’’Sex and the City’’ (SATC) is about four let’s say not-so-young women in Manhattan, NY looking for love and meaning in life. The four protagonists are Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. Carrie is the cigarette-smoking, free-spirited writer and the narrator of the story. Miranda is a lawyer, Samantha has her own business while Charlotte keeps switching jobs.
THE BACKGROUND:
SATC is very glamorous in that it attempts to portray the lives of single women living in the world’s best city to be filled with romantic adventures, although these women never find lasting, meaningful relationships.
The sassy outspoken women flaunt their Prada shoes, their Valentino cocktail dresses and their Louis-Vuitton bags with aplomb, much to the envy of the lowly middle-class woman watching the show. These women dine at the finest restaraunts in the city, drink the best wine, wear the best designer clothes and pick up the best-looking man from bars without ever thinking about the consequences of such random acts. Although in one episode Samantha is shown as taking the AIDS test, most episodes focus on these women trying to take home a different man.
Carrie’s relationship with Big was the only serious one, Miranda has Steve’s baby eventually, while Samantha goes from straight to gay and Charlotte cannot consummate her marriage. This is the essence of SATC. Between all these relationship troubles, the show tries to establish the friendship among these very different characters.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE GLAMOR:
Although the show is largely a fantasy, it’s enjoyable because the viewer can take off on a joyride with these characters, walking through the streets of New York, club-hopping, shopping and enjoying moments of total liberation! Even though the feminist in me argues that empowerment does not mean smoking, drinking and dating 100 different men, the little girl in me wants to watch the fun and live vicariously!
This show is pure guilty pleasure for me. It’s more fun if you watch it with your friends, so you have something to talk about at the coffee shop the next day!
Carrie’s Doogie Howser-like journal thoughts at the end are sometimes corny, very corny.