Did we see back in the day that Carrie Bradshaw was so selfish?

The only think I see when looking back reruns is horse-faced bitch, married to closet queen, and whose vagina smelled like Calcutta in July…..

^Should have let someone hold my beer

Carrie was always awful. She stood for the principle that women lived for men and ridiculous shoes.

Yes. Couldn't watch after two seasons and never did again.

We didn’t watch the show because we thought Carrie Bradshaw was a lovable character. We watched for the quips, the clothes, the locations. It was just an entertaining way to spend 22 minutes. She was always a self-involved beeyotch.

Well, I guess I'm resourceful enough to get quips,.clothes, and locations without having to put up with shitty personalities.

Samantha was the star. As a gay kid then teen during the original run I always liked her scenes best and how she didn't care what anyone thought of her. I wasn't like that but wished someday I would be.

Carrie is flawed. They’re all flawed.

I deserved better.

I only watched that shitty show for Samantha.

Samantha and Miranda for me, but even that has an expiration date.

My mom and I used to watch it as it aired and we had a short hand for when Carrie acted like that. "Back to me".

Not only was she selfish but she did some REALLY terrible things to other people.

It was a character, one hopes, not SJP.

OP, it’s just a tv show. Get a life.

Yes, I got that she was selfish. She also had poor taste in shoes, clothes, with her hideous hairdos, in how she wore too much makeup, stupidly believing it made her appear younger and more attractive. She had poor taste in her friends and associations, but that's the other story.

The four of them together made no sense. It was made clear that she liked Miranda more than the other two. Miranda was more 'real' in a sense... she wasn't a cartoonish character like Charlotte or Samantha. Charlotte was a pain in the ass. Ms. Prissy Pot that liked to get kinky once a year. Samantha was a mean, mouthy whore on steroids. The four of them would never have been a tight click of friends like they portrayed on-screen. All were different. They moved about in completely different worlds. None of them desired the same things from life except for the good sex, and I suppose that was a good thing. I always felt they would have gotten on each others last fucking nerve. They all gravitated to Carrie. Why? She was self-absorbed and not what I'd consider a good friend-type. Carrie's only claim to fame was in writing her column so the other three must have latched onto that as a reason to hang with her. Mr. Big ... well shit. He deserved her. What a boring slab of meat he was. He never wanted to go anywhere or do anything. He enjoyed laying in bed watching TV. By comparison, Carrie's life consisted of going to clubs and bars, making zany quips about her life, spending time with Stanford, who was one of the more entertaining characters they had to work with/write for on the show. The guys they had her hook up with. Most were just sort of ok. Miranda's guy was a bore. I did enjoy the lawyer that left teabags everywhere and sat nude on the furniture. There were some interesting kink-balls for the writers to play with, I'll give em that much.

When the show ended, which I thought was a season or two too late, I didn't miss watching it. I reread this and I sound like I was obsessed with the show, but I really wasn't. I watched the entire thing, start to finish so they did get my full attention. I must be a big bore too.

People acting like Carrie was not discussed as being a bitch at the time is revisionist history. That is exactly what made the character groundbreaking. Nobody ever thought Carrie was some kind of role model, ever! There were endless thinkpieces about how she was the first female antihero in a romantic TV show when she cheated on Aiden.

Everyone watched because of Samantha Charlotte & Miranda, they grounded her and kept her less obnoxious with her materialism, taste in men and Manhattan social politics. Carrie was initially written as a comic reviewer of social Manhattan life.

I bet they were thrilled to find out the size of her paycheck.

I never watched that shitty show when it came out. I tried, my neighbor kept saying you got to watch it, you got to watch it, it's like 4 gay men but as woman. I capitulated a couple of times, but her personality did not make me want to see more of it. I felt back then what you think of it now.

[quote]Nobody ever thought Carrie was some kind of role model, ever! There were endless thinkpieces about how she was the first female antihero in a romantic TV show when she cheated on Aiden.

I love the ‘i hated the show but watched all 90+ episodes across 6 seasons’ hot takes.

The show was a well made comedy drama which showed four complex and flawed women navigate adulthood.

My favorite line about the show was when I was reading an article about woman in gay bars. They expect men to treat them like queens, pushing their way to the front of the line expecting the first guy she makes eye contact with to buy her a drink. The snakey remark was this: It's not 1990 anymore, cosmos are out and your are not Carrie Bradshaw. 😂

No, I didn't. Carrie wasn't my favorite, but I didn't find her loathsome until I tried rewatching the series on HBO Max. LOVE ME LOVE ME LOVE ME!!!

Bleah.

I know I was a bitch but YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE ME. YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE ME. YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE ME.

Miranda was the only one who called Carrie on her bullshit.

Miranda was sour and made Steve's life a living hell for no good reason. Charlotte settled for a moneybags Jew. Samantha revealed no internal life, just voracious appetites. Carrie was infantile. Women loved the idea of being carried (pun not intened) along by their female friends and pretended to see themselves on screen. There was also the Seinfeld thing of obsessing about something like saggy old man butt that hadn't been discussed much by straights in polite society. That passed for truth and edginess.

It was always a shallow, despicable show that made a small group of people very rich and allowed a much larger group of women who would never in their lives enter the offices of Vogue to delude themselves. It owed a lot to the old 50s and 60s films about four single women in NYC and their quest to find the man of their dreams.

In the later seasons I disliked Carrie. I watched all of the original series and the 2 movies. But I only made it through the first season of the new series, I feel like they ruined Miranda's character and the actress who played Charlotte's botoxed face and bad acting ruined her character for me too. The addition of Che was the straw that broke the camel's back as they say. And I still thought Carrie is a selfish character in the new series too.

Samantha was a great character, putting up with Miranda's cynicism, Charlotte's puritanism and Carrie's selfishness.

[quote]Nobody ever thought Carrie was some kind of role model, ever!

That’s not true. Thousands of women came to NYC to live like Carrie. Every HR department is nothing but Carries.

The show also made NYC restaurants impossible on Sunday. Go to any NYC restaurant on Sunday and you’ll see groups of women recreating brunch.

If I had infinite money, I would buy a racehorse and enter it in The Kentucky Derby under the name Carrie Bradshaw.

Much better

And no makeup. She looks really good.

[quote]Samantha was a mean, mouthy whore on steroids.

That's why she's Datalounge's favorite character.

R15, YOU get a life.

R26 nails it.

The thread is probably just an invitation to bitch about Carrie - which is always fun. But to answer the question honestly, I'd say generally no. I don't remember a lot of real-time analysis of Carrie as selfish. Or even if it was recognized, viewers didn't get caught up in it and really go in on her for it that much.

They were all extremely shitty people. Who dated other extremely shitty people. They all had unrealistic lives, except Miranda. Miranda managing to get Blair Underwood to write I Love You on a huge cookie, laughable at best with her looks. The writers were smoking the good stuff.

It was fiction.

There wasn’t as much readily available literature on personality disorders as there is today.

Watching them through a contemporary lens, they’re all extremely narcissistic, the worst being Carrie.

Miranda is Borderline. She burned down everything once she painted you black.

Today they seem - rightfully - toxic as fuck.

R16 gets a lot of it right. Carrie was our "viewpoint" character but she became a less reliable narrator as the show became more about her and yes, it ran a year or two to long. The story arc with the Russian made no sense in relation to what came before, except perhaps showing Carrie's self-delusion. Yes, this is tv, but it has to be grounded in something relatable. Miranda seemed the closest of the friends to Carrie--she would call her out in a way that they others didn't. It was never clear how they met, although those backstories would have been more interesting than the way they padded things out with the Russian and did ridiculous things with Berger---a broke writer with a Harley? They also dragged out the thing with Aiden too long. Charlotte was the most immature and least developed, although I did enjoy Trey's mother. Samantha was the most fun and they did make some fairly good attempts at giving her an inner life.

R42: Where did you go to school? Some correspondence school for social workers, maybe? Miranda was no borderline.

And Berger had a house in the Hamptons, too!

Didn't Berger also have a house in the Hamptons? It didn't bother me, I could accept the fantastical built world of the SATC universe, but they made Berger seem like his first book, while well-received critically, wasn't a success.

Whoops, I was typing when R44 posted.

R45: He had a share or something in Hamptons---somehow connected to an ex. The entire arc with him made no sense. He started out seeming more in tune with her than Aiden or Big and then they just had him going in a bunch of unbelievable directions. he just seemed to be filling space where they didn't know what to do with her, so instead the wrote a male character that didn't make any sense. The show was much better at writing women than men. The appeal of Big always escaped me. Aiden was too good to be true, although that arc made it clear that Carrie couldn't attach to any guy who was the least bit "healthy'.

[quote] [R42]: Where did you go to school? Some correspondence school for social workers, maybe? Miranda was no borderline.

Yes she was. It’s beyond obvious to anyone who’s studied Ckuster Bs.

Guess it hits a little too close to home for you, huh?

The four women were all, always ridiculous. All of them exaggerated aspects of different characters meant to (almost) fit together in some peculiar harmony.

Two aspects that I liked of the original series:

--That the relationships between the women were never explained, that there was no backstory (or maybe very minimal fragments of factories that I missed)

--That there was almost nothing explained about the families of the four women. I think Charlotte's brother fucked Samantha, and there was an episode about the funeral of Miranda's mother, but what small strengths the series had turned in some significant measure on offering no apologies and little explanation of whatever the glue was that held them together.

The extended romantic relationships seemed a distraction more than an asset -- with one spectacular exception in Bunny MacDougal. Much stronger were the interactions of the women against a backdrop of casually fucking around the city.

Francis Sternhagen nailed the fuck out of that Bunny role.

[quote]People acting like Carrie was not discussed as being a bitch at the time is revisionist history. That is exactly what made the character groundbreaking. Nobody ever thought Carrie was some kind of role model, ever!

Many young women did.

She was living the ideal life -- clotheshorse, nice NY flat, fun job, rich friends, hot men, etc.

Samantha was mainly popular with promiscuous gays (i.e., all of them).

Charlotte and Miranda were just sort of there.

R39, I created the thread/post for legit answers; not just to post memes of horses that resemble SJP.

I am wondering what am I watching now that I'll look back at differently in the future?

R52 = OP

R39 and oh, thanks for your answer. I feel the same.

Sure, we can all want what we want but how many times did Big say no through his behavior and silence and even his words?

We all create our own realities; oh, Big'll just work this out of his system and then realize I'm the one.

Oddly, that's what happened. What a horrible message to send.

But shows are an escape, I suppose.

In real life, women -- gay men -- they 'settle' for Steve's and Skipper's and boring guys. But they long to live life as Samantha did; fucking whoever whenever; They want McDreamy and McCreamy -- not George.

IT WAS A FUCKING COMEDY SHOW NOT A FUCKING DOCUMENTARY

I always saw Carrie as being extremely selfish. She totally lost me in that episode when she was on the verge of losing her apartment because she had no savings. She bullied Charlotte into giving her the money (who sold her engagement ring from Trey for this). Carrie was an awful person. I hate that she got a happy ending with Big. In real life, he would never have married her and would have eventually cheated on her with someone younger and hotter. They killed him off because Carrie/SJP has to "win" always -- can't have him leaving her.

Carrie is a flawed person, she’s not the fucking Antichrist. Is this thread full of fraus?

Also the rest of them are flawed to the same degree that she is, I don’t get singling her out for being a selfish bitch when the rest of them weren’t exactly moral beacons. Why should they be? It’s not a self help guide, it’s a comedy!

Carrie was annoying, selfish, and materialistic. My favorite character was Charlotte, who had a caring heart and found true love in a man who loved her as much as she loved him. I also liked Miranda and Steve who navigate their differences and became a relatable couple. And Samantha was just fun.

The show was about friendship, and that's what I liked about it.

[quote]Carrie is a flawed person, she’s not the fucking Antichrist. Is this thread full of fraus?

It's a 'woke' thing.

Ultra-liberals prefer ALL of their female characters to be flawless Mary Sues/superwomen.

Hence why writing for women sucks these days.

R56 I must protest, Carrie is an awful person but she didn't bully Charlotte into giving her the $30k deposit. She told her off because Charlotte was slurping on her coke instead of supporting Carrie, she even explicitly tells Charlotte she would never take the money from her (just like she refused Samantha & Miranda's offers). She even tore up Big's cheque in that episode!

What bugs me is the writers couldn't add one line in season 6 to show Carrie had paid Charlotte back, like then she got that huge royalty cheque from Europe (give me a break!)

[quote]I must protest, Carrie is an awful person but she didn't bully Charlotte into giving her the $30k deposit. She told her off because Charlotte was slurping on her coke instead of supporting Carrie, she even explicitly tells Charlotte she would never take the money from her (just like she refused Samantha & Miranda's offers). She even tore up Big's cheque in that episode!

You're wrong. Carrie showed up at Charlotte's apartment uninvited and unannounced and like a total psycho demanded to know why Charlotte didn't offer her any money. Charlotte gave her a completely valid response: that loaning money to friends can ruin the friendship. Then Carrie saw that Charlotte was wearing her old engagement ring and like the asshole that she was confronted her about it. What Charlotte does in her own home on her own time is HER business but not according to Carrie. And whatever Carrie claimed about not taking the money from Charlotte, in the end SHE DID. She allowed Charlotte to sell a treasured possession because she was a dumb bitch blew all of her money on shoes and cigs.

The writers didn't add any line about Carrie paying Charlotte back because it never happened and Charlotte was too polite to bring it up.

R62 you're leaving out important details. The reason she showed up like a psycho is because Charlotte didn't give her any support at lunch, Carrie even apologised and explains she worked herself into an irrational temper on the walk over.

Charlotte was already planning to convert the diamond into earrings or a brooch so it wasn't a treasured possession, more like a painful memory.

I loved this SNL clip with Christina Aguilera as Samantha. It would never be done today because the SJWs would be screaming.

[quote]Charlotte was already planning to convert the diamond into earrings or a brooch so it wasn't a treasured possession, more like a painful memory.

She wasn't planning on selling it, which is the point. Carrie bullied her into that. It also doesn't matter that Carrie ~worked herself into a tizzy~ on the way to confront her. She always made excuses for her bad behavior and decisions. Charlotte didn't owe her the funds to buy her apartment and didn't owe her an explanation either. But Carrie acted like she did which is why she's a selfish, shitty friend.

R66 she wanted Carrie to have it! Carrie was practically doing Charlotte a favour by taking it as it gave Miss Prissy a tingle in her knickers to know she was the good samaritan. She was just buying Carrie's friendship.

Charlotte was wearing the fucking ring while walking around Trey's apartment which she was awarded in the divorce. Why she wanted to stay in that apartment and why she and Harry are still living there is a mystery. She gave Carrie the ring when she realized she needed to let go and move on.

Charlotte wasn't bullied.

I'm Gen X, so I was around 26 to 32 when the series first aired. I enjoyed it at the time, for the most part. I could have done without the Berger and Petrovsky story lines, but I digress.

On the ensemble characters, my least favorite was always Carrie. I always felt like the other three women were very defined characters. Samantha, the sex-positive New York PR maven. Miranda, the serious and ambitious Harvard attorney. Charlotte, the proper prissy art gallery princess who found her doctor then lawyer husbands. Granted, it's a TV sitcom, so all three characters had some overdone elements written into their personas -- but with each of these characters, even Charlotte, I could say to myself, "I know or can easily imagine a woman like that in real life."

Carrie I always thought was least developed and a bland, milquetoast composite of elements from each of the other three characters -- so there was one hook about her where the audience could say, "Oh, I see why Samantha / Miranda / Charlotte befriended her." Her character couldn't even be consistent with what her column was about. She would often say she wrote about "relationships" though her column was titled *Sex* and the City. Yet in one episode at a women's charity luncheon for children, she's encouraged to get involved helping children learn to write and she retorts to the old bitty who suggested it, "I write about SEX, do you think that's something the kids would like to write about, giving blow jobs and stuff" or something along those lines. Over multiple seasons, there was barely any mention of Carrie's back story, her family, etc. Even Miranda's mother's death was a story line in one episode, and Charlotte's visiting brother (who Samantha fucked) was in another.

From my perspective, Carrie as the focal point was the least developed and, therefore, the least interesting part of the series. And yes, she was rather selfish and naive in her outlook on many things, as others upthread have noted.

Complaining about Carrie’s personality is as useful as pointing out that Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were awful people. Who the fuck cares?

Jerry, Elaine, George and eventually Kramer had backstories and we knew how they met through flashbacks (Kramer), stories about the past (the book), or simple exposition (Jerry & Elaine). The parents were all hilarious, along with most of the minor characters who usually connected with more than one of them. The Seinfelds and Costanzas were like real parents--arguing about nothing (esp. the Costanzas).

In comparison, Carrie and Co. were more two dimensional. I don't think it was necessarily intentional, but Samantha was rounded out more than the others, probably because she reflected the sensibilities of teh gay men behind the show.

[quote]Samantha was rounded out more than the others, probably because she reflected the sensibilities of teh gay men behind the show.

Or maybe Kim Cattrall was a really good actress and could make the crap material she was handed work better than the other actresses could.

Charlotte was almost a different person in earlier seasons. She fucked a Hasidic artist, hung out with lesbians and let an artist paint a portrait of her cunt. After that she started evolving into an out of touch moron.

Carrie is the least favorite because she’s the least believable (as well as having a terrible personality). Samantha, PR bucks. Miranda, lawyer bucks, Charlotte—okay I assume Daddy funded her art gallery lifestyle until she married money. But Carrie, writing a sex column in a free newspaper (wasn’t it free?). The odd magazine column and a book.. None of that is enough to support her lifestyle. Plus she bought a lot of insanely expensive shoes. In an unrealistic show, this was just too unrealistic.

I don’t care about any of this I just want to ask this one question to Daido lounge people –Which Sex and The City Girl 👧 are You?

I’m Miranda.

[quote] Sure, we can all want what we want but how many times did Big say no through his behavior and silence and even his words? We all create our own realities; oh, Big'll just work this out of his system and then realize I'm the one. Oddly, that's what happened. What a horrible message to send. But shows are an escape, I suppose.

Unhealthy message or not, this is what made Carrie’s infatuation with Big the strength of the series. Being in love with someone who doesn’t love you the same way, and wanting him to change and love you back, is part of the human condition.

It’s a miserable situation and a lot of people can relate to that.

[quote]I also liked Miranda and Steve who navigate their differences and became a relatable couple

Miranda definitely “settled” for Steve and she never let him forget it. She was such a bitter, self-loathing woman.

She told him he was "the One". We weren't supposed to think she was settling at the time.

But we knew her character. That in her mind, deep inside, she was settling. She had accepted that her “One” was Steve.

On the flip side, Charlotte had that freak out when Harry didn’t propose and said something long the lines of “do you know what people think when they see someone who looks like me with someone who looks like you?”.

Charlotte stooped to temporary meanness out of desperation, Miranda tried being a more positive person to get the bag.

[quote]Complaining about Carrie’s personality is as useful as pointing out that Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were awful people. Who the fuck cares?

What a bad example. Seinfeld's creator, Larry David, cared about what bad people they were, which is why he made the series finale all about that fact. And then he explicitly made his follow-up, Curb Your Enthusiasm, again all about that.

As for who the fuck cares about this with SATC: obviously people do, or they would not post about it here at length.

We were watching Six Feet Under and The Sopranos, and maybe also Queer as Folk.

This show was too catty and faggy, even for 2000s-era gays.

Her dirty pillows were so small.

steve was only below miranda in her own mind. plus he was penised

He also had the best body on the show.

R85. Oh yeah?

The show would have been boring if all the characters were goody-two-shoes type, flawless people, I think the whole premise of the show was product placement and selling expensive fashion

First time watching I missed the flaws, for the most part. Upon rewatching, I started noticing Carrie's unpleasant neuroses and childishness. The stalking of Big and demanding to meet his mother and insisting he choose her as the ONE, the bitchiness about Aidan's little country cabin and the squirrel freak out (ridiculous), the scrunchie episode with Berger and demanding money from Charlotte stand out.

My favorites were Stanford, Miranda and Samantha.

Charlotte was really annoying when she became a Jew and did her first Passover meal. Poor Harry. Let him watch his game, you cunt.

Other the annoying screeching of "a scruuuunch-EEE" (which was truly awful), I don't think Carrie did anything wrong with the scrunchee book thing. She seemed earnest in that she was just pointing out something small while loving the book overall. She thought he could take a playful criticism. It's Berger who had the insane meltdown over it and couldn't let it go. Though he was right in his petty insult of her hat during their continued argument. Lol.

Carrie was so insufferable. The other three characters had a great progression but not Carrie. All she cared about was getting Big. It looked so pathetic that she went to him after he dumped her for a much hotter wife.

Matthew Broderick is gay? I always got nerd vibes from him but not gay ones.

R89: It's the writing of Berger that was the problem--all these details that was out of synch with each other.

It always felt to me like Michael Patrick King and the writers secretly hated the characters.

R71, not really complaining; just wondering why something so clear now may not have been back then.

We were supposed to see Carrie as a protagonist, someone we should root for. Her pathetic self-centered life only became obvious as the show was ending and the plots got less and less relatable.

Can we discuss her fashions? Sometimes great but the knee socks with heels? The stupid hat Berger rightfully complains about and the tutu? She seemed very often overdressed

R96 I think we were supposed to give her a pass on her shitty fashions, because she's boho-chic and a working woman trying to have it all!

It's cute when it's Liz Lemon and a piece of lettuce stuck in her hair. It's not so cute when it's Carrie Bradshaw wearing a tutu on the 6 Train.

[quote]Matthew Broderick is gay?

Gee, Mr. Bocelli: I know it's so hard to tell.

He's as gay as he is bald.

Liz lemon was supposed to be fashion-challenged. Carrie was supposed to be chic.

Matthew has always seemed sexless to me. Even in his youth, he seemed asexual to me. How did he and SJP end up married.

Carrie was also crass and ill-bred. The episodes where'd cluelessly start smoking in someone's house, then get pissy when told she couldn't, or chomping on gum at the opera made me cringe.

R102. Plus she farts in bed

The episode where she insists on meeting Big's mom, he says too soon and church is a thing with his mom so Carrie stalks him into the church. Red flag.

R104 I would have told her right then and there to fuck off for good.

I think that's the episode where she breaks up with him because he won't declare she's the ONE. She practically insists he say it right there when he's there to pick her up for a trip to St. Barts. Dumb bitch. I'd have gone on the trip and then broken up afterwards.

She really was too much in that episode. I love how Big's mom in her patrician manner is frostily polite, but is still blowing her off.

"OK, let's make this a show women with disposable incomes will like, where it's just a bunch of white gals sitting around talking, like 'Golden Girls' or 'Designing Women' were. But aimed at twentysomething women!"

"But what will they talk about? What do women that age like to talk about?"

"Shopping and fucking!"

"Great! That will get the gay men watching it too! But how do we make it [italic]edgy[/italic]?"

"I know! Let's have the women talk about how creepy men's bodies and personal habits are. And they can talk about their own 'women's problems,' too."

"But let's go back to shopping and fucking. How do we maximize cashing out on that?"

"Lots of obvious product placements, to enhance the actresses' beauty and glamor!"

"Unfortunately, though, the actress we've lined up for the lead is really quite horse-faced..."

"Just have everyone talk about how incredibly adorable she is! We can have even [italic]her[/italic] character talk about that! People will start to believe it after a while!"

After a while. OK, lke how long. Until Hell freezes over? Yes, that would do.

I never felt she was selfish so much as trashy, stupid and incredibly lucky.. They kept trying to make her the cool hot one, but that was clearly Samantha. The one who was supposed to be dumb went to Smith and was an incredibly competent gallery manager in cutthroat NYC. Charlotte was prissy not stupid. Miranda was an asshole who went to HARVARD, and made partner. She wasn’t the most cuddly and she was smart af. Why she was friends with a twat like Carrie baffled me. It was like Carrie was a stray trying to keep up with these baller women.

She was supposed to be the one who floated through all the different NY worlds and loved it all, but stupid horse face SJP cared too much about $1000 shoes and thence, Carrie came off like a golddgigger to support her lifestyle. They were forced to give her career success so she could keep up with her much smarter cooler friends and she was a goddamn dick about that too. (Samantha and Berger).

TLDR, she’s more an all around horrible person than selfish.

OP we were too selfish to notice

R31 who the hell goes to Sunday brunch in Manhattan—no sane person I know.

I think in hindsight the author Candice Bushnell didn't like Carrie and was maybe writing about a woman she wished she could've been. The other three characters are her as well, her moral compass.

The early episodes are probably closer to Bushnell's vision. She was from the not-rich side of an old Connecticut family who came to NYC when it was more affordable. As a "viewpoint" character she was more fun and had some detachment from things around her. She became more annoying as they moved away from the original premise of teh show.

[quote] I think in hindsight the author Candice Bushnell didn't like Carrie and was maybe writing about a woman she wished she could've been. The other three characters are her as well, her moral compass.

The women (of the TV show, I never read Bushnell) were archetypal, which works exceptionally well for sitcoms. Samantha is Aphrodite, Miranda is Athena, Charlotte is Hera and Carrie is the human scribe.

[quote] who the hell goes to Sunday brunch in Manhattan—no sane person I know.

Was in my old neighborhood Sunday and saw a sign for a BRUNCH SPECIAL $30/Person

We used to got to an Irish pub for brunch, $5.95. Two eggs, thick bacon, sausage, blood pudding, toast, hash browns, mimosa, plus tea or coffee. There was a table of old lady regulars who would meet for brunch and rehash last night’s Golden Girls episode, raucously laughing and slapping their knees. I thought “That will be me when I’m their age,”

But alas - real estate developers won. People in middle income housing got kicked out of Manhattan. The small 6 story apartment buildings have been torn down and replaced with glittery glass residential towers ….a trend started by a certain low class but rich heir and bully named Donald Trump. The little Irish bars every few blocks are also long gone. The one we went to became a Starbuck’s

I'm not in NY but Sunday brunch is alive and well where I'm at.

r116:

They were all selfish in their own ways. But Carrie took the cak. Especially when Aidan was going to throw her out of the condo and she had wrecked credit and couldn’t even get a loan for a mortgage. Then she bullied Charlotte into hocking her wedding ring. Charlotte should have punched her in the mouth.

Was her credit wrecked or was it just that she didn't have any money? The loan officer asked her a bunch of questions about income streams and assets before telling her she wasn't a good candidate Not that it really matters. Then she goes to Big like an idiot and tells him she read an article about how he turned a sum of money into a larger amount, as if she could do that starting with no money and minimal time. In retrospect, maybe she was angling for him to give her the down payment money.

But to answer the question, my first time through SATC, I didn't really think that negatively of her. She could be annoying, but I didn't have much of a deep negative reaction. That came later upon rewatch and discussion.

R120 She wanted Big to give her the money. It doesn't matter how she got into that situation. All that matters to Carrie Bradshaw is that she wants it and you have it, so gimme!

Didn’t Big actually offer her the money and she turned him down?

R122. She accepted the check but her friends were outraged that she accepted it so she tore it up .

Yes; he cut her a check. She questioned whether she could accept it and use it, and she ran it by the girls. I think Samantha thought it would be okay but understood if she didn't want to. Miranda was a surefire "no" - and they both offered her to give her some money. Charlotte didn't want to talk about it, and thereafter, Carrie went to Charlotte's apartment to rail her about "turning away" - asking "why didn't you offer me the money?" but saying in the same sentence, "I wouldn't have taken it" - which is just nuts.

Fuck Carrie.

R125 - Susan Sharon

R48 She met exactly none of the diagnostic criteria for BPD. If anything, I'd say she was a Dismissive Avoidant to start and was eventually made more Securely attached by Steve.

Carrie had a Disorganized attachment style made more Anxious by the Avoidant Big and more Avoidant by the Anxious-leaning Aiden.

Miranda and Carrie were the worst - flaky, self absorbed and mercenary. The two most polar opposite characters, Samantha and Charlotte were the most sane. You knew what you were getting with those two.

r127, I don't think you can really make extensive psychological diagnoses of fictional characters on a famously shallow TV show.

You might as well next start diagnosing the characters on "Gilligan's Island."

R129 To the contrary, I actually think the only acceptable time to make an armchair diagnosis is when it involves a fictional character.

I think whether it saw it at the time depended on your age when you watched. I was late teens when started watching (season three I think then went back and watched the first two) and didn’t really notice but on a later rewatch in my thirties… then picked up on what a nightmare friend she was.