Sex and the City — Classic or Dud

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I'm Miranda too. Which means I'm a part of a boring cable show.

JM, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

never seen the show but i have to say that Ferris needs Mia Sara (from buellers day off) instead of SJP..and..yeah. she was hot. not mule faced

kevin enas, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm bloody Carrie. Crivens. But without the muscley arms, mind.

However I was put off during the test due to the bizarre description of London as a holiday destination and therefore my result was skewed. Cucumber sandwiches? Eh? Eton? That's not London, it's somewhere in Berkshire goddamnit. These interweb quiz folk should pull their collective fingers out.

Emma, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm Miranda. I guess I should have known...

alex thomson, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

six months pass...
Depends how you view it. If you assume the show is serious, then it's a dud. If you treat it as social satire, in which the purpose of these horrible people is for us to be disgusted and decide NEVER to behave like them, then it's a classic.

FYI - if you watch Absolutely Fabulous, it becomes clear that Carrie will turn into Edina and Samantha will turn into Patsy.

Sarah, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If you treat it as social satire, in which the purpose of these horrible people is for us to be disgusted and decide NEVER to behave like them, then it's a classic.

this is the new prism through which i shall view all life.

jess, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

how am I Charlotte ?

, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

They grill-shilled like stars in last nights episode. Carrie's bloke (not Big, the other one, Aidan, that's it) was cooking on the Amazing George Foreman Mean Grilling Machine when Carrie came in. Cue exposition on how great the grill is from Aidan followed by snoggage and handy cut away from tongue action to show tasty stuff grilling on grill. It was just beautiful.

RickyT, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

four months pass...
If there is an anti-sex and the city web site, please direct me! I honestly can't believe this show continues to air. I gave it a fair chance and watched like 6 or 7 episodes........barf. These are the most childish group of characters I've ever seen on one program in my life. These issues are the most nonsensical, redundant.....and I might add predictable outcomes to the list of adjectives. I feel dumb when I watch this show......I feel like the writers are saying, "hey, we know you're stupid so watch this". If it's so necessary for a program to center itself around dialogue, then it's also necessary to hire good dialogue actors. The acting level of these women rivals that of Lacey Chabert in Lost in Space. If you like Sex and the City because it tackles real life issues, please ask someone to slap you until you come out of it(I bet you watched 90210 religiously). If you watch Sex and the City because you enjoy the fantasy escape from reality you could probably get more intense drama from a book with Fabio on the cover. This show has Sorority Girl written all over it.......if you happen to be a sorority girl then I apologize and don't get punch on your khakis at the mixer. Without a doubt.......DUD.

Punk Rock, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sex And The City? Who prefers my alternative name: 'Sex In The Title'?

It's lame WITH all that URST and RST. How tedious would it be without it...we'd be comparing it with the absolute death-throes of Murphy Brown or 90210. The fact that this time the plastic yuppies are female and 30-something and rich as a Murdoch fails to make them any more interesting or make me identify with them any better than Dallas or Dynasty, or Home and Away or Neighbours for that matter. Noisy mediocrity is a still a sure fire winner. Just call it 'cutting edge' or 'confrontational' and it's instantly critically bulletproof. The sex angle is just another layer of armor, making it easy to put any criticism in the PC or 'moral police' bin.

Overpublicised, over-rated DUD.

Karen, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

six months pass...
Had a look at this show (I'd caught odd episodes previously) and good lord it's shallow fluff. Still, Samantha is quite amusing. I know female colleagues who watch and covet the characters' jobs, clothes, money, lifestyles. The show isn't about sex as such - it's pure aspirational telly in the very best Gold Blend tradition. On that level I suppose it works.

Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Thursday, 16 January 2003 14:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dud.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 16 January 2003 21:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Karen's post = CLASSIC.

Venga, Thursday, 16 January 2003 22:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

The other great thing about the show is that they really aren't particularly gorgeous women (or even remotely attractive, in the case of SJP, who looks like a haggard Bette Midler, as if Bette Midler was a great comparison point to begin with).

Great. I've been told I look like both.

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 16 January 2003 22:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

watchable.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 17 January 2003 10:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...
I like Carrie B's new object of affection, 'Berger'. He reminds me of Lloyd Cole, especially when he wears a navy suit jacket over a white shirt over a white t-shirt, a bit like LC on the sleeve of the 'So You'd Like To Save The World?' (autumn 1993).

the pinefox, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 15:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

did you cum?

gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

its better than 'Dream On' tho right? remember Dream On? heh

stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 15:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

>its better than 'Dream On' tho right? remember Dream On? heh

All HBO original shows are vastly overated.

fletrejet, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

it's the Golden Girls with botox instead of cheesecake

I love it

j0e (j0e), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 16:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
no, it's a goyish, serialized Crossing Delancey, plus fashion

gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 25 December 2004 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I am so right about this

gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 25 December 2004 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

seriously you guys need to stop being so mean to sjp, what did she pee in your chex mix or something?

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 26 December 2004 03:44 (nineteen years ago) link

it is a bad idea to promote gap. they don't need her help.

youn, Sunday, 26 December 2004 04:02 (nineteen years ago) link

i have never watched this show, except for five minutes or so when some crazy woman wanted to upset the function of a social workplace gathering by associating it with catwalks and dollar bills and beer mugs. something cliched like this, not sure of the details. but the actual function portrayed in the five minutes did not betray these depths, on the surface.

youn, Sunday, 26 December 2004 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link

After the second season, the trademark scene: "Ooooh ... SHOES."

Making Samantha monogamous, inexcusable.

Square Pegs and Ed Wood are still SJP's finest hours.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 26 December 2004 04:26 (nineteen years ago) link

wait, sjp was on square pegs?!?!?!??!?!?!!!!!

youn, Sunday, 26 December 2004 04:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Apparently the whole series has been re-issued on DVD in a screaming pink mock Manolo Blahnik shoebox case. I think I'll be giving it a miss. The only SATC character I can halfway tolerate is Miranda, because she at least does come across as something resembling a real human being.

Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 26 December 2004 17:21 (nineteen years ago) link


Heh heh, SJP was the lead in Square Pegs, and soooo much more tolerable (and mature) personalitywise...

Samantha resembles many big-city male homos, at least in New York.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 December 2004 14:36 (nineteen years ago) link

anyone ever see this movie?

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 27 December 2004 14:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Late to the table on this show (never saw it when it was on Showtime...or was it HBO?), but have started watcing it on TBS (no nudity, alas). At first i was somewhat incredulous given the show's rather thin formula (girls sit around a brunch table bitching about singledom, random sexual escapades ensue, girls reconvene around brunch table to compare notes, end of episode). But have slowly gotten into it. Appreciate the detailed minutia of NYC depicted (the idiocy of having an Italian restaurant named Il Cantinori a stone's throw from a Mexican restaurant named El Cantinero was recently discussed, and I live but a stone's throw from both). I don't imagine I'd be as interested in it if I wasn't a New Yorker, though.

Oh, and Big lives across the street from me. He has a mustache now, and apparently likes to complain about noise to his doormen quite a lot.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 15:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Appreciate the detailed minutia of NYC depicted

agreed. there was one scene towards the end where carrie and charlotte were sitting in a park, sharing a black & white cookie (something that's specific to NYC/NJ and NOWHERE ELSE ON EARTH). and they didn't even make the cookie a seinfeldian conversation piece or anything, they just sat there and ate it while they talked about other stuff. it was a directorial masterstroke, i thought.

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 27 December 2004 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh wow, a show that celebrates New York City, that's only like EVERY OTHER TV SHOW EVER MADE.

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 19:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh wow, a show that celebrates New York City, that's only like EVERY OTHER TV SHOW EVER MADE.

Yeah, but let's look at some of those, shall we?

"Friends" was shot on a fucking stage set (and it looks it!), and the main characters lived in a palatial apartment in a prime neighborhood they'd never in a quadrillion years be able to afford given their alleged careers.

"Seinfeld" was shot entirely on a set. The inside of the actual Tom's Diner looks absolutely nothing like the one depicted on the show in question.

What makes "Sex in the City" different is that it is a fairly accurate portrayal of life in the city. Granted, the bars and clubs they frequent don't always exist, but the geographic details are on the money, as are the location shots. For that, I give them credit.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Meanwhile, the representation of Billings, Nebraska in...OH WAIT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TV SHOW THAT TOOK PLACE IN BILLINGS, NEBRASKA BECAUSE THEY DECIDED TO MAKE IT ABOUT BORING UGLY SKINNY PEOPLE IN NEW YORK INSTEAD.

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I feel like Sam Kinison.

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

But I look like Van Dyke Parks.

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

That's because we in New York are incalculably superior in every conceivable way to the unfortunate populace of Billings, Nebraska.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Meanwhile, the representation of Billings, Nebraska in...OH WAIT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TV SHOW THAT TOOK PLACE IN BILLINGS, NEBRASKA BECAUSE THEY DECIDED TO MAKE IT ABOUT BORING UGLY SKINNY PEOPLE IN NEW YORK INSTEAD.

OH WAIT, MORE PEOPLE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY THAN IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF NEBRASKA

gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:11 (nineteen years ago) link

"Too Close for Comfort" --------> San Francisco
"Northern Exposure" -----------> Alaska
"All in the Family" -----------> Queens (NOT Manhattan)
"Mary Tyler Moore" ------------> Minneapolis
"Frasier" --------------> Seattle
"M.A.S.H" -------------> Korea
"Eight is Enough" -------------> Sacramento
"Ed" -----------> Ohio
"the Simpsons" ----------> Springfield
"The Family Guy" ----------> Quahog, RI

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Imagine a SITC ripoff set in some tiny Southern town. The dynamics would be totally different, because everyone typically knows everyone else in these little towns. Interesting.

xpost; oh yeah, I forgot that "more heavily populated" always equals "more interesting."

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:13 (nineteen years ago) link

What's your point, Alex? Do I need to list every show set in NYC now?

Unrelated: Where was "Caroline in the City" set? Was it the same "City"?

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link

OH WAIT, MORE PEOPLE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY THAN IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF NEBRASKA

OH WAIT, MORE PEOPLE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY AND BUY ADVERTISERS' PRODUCTS THAN IN THE ENTIRE STATES OF KANSAS, NEBRASKA, SOUTH DAKOTA, NORTH DAKOTA, MONTANA, AND WYOMING COMBINED

gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link

OH WAIT, MOST PEOPLE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY COME FROM NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES

gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:17 (nineteen years ago) link

What's your point, Alex? Do I need to list every show set in NYC now?

No, but you did make a sweeping generalization that every show since the dawn of television has been set in NYC. I just cited the ones off the top of my head that weren't. So ha!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Sex in Nebraska sounds like some kind of punishment to me.

Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:18 (nineteen years ago) link

hyperbole != sweeping generalization

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Try not to take things so deathly serious, n/a. It's just a television show.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Imagine a SITC ripoff set in some tiny Southern town. The dynamics would be totally different, because everyone typically knows everyone else in these little towns. Interesting.

Let's talk about this: how would SITC be different if set in another city, or in a town or village or burb or whatever? In what ways does "the City" become part of the show?

xpost: Alex, please be assured I'm not really being serious, I'm just wasting time at work by misdirecting my dislike for this show into regional pissyness. I just assumed everyone realized that.

n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I have been renting the sets from the library and then reading the wrapups on TWOP. It is sort of growing on me. Recognizing the locations is part of the fun.

tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 27 December 2004 20:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Continuing my commitment to being the only person posting itt,

I find it fascinating that Sex and the City - a show about a bunch of white women making jokes and shagging - is considered embarrassingly retro and borderline offensive, but The Sopranos - a show about a bunch of white men killing each other -is considered an untouchable classic

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) January 12, 2021



I’ve never seen The Sopranos but even I know that’s a shitty and reductive take - and it’s a shitty and reductive take about SATC too. Some parts of SATC have really not aged well - Carrie raging at Charlotte for not selling her engagement ring to help Carrie out with her deposit would come across even worse than it did at the time, the racism, the aggressively ‘apolitical’ small c conservatism - and some are still great. I love every moment the show acknowledges, either through narratives or telling us, that Carrie is full of shit, and the later seasons are really lacking in that regard.

scampish inquisition (gyac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:40 (three years ago) link

One reason why Sopranos is an untouchable classic compared to SATC us that it's not coming back

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:50 (three years ago) link

there is no take so shitty it cannot be topped by a shittier one

i think my hell would be having to watch people like this discuss art pic.twitter.com/flUwzdyHYK

— Shaun (@shaun_vids) January 12, 2021

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:59 (three years ago) link

which SATC character blacked up ?

marg bar āmrikā (||||||||), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:00 (three years ago) link

One reason why Sopranos is an untouchable classic compared to SATC us that it's not coming back

The Many Saints of Newark is an upcoming American crime drama film directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner as a prequel to Chase's HBO crime drama series The Sopranos.

you are like a scampicane, there's calm in your fries (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:04 (three years ago) link

Baddiel's two fave bands is Morrissey and Al Jolson

calzino, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:05 (three years ago) link

Oh jfc, every time the series had black characters in it it was so bad

scampish inquisition (gyac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:05 (three years ago) link

BG - that's not the same as coming back ;-)

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:15 (three years ago) link

New title for memoir: Men Explain Sex and the City to Me

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) January 12, 2021

Gulag middle-class women already

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:05 (three years ago) link

sexist. why not middle class men as well?

as#d,.F:ddz;,c#,;;,;,;,sdf' (Left), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:11 (three years ago) link

Glad to know only men have reductive takes on the show. Emily Nussbaum actually wrote a good piece about the show’s retrospective standing back in 2013, which answers the question of the inane original tweet and then some.

scampish inquisition (gyac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:14 (three years ago) link

Nah just the women. Mao Zedong does not give a shit about SATC, it's in the red book xp

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:15 (three years ago) link

The most famous such conversation took place four episodes in, after Charlotte’s boyfriend asked her to have anal sex. The friends pile into a cab for a raucous debate about whether her choice is about power-exchange (Miranda) or about finding a fun new hole (Samantha). “I’m not a hole!” Charlotte protests, and they hit a pothole. “What was that?” Charlotte asks. “A preview,” Miranda and Samantha say in unison, and burst out laughing.

Lol this was so funny, and ofc reads as extremely quaint in 2021.

scampish inquisition (gyac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:21 (three years ago) link

SATC is Entourage for women

Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 17:23 (three years ago) link

Left...otm

I watched the first episode of Sex and the City thinking it would be about sort of erotic psychogeography

— Rob Palk (@robpalkwriter) January 12, 2021

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:19 (three years ago) link


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