Sex and the City — Classic or Dud

My idiot brother charmingly informed me on my last birthday that I could tell if I was getting old and past it as I would stop laughing at SatC and start empathising. Thanks bro.

La Vreeland (a woman who shared many traits with my fashionista grandmother, the least of which would be sleek hair in chignon) would not have been so impressed by the mall rat's locks, and would be with me in thinking SJP had nicer hair in Square Pegs.

She's not even as cool as Kay Thompson (author of the Eloise books) who played the Think Pink! fash editor in Funny Face.

Also, if you take a look at the girls having cigarette breaks in front of Vogue House, they all look like Charlotte. Especially in the hair department. SJP in Carrie Bradshaw mode looks like she works for Marie bloody Claire.

Sorry about this, I joined the Fashion Police at a very early age and with my punkywave friends in Mpls, used to actually issue citations to feather-cut Minnewegians in those ghastly Forenza sweaters from The Limited. We made the doormen at Taboo in London (who would hold up a mirror to the style-unconscious, then ask 'if you were me, would you let this come in?') look like Salvation Army workers. V. naughty I know...

Sex And The City is shit, I've never been able to watch it because Sarah Jessica Parkers face is so pointy I fear she may break the TV Screen. How does that Ferris Bueller put up with her at home?

I think my FP activities were a direct result of having my clothes dissed at school, by badly dressed folk of the type I described above (stonewash...don't get me started). We actually had girls who would go around saying things like 'HER Calvin Kleins/Gloria Vanderbilts/ Sassoons are forgeries' but I think I've explained about Junior High elsewhere so I'll stop!

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). I mean, they look like people I'd know. Kim Catrall is pretty but a bit beaten up looking these days, Cynthia Davis is a touch gawky, Kristen Davis is pretty but has a pretty "real" figure, definite hips and thighs. I find that great, it makes the show very easy to identify with, I think. At least for me, but I'm a boozy NYC slutty girl, so I guess I would.

And yes, Carrie dresses like a total crackhead. SJP, no matter her face, has a great body and I don't see why they dress her up in tutus and awful clashing patterns. She's like an expensive homeless person.

Sex and the City is fun in small doses, but I find SJP/Carrie so obnoxious/annoying it puts me off becoming a real fan. The worst part is you know she thinks she looks adorable when she's wearing kitschy little capes or necklaces with her name on it, when in fact she looks like a major twit. Chess King was a spot-on call, Tracer.

But the point is moot because I no longer have hbo anyway.

Everyone I know that's gay seems to have taken the who are you in SITC test online.

For the record, I am apparently Samantha:

Well, well, well… it’s no mystery what subject matter occupies the majority of your thoughts. You are certainly one sensual lady, who knows exactly what she wants from that other gender and isn’t about to waste her time diddling with the accompanying bullshit. Your power exudes beyond the bedroom as well. Whether it be at work or with your friends, beating around the bush is a foreign concept, it’s nothing but direct, frankness with you. Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for the odd, manipulative mind game… Nevertheless, you are the poster girl for a new kind of feminism, where a plunging neckline and colourful personal life are by every means compatible with an influential, professional position.

Hell, you can call me Senor Wiencis for all that means. (My hair is a lovely shade of red, though.)

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.

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

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

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.

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

All HBO original shows are vastly overated.

I love it

Making Samantha monogamous, inexcusable.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

Well, I think the size and scope of "the City" in question has a lot to do with it. If the series were set in Pataskala, Ohio, they'd probably run out of options rather quickly. Whereas, if you put it in, say, Berlin or Hong Kong (or some other teeming metropolis), you have a bit more chance of some genuinely credible and interesting plot developments. And before you ask, yes, I've been to Pataskala, Ohio.

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.

I'm kidding too, n/a. That came out sounding more patronizing and imperious than I meant it to. But, y'know, I'm a boring, ugly and (arguably) skinny New Yorker, so what do you expect?

yeah, it's called "Gilmore Girls".

fewer than 1 in 10 Americans live in the states of West Virginia, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho or Nevada

I think "Northern Exposure" celebrated Alaska (tho' I think they filmed it somewhere in Washington).

the filming of the town took place in Roslyn, WA, 90 minutes from Seattle

throw in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Philly, and any one of Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Milwaukee/Detroit and you're up to 1 in 3

fewer than 1 in 10 Americans live in the states of West Virginia, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho or Nevada

UT was included, but I forgot to mention it. now throw in Oregon, South Carolina, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and you're only at 1 in 6

or so the theme song of his show tells me. Which is basically as far as I get into his show...

I've enjoyed SATC when it has matured into a character-driven series and like the fact that Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte have all had generally well-written story arcs that take them beyond the walking stereotypes they started out as - Slutty, Bossy and Prissy - and give them colours and facets that make themselves be human characters.

Charlotte has a rose-tinted view of life and love, and during the series has the perfect fairytale marriage to Trey - on the surface. In actuality, the relationship is utterly sterile and unfulfilling. It's when she meets someone who doesn't fit her criteria of a "perfect partner" (Harry) and abandons her obsession with (surface-level) perfection that she finds true love and happiness.

Miranda grows from being a rather cold, cynical, hard-edged career woman to embracing the idea of blissful domesticity with Steve and being a mum to little Brady. The scenes where she takes care of Steve's senile mother show her as a woman who now allows the side of her personality that genuinely cares for others to come through, having recognised the value of a rich and rewarding emotional/personal life without loosing any of the intelligence and drive that made her a successful lawyer in the first place.

Samantha shifts from being a genuinely amusing "sexual free spirit" to gradually warming to the idea of being in a loving and caring relationship with Smith. Of course, the idea of Samantha becoming monogamous opens a whole can of worms debate wise, since she was often admirable in her essential honesty about her sex drive. But nevertheless, Samantha is given storylines that expand the character, and afford her a degree of personal growth.

And here's the down side:

Carrie sodding Bradshaw. Try as I might, I cannot see anything of value in this shallow cypher of a character. To laugh at the clothes Carrie is wearing in each episode is a valid excuse for watching, but it's a pity to have and put up with what goes with it. The excruciatingly hackneyed scenes of Carrie sitting at her laptop and musing on "this week's issue" are what kept this show unsatisfyingly formulaic. It also doesn't help that Sarah Jessica Parker looks so smug as she delivers her supposedly witty dialogue, which always seems completely measured and deliberate; and totally unlike anything that a genuine human being would say.

And whereas the other women in the show have problems and difficulties but basically get on with life, Carrie is locked into a permananent naval-gazing (see the laptop scenes above) and whingeing "me me me" demeanour. How can you really have any sympathy with an adult woman who spends $40,000 in shoes and then bemoans the fact that she cannot afford to buy her own apartment, going on to basically emotionally blackmail Charlotte into giving up her wedding ring so she can afford a deposit.

Carrie basically comes across as false, immature and nauseatingly self-absorbed. An utter contrivance of a character, that detracts from the good work that the other actresses put in.

SATC's good intentions to provide a space for women's desires on TV, to show that friendship is very important and that getting older than 35 doesn't mean that you should stop having fun and hoping to meet the partner of your dreams, and the performances of Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis = Classic.

Carrie Bradshaw/Sarah Jessica Parker = Dud.

if she is these things, why are they false? you know no one with these qualities? why sympathy is a necessary quality in a character, as you suggest, is beyond me. are we supposed to sympathize with the sopranos? and if we do, the corollary would be that they are better people than Carrie Bradshaw. i think the real problem here is not to an inability to sympathize but a revulsion against such sympathy.

i love this show a lot

oh i so knew you had revived this!

ha!

maybe my favorite character is carrie but that's a tough decision. samantha can really crack me up like no one else. and miranda's just so good.

please delete sex and the city

Karen's post from 6 years ago is so OTM it deserves another airing:

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.

charlotte = way hott

Yeah, I once watched a biopic of John Denver just because she was in it.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy :'(

Back to the roots:

I hate all characters, SJP's character dresses like a Chess King employee, but I keep watching. Is it cause the Sopranos are off till next March? WHat keeps you coming back for more / avoiding show at all costs? And was Aidan's attitude towards SJP this week a perfect snapshot of post-heartbreak ex-boyfriend coldness or what? Do you wax your bikini line? Pube-trimming for guys - dud or just creepy?

1. Me too. I especially hate Sarah Jessica Horseface.
2. I come back for more because I'm gay and sometimes that means being subjected to some seriously awful culture.
3.Pube-trimming for guys is ESSENTIAL. Period. Full Stop. Exclamation point.

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.

the thing is i never looked at the show as something for me to identify with, or to take comfort in or be challenged by. i always knew it was just about humor, sex and image.

it's certainly possible for a show wherein all the characters are rich and unbelievable to be funny - i think it really just boils down to what you find funny, or sexy, or interesting. certain people need to be able to relate to something to find it interesting, i think.

actually tho, i do think SATC has instilled a lot of really positive messages about friendship, and that is definitely something i can relate to. though to a lesser extent than other shows of the four-friends-in-it-together variety, it did speak to the idea of alternative family units. until all of them shacked up in the last season of course!

It's hard for me to put my finger on why I hate this show so much, but I think one reason is that the things that the characters are really unlikeable, and not in the way that J. Ignatius Reilly or the characters Arrested Development are unlikeable--as in other Candice Bushnell stuff, these women are portrayed as living a special kind of life (sexy, racy, rich, New Yorky) and one that the viewer is meant to admire and ooh and ahh over instead of seeing the folly in it. It seems written for Midwesterners who want a peek into another life.

I blame this show for corrupting high school girls everywhere, and portraying their vapid lives as somehow being worth aspiring to. I hung out with three other girls in my first year of college and one of them insisted on assigning us as either one of the four satc identities. I wanted to shoot her.

to be completely fair though, Ben upthread is quite right about how the show can be quite good sometimes. Miranda especially went from being completely unlikeable to perhaps the most human person on the show - her struggle with weight, having a baby, her relationship with Steve and Steve's mom, and balancing all that with her career and ambition all ring completely real and true. And it's sometimes quite funny but gah, I've known too many girls who basically worship this show for all the wrong reasons - essentially using it as an excuse to be completely slutty and shallow.

And it's strangely insular which bugs the hell out of me - apparently, hell is everywhere but New York.

NY-centricity is a fact of life.

I would not say that the show is devoid of a single redeeming feature, but I agree that a lot of girls (and gay men) love it b/c of its celebratory portrayal of these women's lives.

Another thing that bugs me is the pat format of each episode with its excruciatingly overly-clever word play, analogies, and little morals.

If this show were reworked into an American AbFab, THEN we'd be onto something!

OK, so it's another episode of Jesse Gets a Beau:

I asked Dude (who is out of town still, but returns tomorrow) about what was up with the mixed signals and was pretty direct, asking if there was a problem with our sexual connection. He said, "I'm just stressed out b/c of moving, looking for a job."

Since we're going to be seeing each other in a couple of days, and I hate to have A Talk, I left it at that, but that did not answer the question!

i just put the fourth season on, good disc. jesse shouldn't that be on the other thread? should i respond to it here or there?

OH SONOFABITH.

lol for a moment there I was like, did Jesse just compare his LIFE to satc? and then I realized the gay friends thread is right next to this one.

lol Samantha: "well, i'm dating someone - someone i actually like. Maria."

lol the gay friends thread... it's like sesame street for the fags

sorry i think i can say fag since i'm gay, not quite sure what those rules are at this point

lol classic carrie quote: "I wondered, what comes first, the chicken or the sex?"

What do you mean "at this point"?

Are you newly a fag?

lol nothing i just wanted to clarify that i wasn't using the term negatively... no i'm a pretty worn fag by now

RAWFFFFFLZ

I'd like to be a worn out fag. But SOMEONE is too flakey to wear me out.

lol lol, well i'm not THAT worn out...

I blame this show for corrupting high school girls everywhere, and portraying their vapid lives as somehow being worth aspiring to. I hung out with three other girls in my first year of college and one of them insisted on assigning us as either one of the four satc identities. I wanted to shoot her.

So you blame the show for that? That seems a bit rich. You can't blame a show for what a viewer does with it. What if someone watches the show and thinks: Shit, this is a vapid lifestyle, I'm becoming a defender of *whatever good cause*. Suddenly you think the show's okay again? I'm not a terribly big fan of the show. I like it. it's quirky. I certainly don't identify with the characters. It certainly isn't realistic nor would I look for that because IT IS TELEVISION DUH. Also, you gotta love how terrible the clothes turned out to be. They didn't age that well at all.

I'm sure Pish Posh Beckham has watched it religiously, but only for the fashiontips.

haha... some of them aged better than others (the clothes)

xpost um i didn't say it was the sole cause of it - but just the way this program was received in general made it seem like this was something that "all women can relate to" and this was how life was supposed to be for "strong intelligent empowered women". That was the message that I got at least. I was in high school when this came out and trust me, this show was huge among the girls (and some boys, though mostly they watched it for nekkid Samantha). I get it's just a tv show, and people can have any number of opinions on it but it's kind of ridiculous the kind of impact it had in terms of just making girls think that owning a closet full of Manolos is somehow a birthright and not something that 0.02% of the population can afford.

Anyway, i do find Satc entertaining and funny and I did watch it quite regularly at one point, I'm just uncomfortable how it seemed at one point like the ultimate definer of what a successful woman should be like.

um i love when u find out that charlotte and trey eat out each other's asses on a regular basis

"well, trey likes to do it - we're married."

"i'm carrie, you're miranda, you're the woman watching it at home."

is there any way the movie will not totally suck (and bomb)? They're waaaaaaaay too late.

If it's anything like the show....

i think it could only work if done quite differently from the show. cutting the v/o and not having carrie as central character would be the thing to do. i'd start with a funeral and flashback.

i do not like this show. esp b/c it could've been way better - it is somehow either not real enough or not fantastical enough to me - so it is a humdrum frustrating middle ground and it is no the o.c. or battlestar
(have only recently watched the first 6 episodes though. will prob watch more but i think it is just not my thing)

oooh the 1st season is good but DEF not as good as later! definitely peaks 3rd and 4th

what do you mean by 'good' tho

does anyone actually do anything of substance?

or tv-fiction awesome insanity?

lol good = GREAT performances, and very funny at times

i mean i know all the flaws of the show - i still manage to find it very entertaining. just me tho

haha, not QUITE insanity... tv fiction awesome silliness?

the voiceovers, arrrgh! carrie cocks her head like a retarded spaniel, then comes the stunning insight: "It was then that I began to wonder... are relationships actually something you have to work at?"

yeah, the writing makes me want to punch the writers, i guess that's what it is

and i have not laughed once yet!
and i laugh at a lot of things!

lol, there was a real gem last night when i was watching

"maybe we just have to take the outfits we got, and accesorize them"

or something, u know as like the episode closer... ridic.

well here's the thing, as a gay man, i'm continually fascinated by women, u know like big women

i think women themselves are not as fascinated by these women... more annoyed by them? i dunno. and yes granted the writing can be absurd

oh, yeah. that's a perfect example.

points for normalizing excessive alcohol consumption, though.

xpost

ha so true

and cigarettes! i love the episodes when carrie is just lighting up all over fucking town. she could be on a plane and she'd light up, becuz u know, she's carrie bradshaw

the longer it went, the worse SJP got.

also, fuck (as in kill) rich people.

they should've done a show about the awesomeness of poppyseeds and walked around with poppyseeds in their teeth all day and not really cared and the episode closer could've been "maybe we just have to enjoy life a little more and not be so neurotic and uninteresting"
xpost

the money wasting thing is really horrible to me, and why i can deal with a show like the o.c. when it comes to money issues, is an interesting case in itself re: television and class/economic divides

I bailed on it when every other episode had Carrie drooling at a shop window going "Shooooes... shooooes..." FUCK YOU

Morbz OTM - SJP is easily the worst thing about the show. When I see this in reruns now the voiceovers are like hot pokers in my ears arrrgh so bad

also, fuck (as in kill) rich people.

-- Dr Morbius, Thursday, July 19, 2007 5:08 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

fuck marry kill

lol geez i'm really surprised i feel like i'm the only one who lieks this show ;/ where's stevie?

i know a lot of people who love this show! that's why i thought i'd watch finally

oh ok good ; )

i think it's okay. it definitely improved.

some of it is okay, a fair chunk of it is excruciatingly bad. kinda depends on what actors/stories are emphasized in any given episode.

i don't unreservedly hate it, but robyn hit the nail on the head for me when she said that it's not real enough nor is it fantastical enough. as others have said it improved a lot as the series went on, and there's some funny stuff there, but with a show that long-running you're bound to get it right occasionally.

that episode that on the emmy, The Real Me, the pilot of the 4th season - the one where carrie does the fashion show and it ends with "To be Real"

is amazing

*that won

70% of laughs = Cattrall

ugh her delivery is amazing

Chris Noth's in for the movie.

yes good news

watching season 3 premiere when they go to staten island... i love when charlotte is dancing to that song. made me laugh out loud

this show already seems like a dated relic

The criticisms that many people have about the show are perfectly valid, but there are still some things that I love about it and will probably remember for a long time, such as Carrie coming home from a night out with the girls to find boyfriend Aidan practically comatose on the bed from having eaten too much KFC. The plaintive way he asks her to rub his belly for him is just great.

haahaha "baby, will u rub my belly?" ::snore::

I'm hoping Armageddon will prevent movie's release.

I'll tell you what I do hate about Sex and the City, though, and it's the fact that they insist on having sex scenes in it, but the women are wearing bras. Who does that?

all the women bare their breasts except Carrie.

it's true. wait miranda??

i don't remember miranda's breasts! oh well there was one aidan saw her naked.

lol charlotte loved showing off her bod in that show! samantha obv.

I don't think so. They might have done a couple of times, but on a regular basis, none of them do except Samantha. I'm watching a double bill now, and there's no bare breasts, despite a lot of shagging.

i don't remember miranda's breasts!

its not like I'm cataloguing boobie-exposure or anything but I'm certain they all did because Carrie stood out as the lone exception - she's one of those "I don't DO nudity" actresses cuz she thinks she's better than everyone else or a "real" actress or some such bullshit... over time I've really come to hate both SJP and her character.

oh I did just remember a Miranda's boobz instance - the breastfeeding episode. Also pretty sure she's nekkid in one of her encounters with Blair Underwood or one of the other non-Steve romantic interludes...?

They might have done a couple of times, but on a regular basis, none of them do except Samantha.

I dunno what constitutes a "regular basis" but Carrie is the only one who does not do nudity on the show FACT.

I remember seeing Miranda breastfeeding on a TNT rerun and it was ridiculous cuz they did one of those black-bra-animation-paintover things. SO STUPID Americanz be scared of nipples

wikipedia sez:

"Had a no-nudity clause in her contract, but accidentally appeared nude in "Sex and the City" (1998). In a bedroom scene when she stripped off her nightie the camera was supposed to stay above her breasts, but the shot was framed wrong and both of her nipples appeared in the shot. She didn't find out about this until the episode aired. She appeared nude only once more during the run of the show, although in a wide, non-revealing shot."

Breastfeeding doesn't really cover it, because it's non-sexual. Kristin Davis, according to Wikipedia, bared her breasts twice, once where she was supposed to have been covered up and the shot was framed wrong, and once in a wide shot. My point was that it's not realistic for these women to always be wearing a bra when they're having sex, and for me it's a big drawback of the show.

well I agree they do do it a lot and it is obnoxious - I'm sure there's a sex scene where Nixon's topless but I am NOT googling "Cynthia Nixon nude"

V. wise.

Speaking of SJP, am I the only one who finds her faintly terrifying in the ad for her perfume? She reminds me of Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians.

My point was that it's not realistic for these women to always be wearing a bra when they're having sex, and for me it's a big drawback of the show.

-- accentmonkey, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 11:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

hmm, ok.

Dud. They're all a bunch of horrible, rotted out, face-melted liches who float around on the disgusting smell of impending menopause.

I blame that show for the hoards of ape-brained,mhorse-faced girls who roam around New York City in packs DISHING DIRT like they're fucking sophisticates. You can always tell the group of girls on the subway or in cafes who are secretly thinking to themselves< "God I am -so- like Carrie right now!! looll"

I think the other actresses started wearing bras during the sex scenes when the producers/whoever realized the show was going to be syndicated.

lol @ "its not like I'm cataloguing boobie-exposure or anything"

FIVE POSTS LATER...

yes that makes sense, i mean Samantha would be wearing bra during sex scenes (or indeed montages) with that Smith dude which itself made no sense at all. (xp)

I think the other actresses started wearing bras during the sex scenes when the producers/whoever realized the show was going to be syndicated.

Yes! You are right. I didn't think of that.

i think katherine heigl wears a bra in the sex scenes in 'knocked up'. i don't really have a problem with this convention.

tuomas to thread

oh i got totally into this show over the past several weeks. i thought it got better as the seasons went on. but maybe just b/c i started liking/getting to know the characters more? i don't know, i got hooked.
i get it now. still have some issues with it sure whatever but there's a lot to love abt it too.
!

also: a lot of hot men

This has that quality where even if you think it blows, you can keep watching and scoffing just to soak in the insane formal regularity of it. A friend and I used to watch this and make bets at the beginning whether it would be an "I couldn't help but wonder" episode or a "I had to ask" episode (or one of approximately 5 "other" episodes). I think it's entirely possible that they realized, at some point, how the horrendous pun segues could actually provide maximum entertainment value to people who partly loathed the show.

I can't believe I actually have something to comment on, nudity-wise, but: at some point there was an ASS DOUBLE for Charlotte, and you could tell, because this ass double had the world's flattest ass, whereas Charlotte, surprisingly, is like kinda pla-DOW in that area.

i am on the last episode! i am feeling kind of attached
but it will be okay
xpost
charlotte does have a great ass!
and yeah, in the first two seasons i was more a loather than a liker of this show but was sucked in by the maximum entertainment value quality. and then i was just sucked in by the characters and storylines and the real/unreal quality of it all, which i think is good b/c it leaves enough space to relate but also to distance and just enjoy tv

am still kind of blown away that freakin' barishnikov! was on this for several episodes! and that sjp got to kiss him A LOT!

oh rrrobyn.

i know :/
i am caught up
i can't control it

these paris episodes are ridiculous i gotta say

I'm surprised, Robyn -- I remember liking the first season or so when it was on, when it was still trying to be sharp and clever and HBO-y. It was the gradual descent into soap-com ridiculousness after that that made it really laughable.

We should compare this to the Girlfriends thread -- the first bit of that show is so wildly aping Sex+City that it's kind of uncomfortable. You spend the whole time imagining a pitch meeting where people are like "Black Sex and the City!" "Black Sex and the City?" "Sex and the City -- black!" "City black Sex and!"

at certain times i have a soft spot for soap-com ridiculousness, believe it

i liked the sharp & clever of the first couple of seasons but i don't know, maybe it wasn't my kinda sharp & clever, also somewhat alienating to me. or maybe that was b/c it was so very late-90s. i can see why i had no interest in it in the first place but also why it makes sense that i got into it now. anyway, it's all watched now! i can see how regular viewers would get choked up at the finale - i mean, most people watched this over many years; i watched it over a couple of months, and partly as distraction/procrastination. it worked! and now it is over

I like some soap-com ridiculousness, too -- I was gonna say that I prefer it to be more camp or knowing than this show tended to be, but then I realized that (a) this would have really blown if it had ever attempted camp or knowingness, plus (b) Bring It On is still on my favorite-movies list. (I prefer it like that, but I don't know what that is: "seeming like it's going to be knowingly campy but then it's actually scarily earnest and thus unintentionally campy?" Sex+City might actually age into that category, it'll be poignant and hilarious to the teenagers of the 2040s.)

I love Bring It On so much.

whatevs dudes, seasons 1 and 2 are good but seasons 3 and 4 are fucking amazing when it comes to entertainment value (plus carrie's fucking hair). not to mention season 5.

season 6 rocks but baryshnikov's character is a schmuck, charlotte's baby storyline and samantha's cancer storyline are pure schmaltz and the paris episodes are way too fucking cute.

but the thick of the 6th has Harry marrying Charlotte and Berger breaking up with Carrie, which is priceless ("this will no longer be known as the day i got broken up with on a post-it -- it will now be known as the day i got arrested for smokin a doobie!")

fuck

Yeah, except I saw that episode recently and I couldn't help thinking that if my friend kept shiting on about being broken up with on a post-it in that annoying way, I would just go home.

The thing, even though I don't love every tiny thing about it, I still really like the show.

Harry is my favourite, though.

so great

Especially his pride in walking about the apartment naked.

hahaha yes so funny

on that beautiful couch

Just the thought of the way she says "doobie" is grossing me out.

i think season 6 was when miranda finally got a normal, or at least not hideous, hairstyle.

steve seems like a bro

total classic

we really haven't had enough SJP here yet

can you imagine what the opening night of that movie in Chelsea will be like? The Rocky Horror Asshole Show.

i still love this show. carrie is still one of my favorite characters ever. but i really hope she's less whiny/codependent in the movie than she was toward the end of the show.

i know, i love her too. i'm excited! hoping my friend can sneak me into some opening night premiere bla bla bla cuz of her job. but it probs won't happen.

sometimes this show makes me incredibly angry because it is so unrealistic but then there will be little things that happen that are so spot-on re: being single in nyc. blahhh.

As if anyone anywhere has enough money to open a bar in Soho or wherever.

SJP is a horseface.

challops

calstars man you could take this topical humor on the road, maybe talk about how moses' beard is getting a little shaggy

you should take being butthurt on the road

was watching sex and the city the other night

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/7137020989_3321a10831_o.gif

Emily Nussbaum on the fashionable running-down of the show:

Although the show’s first season is its slightest, it swiftly establishes a bold mixture of moods—fizzy and sour, blunt and arch—and shifts between satirical and sincere modes of storytelling. (It’s not even especially dated: though the show has gained a reputation for over-the-top absurdity, I can tell you that these night clubs and fashion shows do exist—maybe even more so now that Manhattan has become a gated island for the wealthy.)

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2013/07/29/130729crte_television_nussbaum

speechless

pretty much OTM this piece, i came here to post it! i like this;

The show’s basic value system aligns with Carrie: romantic, second-wave, libertine. But “Sex and the City” ’s real strength was its willingness not to stack the deck: it let every side make a case, so that complexity carried the day. When Carrie and Aidan break up, they are both right. When Miranda and Carrie argue about her move to Paris, they are both right. The show’s style could be brittle, but its substance was flexible, in a way that made the series feel peculiarly broad-ranging, covering so much ground, so fleetly, that it became easy to take it for granted.

surm, what left ya speechless?

Yeah good piece. She has a point about the genuine character growth

What I wouldnt give to hear richard nixon expounding on this show

"And these women... they just fuck like a buncha streetwalkers..."

rewatching this in dribs and drabs as I do every few years and God, season 4 is really the worst as a whole. Though there are some moments I really like (Carrie and Big dancing to Moon River until the record starts skipping, Trey doing the photo shoot with Charlotte, the Lucy Liu cameo!) but Carrie is INSUFFERABLE this season. There’s some great fashion but so, so, so much cringe. What the fuck was Samantha at giving Richard that hideous heart print? Has Carrie ever been more loathsome than when she’s browbeating Charlotte to lend her money for her deposit? Also, am I supposed to believe Carrie would start working at Vogue and not knock a column about accessories out of the park? She spent a deposit’s worth of cash on shoes alone!

oh no

HBO Max has officially revived #SexAndTheCity https://t.co/st3CaB9MQf pic.twitter.com/IfjgbSkRTI

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 10, 2021

Fellow original star Kim Cattrall (Samantha) is not involved in the HBO Max incarnation. The actress has openly feuded with Parker and, more in October 2017, was vocal about seeing her part being recast in a bid to improve the original comedy's inclusivity.

For his part, creator Star told The Hollywood Reporter in October that he had no interest in returning to the series today. "I May Destroy You is the Sex and the City for now," he said as part of a Creative Space interview pegged to his Netflix comedy Emily in Paris. "Girls was the Sex and the City for its moment. I wouldn't be doing Sex and the City today. Twenty years ago, I knew those people that I was writing about. I understood the time and I understood the characters and also what needed to be said."

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

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

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

which SATC character blacked up ?

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.

Baddiel's two fave bands is Morrissey and Al Jolson

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

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

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

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) January 12, 2021

Gulag middle-class women already

sexist. why not middle class men as well?

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.

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

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.

SATC is Entourage for women

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