is no reason to remind a thirty-something year old to practice safe sex. The show is on HBO late at night for a reason. I do not understand the point of watching the show if one does not like it. It's the TV show executives and cast that end up laughing all the way to the bank - while those sitting on their couches, complaining, are simultaneously boosting the shows ratings. Why bother contributing awareness and popularity to something that one so avidly disagrees with?

I am only a recent viewer of the show, now running on TBS - so I get the watered-down version, which is still quite enjoyable. I somewhat relate to both the women and the situations presented. I appreciate the fact that the show touches on some major issues of singles in the dating world while, at the same time, not having an overly dramatic or depressing tone. It's fun and light hearted - it celebrates the shallowness in each one of us while also recognizing the basic faults that make us human. In a sense it is hyperbole, but what good TV show isn't? Everything in the world does not have to be serious - in reality no one is politically correct all of the time. The show should not be viewed as representative of men, women, and New York - this is not the way the show is meant to be observed. Take as a spoof on dating life for singles in New York - and on men and women's idiosyncrasies - but by no means take it as reality. It's not - It's just a TV show. If you want reality then get your hiney off the couch and go live your life and stop complaining about how trivial and unrealistic TV shows are!!!!

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, tongue-in-cheek, adult. Though not your average SATC fan - heterosexual, thirty-something 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 under-rated pop-anthropologist, 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 tooth-and-nail to break through the glass ceiling.

Second, somewhere midlife, SATC, the show, got lost. All that incidental stuff - the shoes and bags, and places-to-be-seen - 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.

I absolutely love this show. Every episode is fascinating and thought-provoking. Carrie, Miranda, Sam, and Charlotte are all wonderful to watch. I learn so much about myself and humans in general by watching this show. Anyone who has not experienced "Sex and the City" MUST do so as soon as possible. This is the best show to come to television in a long time.

Endlessly rewatchable, sex and the city is a one of a kind tv show epitomizing the early 2000s. With a long running tv show it's inevitable to have some good and not so good storylines. But for the most part, SATC got it right, showcasing four single girls navigating love and life in New York City. One of my all time favs.