Sex and the City

Women led media in the 90s and early 2000s was iconic and influential. And one of those influential pieces was Sex and the City. Though some of the content did not age well there are still so many relevant parts of this show. So we are going to take this season by season discussing the good, the bad and, of course, the influential.

Starting with season 1 we already have some things to talk about with the very first episode. Carrie has her first run in with Mr. Big. Now she is immediately attracted to him but they share maybe 10 words before parting ways. Suddenly New York becomes very small and they seem to start seeing each other everywhere.

My first point of contention that I would like to talk about comes from the second episode. Carrie does an article on what she calls modelizers. This term is defined as men that sleep exclusively with models. The girls have a night in where they, of course, talk about the parts of themselves that they hate. All, except for Samantha. Samantha proudly declares that she is proud of how she looks, please remember this because in a later season it becomes very important. Big and Carrie have another run in and it is charged with tension and idiocy. They have no connection and it's very clear that Big likes having someone who looks at him like he's a god.

Then we talk about married couples vs the singles. Now this whole show is about single women in their 30s navigating dating in New York City. But I think this is definitely still a subject that is felt and relevant. Women all over TikTok talk about how they feel like they are treated differently because of their marital status.

A lot of these articles are going to involve me complaining about Carrie as a human and Carrie and Big as a relationship. We are into episode 4 and these women are in their 30s and Big leaves Carrie a voicemail and tells her that he can’t meet her. Carrie then asks Miranda if, by listening to the voicemail, can she tell if Big is not meeting her as a friend, or as a date…it is the most high school, juvenile thing in the world. Are you not embarrassed? He then invites her out again AND HE INVITES A FRIEND. Now I will give her some credit, after she realizes that someone else was there she had the self respect to leave. When he finally asks her out on a date she gets giddy. Which would be cute if they actually knew anything about each other but this attraction is superficial at best. It's very clear that she likes the idea of Big, he’s rich and handsome and kind of an asshole. But that’s all she knows.

He finally picks her up for their first date and they have sex before even getting to dinner. She freaks out because he doesn’t seem to want to involve herself in her life. And it's literally crazy because they have spent a grand total of MAYBE 2 hours together ever. They’ve been on 1 date. She is way too involved WAY too fast. She acts like a 15 year old with her toxic 20 year old boyfriend and it's insane. She is way too old to be acting like this. They then start dating regularly and she sees him out with another woman…and because she doesn’t possess the ability to communicate like a normal adult human she gets so upset even though they had not at all had the exclusivity conversation.

By the end of the very short first season (12 episodes) Big refuses to get serious with Carrie, she continues to act like an insecure teenager and then they break up. My biggest issue with Carrie is that her behavior plays out like she’s either in high school or in her very early 20s still figuring out how to be a complete person. I’m sorry but that just isn’t acceptable in your 30s. Your brain is fully developed girl, start acting like it. She needed to stop spending money on shoes and start going to therapy.

The other women might be struggling with their love lives but they have far more stable careers, they are better with their money and they don’t act like dramatic high schoolers with their first boyfriend. The show holds up as far as relevance goes, but Carrie remains one of the most insufferable characters on television. My husband and I had a debate about which girl I am. I claimed Charlotte and he insisted Miranda…I love both of them and we both agreed I was in no way a Carrie so that's good.