Okay, so I don’t have cable and never saw “Sex & the City” during it’s initial run. I’ve caught some of the bowlderized episodes on TBS, and have to admit that the show is actually a better than average sitcom. But not being a steady viewer, I have one nagging question about the premise of the show - how in the world did these four women become friends?
Granted, I realize the show is presenting four disparate archetypes of urban women - the hipster (Sarah Jessica Parker), the man-eater (Kim Cattrall), the neurotic professional (Cynthia Nixon) and the princess (…uhm, the brunette); and it isn’t meant to be taken as a literal character study of real women. But I still have a problem trying to wrap my mind around the idea that someone as a cynically jaded as Miranda could stand to hang out with someone as relentlessly perky as Charlotte. Or that Samantha would have any women friends at all for that matter. Was it ever explained how these four women met, or developed friendships?
I’m guessing that Carrie, being the main character, is the glue that binds them. But in what situation would Carrie ever be introduced, let alone become intimate with, Samantha (who, IRL, would’ve chewed her up, spit her out, and waltzed away with Mr. Big) for example.
a) In real life, those women never would have been friends. Hell, in real life, no one could have stood Carrie for more than ten minutes.
b) In real life – in New York, at least – no one can get together with their friends for lunch or dinner several times a week. If all four of you have lives? You’re lucky for a reunion every ten years all four can make it to.
. . . That said, I did enjoy the show. If nothing else, to laugh at Sarah Jessica Parker’s sex-clown wardrobe.
There was an episode that flashed them back to college, so I think we are to assume that they met while at college. But they never come out and say it.
And the brunette is Kristin Davis. My boyfriend was hot for her, that’s how I know that. Not 100% sure about the spelling.
A big part of the show’s charm was showing how these disparate personalities managed to get along. A bigger part of the charm was when they didn’t get along, but that was the most unrealistic aspect. They were much too forgiving of each other. Wouldn’t happen in real life.
Making fun of Charlotte because she wanted to get married, being judgmental about Samantha’s promiscuity, criticizing Carrie’s spending habits, feeling sorry for Miranda because she was usually man-less? Uh uh. Friendships aren’t built on those kinds of feelings.
I don’t think there was an introduction episode. They were friends when the show started, and I don’t remember any flashback episodes showing how they met.
Whose boyfriend didn’t? Despite its attempt at quashing gender stereotypes regarding female sexuality, every guy I ask, without fail, goes for the submissive, virginal, conventionally pretty Charlotte (not that I’d expect anyone to go for Carrie- watch more than three episodes in a row and you’ll be burning the eyes out of SJP’s Gap ads).
Which makes no sense, because Samantha was at least five years older than the other three and so it’s highly unlikely they would’ve all been in college at the same time. Let alone the same place.
And now I’m doing something I said I’d never do again. I’m leafing throgh the Candace Bushnell book upon which the series is based to see if it says anything about how the women met. So far I’ve found Charlotte (British journalist), Samantha (40ish movie producer) and Carrie (“some sort of journalist”).
Oh, and here’s Miranda…a cable exec? OK.
All right, I’ve scanned through 132 pages of this wretched shit book and I find nothing on how any of these women met each other initially. I refuse to go on.
I do recall one episode when they flash-backed to some time in the 80s, and it was just Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha - they didn’t know Charlotte yet. This was the episode with that formerly wild rock-groupie-slut woman who was always showing her boobs at parties, who later became a total soccer mom.
I don’t think they met at college. Charlotte was several years younger than Carrie and Miranda, and Samantha was 5-10 years older than they were. Samantha also lied about her age, claiming to be 35 or 39 at one point when she later admitted to being well over 40. Plus I’m prety sure they said Charlotte went to Smith and I thought Miranda went to Harvard, and Carrie went to someplace in NYC. Not sure about Samantha.
And yes, Carrie’s wardrobe was hideous. How could any real fashion magazine ever stoop to posing her as some kind of arbiter of style, I’ll never know. Hideous hideous clothes and almost always completely inappropriate for the occasion.
Speaking as a guy who watched the show twice and found it all either boring or terribly obnoxious (especially Carrie), Kristin Davis is the only one of the four I found the least bit attractive, without going into the characters they played. It’s just not a show for me – I went to law school with too many catty, slutty bitches like them – but I found it odd to have a show about four supposedly hot, sexy women when only one of them was considered hot and sexy.
Still, considering she is always whining about how she is just barely hanging on, even $750 is a lot. But then on the last or near-to-last episode, she was in Paris in a dress that must have cost at least $40,000. Ahd she buys $500 shoes every week. Yet she’s struggling and has zero in savings. Yeah, right. What a pathetic character she was written as.
(I’m embarrassed to know all these details, considering I didn’t watch the show until the year before the last year it was on.) :o
I didn’t get that either. She couldn’t qualify for a mortgage but she can afford what must be huge mortgage payments, plus the repayments for Charlotte’s ring money? Where did she get the rest of the purchase price, since the bank wouldn’t give her one cent?
All around, a show insulting to actual women everywhere. Not that I didn’t enjoy watching it most of the time. One of those shows that is annoying to watch but you can’t stop yourself. Like a train wreck.
I for one had the hottie hotpants for Cynthia Nixon… ohhhh Miranda!
The show was vapid and when the class war breaks out I for one will be quietly smiling when Bushnell is strung up by her 1500 shoes.
I don’t suppose there was ever a reference to Mr. Big being familiar with Miranda? Chris Noth and Cynthia Nixon met during an early episode of Law & Order, when Briscoe and Logan were investigating Nixon after she’d shot up a subway car.