I just rewatched the entire original Sex and the City

[quote] Kristin Davis is a very bad actress. How did she get this role?

Friend of the producer.

Sure, but Kim Cattrall's character only exists in a gay man's fantasy . Women don't act like that in real life.

So have I OP. Miranda had her moments but on seeing it again I like her better towards the end. Charlotte turned into a squealing lunatic fixated on babies. Sam was a walking text book of self esteem issues and sex addiction. Carrie was a self centered child who sabotaged relationships.

It’s funny no one ever calls Samantha out for being the really self-centered one. Much more so than Carrie. We love that she’s a slut because we want to be her but IRL we’d think she was a skank. No way those woman would hang with Charlotte. She’s just awful.

Hi SJP!

That’s not true r4. She is punished for laughs for her voraciously single and sexy persona once a season . Like when she has her nudes printed out and the framing guy doesn’t care so she orders a burger, when Miranda gets mad at her for not showing an interest in Brady and when babysitting she uses a vibrator to rock his crib, and when she blows the delivery guy but is disgusted by walking in on Stanford and his boyfriend (that didn’t ring true at all).

Samanatha is a popular character not because of all her hot unattached sex but because though she lives the fantasy of living for herself she’s not entitled and selfish.

Samantha was actually a really loyal and kind friend who put up a lot from the other three, especially Carrie.

And why did that make Miranda so ugly? Cynthia Nixon is attractive, she was in Lumet's Prince of the City and also in one of the first episodes ever in Law and Order.

Hi R8!

I like Kim Cattrall, but I found Samantha's voice & character to be irritating. So mannered and affected. I realize these women were cartoon-character-like, but it was ridiculous.

SJP was whiney and irritating, too, but I did like to see what she was wearing. Her apartment was super-boring.

R9, case-in-point. They made her look like the most dour butch bitch on the planet. I know she "became" a lesbian later but come on, did they have to make her so ugly?

She was that R7 and non-judgmental to a fault. I loved her episode where she's screaming out the window at the tranny hookers soliciting and snatching wigs in the street below.

I don't get why people would want to see nice clothes on a homely woman. It's a wasted opportunity.

I'm assuming you mean SJP R13? In the early seasons Carrie is quite attractive with a great body for clothes which were hit and miss. Don't get me started on the knee socks with heels.

SJP was supposed to do nudity but she backed out at the last minute, forcing Kim and Cynthia to show more

R14, you're right, originally SJP was attractive....and then I don't know.

Carrie was attractive in a pretty, nice-bodied ecerywoman who was kinda relatable in the first seasons. From season 4 onwards she becomes this divine, fabulous babe whom men fall over. This coincidentally happened as SJP lost her prettiness

SJP was pretty, cute and fun in the early seasons especially with the curly hair and before she became older and wiry and skinnier.

Did anyone feel like there was a dynamic?

Charlotte and Miranda were more prudish than Carrie and Samantha

Miranda and Samantha were career oriented while Charlotte, Carrie were socialites

Both Carrie and Charlotte were romantics; Samantha and Miranda were pragmatic about love.

Carrie seemed more prudish than all of them to me.

bump

My favorite early Cynthia Nixon role (she was 21-22) is as the candidate's daughter on the Robert Altman/Garry Trudeau HBO series Tanner '88, with Michael Murphy as Tanner. She tries to talk her dad into taking strong stands on issues that would be important to a young leftist of that era, so her public appearances make his campaign staff anxious.

This aired concurrently with the real 1988 primaries, and they faked footage to make it appear Tanner was onstage in debates with Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, etc. It was a clever show, very much like Altman's films with the overlapping dialogue and asides. A lot of actual Washington people of the era appeared on it.

Samantha was the most loyal of the four. She was also the kindest and the most likable. Charlotte started out smart and sassy but became more and more shrill as the show progressed. The first two seasons are the best. The rest focus more on ridiculous fashions and annoying and obnoxious Carrie.

R23, they kind of trash the loyalty part with the new show. She unceremoniously dumps Miranda and Charlotte once she has a falling out with Carrie. I could see her character ghosting Carrie but not them. They could at least have written it with the two of them keeping in touch but it not being the same since she left the city.

I guess it was more fun to get a dig in at Kim. No wonder she didn’t want to come back.

People are confusing their perceived real life opinions with the actual characters. Carrie was a good friend to all 3.

And Just Like That is like some shared nightmare we all had.

This show seemed refreshing when in real time, but did not age well at all.

Still love it, all the way through to movie #1. 2 was a joke and AJLT is depressing.

The original show was lacking one huge thing.

[Quote] Charlotte started out smart and sassy but became more and more shrill as the show progressed.

Charlotte was a bitch to Samantha after sleeping with her brother. Samantha forgave her too quickly.

[Quote] Carrie was a good friend to all 3.

You mean like the time Carrie gave Charlotte shit for not offering to give her money?? Or when she sent Aiden over to help Miranda without warning her??

[quote]Charlotte was a bitch to Samantha after sleeping with her brother. Samantha forgave her too quickly.

There is a code among friends. You don't sleep with each others' exes or relatives. Point blank period.

R31 a code about relatives? Bullshit.

I watched all again recently. The show lost me when they had Aidan come back to Carrie. His “YOU BROKE MY HEART!” moment was excellent and that should’ve been the last he ever bothered with that twit.

I watched s1 and most of s2 for the first time last year. It was fun seeing pre-9/11 NYC but I eventually got tired of their bullshit. I was really turned off by Carrie's obsession with status and I thought Big was a fucking pig. Samantha carried the entire goddamn show. I can see why she was so angry about the pay disparity.

But R33

r32 Yes, relatives too.

R35 HAHAHA!

R30, or the time Carrie went to Samantha's when she had the flu? Getting out of bed on NYE because Miranda was down in the dumps?

Carrie's "you have to forgive me" shit to both Aidan and Natasha was really irritating to the point I wanted to reach through the screen and snap her scrawny neck. No, bitch, no one has to forgive you just so you can feel better about your shitty decisions and chaotic mess you leave in your wake. The only reason she was so obsessed with Big was his money and status. In real life Big would have punched and deleted after she stalked him and his mother at church and her whining "tell me I'm the ONE" after dating for a few months.

The show glorified pushing off having kids to a generation of women that are now flailing trying to have them in their 40s. Paying through their noses for ivf, suffering major health issues and heartache etc. live long enough and you get why women are supposed to have kids in their 20s. Safer, healthier etc. third wave feminism is a mixed bag.

When Natasha destroyed Carrie at that dinner, I was so happy. That bitch deserved it. It's one of the best "owns" I've seen on tv.

I always felt the other three characters matured and grew in the last couple of seasons whereas Carrie became a bigger jerk. But anything that goes past two seasons increasingly is just milking the cow.

R41. That was awesome but, of course, the writers had to make Natasha superficial by pointing out that the color of her crown doesn’t make the rest of her teeth.

R43 I don't think that's particularly superficial. The front teeth are, bang, right there. I had the same thing happen to me and, yes, it was really noticeable in photos that my teeth did not match and I'm not a female or a beauty and it bothered even me. I'm getting ready to get the crown redone.

Yeah it's not superficial. We all have little scars and things from our lives. I know I do. Most of the time they don't bother me.

But none of my scars are from a horrible traumatic moment like finding my husband balls deep in his ex. It's a constant reminder of that day.

SJP is a fugly horse creature who kissed alot of asses to climb the ladder into the gutter of success.

YAY KIM

OP, I had Covid last month and I did a total rewatch. Covid was a bitch, so I also watched both the movies and "And Just Like That". Yes, it was a rough time.

[quote] Samantha was actually a really loyal and kind friend who put up a lot from the other three, especially Carrie.

She was a fantastic friend who never judged anyone. She is single, doesn't like children, makes her own money and will do anything to help a friend.

Now that I am 41, I am really relating to Samantha. Not in the obvious ways, but I now find Samantha to have a "been there, done that" wisdom that while she not always diplomatically impartedon her younger friends, rings true. Kim was fantastic.

Miranda is also fantastic, especially in the later episodes which is why it is so upsetting that this beloved Miranda from the OG SATC was replaced by a bumbling idiot in AJLT.

I still think Carrie is a dumb, gold digging whore who really violates boundaries with Big. He clearly stated is boundaries on multiple occasions, not beating around the bush but directly, and Carrie violates them at every turn. Showing up to church, leaving her shit at his place, having lunch with his ex-wife with whom he had the 3-way with. Then later on insisting on an elaborate wedding when Big distinctly said it was his third marriage and he didn't want to whole hoopla

SJP believed her own hype lol! Now don’t get me wrong, I DO believe the woman is a tastemaker. Buy that does not translate to men fawning over her ass! Not reality! And no, I do not believe JFK Jr actually banged her.

Yes, R47. She was way too invasive too fast. Odd since she was so distant and reluctant with her other men especially Aidan. As I said, it was Big's money and status she wanted. When Aidan wanted to marry her she ran to the bathroom and puked and refused to wear his ring but put it on a chain around her neck.

Another thing that I noticed on this viewing was that Carrie was such a prude for being a NYC sex columnist who hung out in the city's elite inner circles. Bi-sexuality, golden showers, 3-ways, being absolutely shocked when she walked into Sam's own office to see her blowing the World Wide Express delivery guy - these are fairly vanilla for woman of the world, I would think.

Charlotte also had a lot of sex early on for such a boring Frau in the latter series. Charlotte fucked the Hasidic artist, was ready and willing to engage in MFF 3-way, admitted to tossing Trey's salad, dressed in male drag, considered receiving anal, and had her cunt painted. I liked the duality. I think season 4 was when then really leaned in to the cartoon character of it all. Charlotte was actually fucking more men in the earlier seasons than the other women.

no shit, jfk jr wouldnt have pissed on her if she on fire......she GROSS AND RUDE.

Natasha has elegance and class, that Carrie did not. She was a downtown scene queen but she did not fit in to Big's upper east side world. Big marrying 20-something Natasha is (and then having affairs) is probably one of the more truer to real life plot lines in the show.

A little aside from my fevered viewing of SATC 2, which I felt might have deviated from the origin story:

Carrie met Charlotte first, when Charlotte (or Carrie) was working at Bergdorf's and one of them had a meltdown in the dressing room

Carrie then met Miranda at some event

Finally, Carrie met Samatha last when Samantha was a bartender a CBGB's

I always though Carrie knew Samantha first, that. Miranda was really her bestest friend out of the group, and I wrongly assumed that Charlotte was the newer friend to the group. I am basing this on Lainey's pre-baby antics at Samatha's party in 1990 when it was Carrie, Samatha and Miranda.

According to THE CARRIE DIARIES, which no one watched, Carrie met Samantha first.

R53 yeah but its an "alternate timeline" not meant to line up with the OG show

AJLT was such a joyless, depressing slog. Watching Carrie pee the bed and have a hip replacement in her early to mid 50's was such a fucking downer. Is this supposed to be empowering to 50-something women. Also, proud Harvard Law Miranda is willing to ditch her academic program and new position to follow Che to LA to film her non-binary TV series? It was absolutely painful, not to deviate into this schlock.

Never found any of the four interesting, or likable.

I live in Flyoverstan and even I knew that the star of SATC is NY City and those 4 women the supporting cast.

Also, not that anybody should have had my non-reaction to the "bold" and "refreshing" sexual talk and activity of SATC, but, in my early 20s, I was a bartender at a bar located in a rural area.

Best education of my life.

The regular women customers would talk and laugh about sex and men in very graphic, funny, and yes, sometimes bitter, ways.

So, by the time heard the dialog of SATC that everybody else found so new and "frank", my ears were jaded, and it all seemed so tame to me.

It's so odd to me that SJC is reviled on DL, but in the real world she is considered a style icon. The shoes and other things she sells aren't cheap. $400+ dollar shoes- she's competing with the big boys.

All 4 of the characters (but especially Carrie) could be tiresome in their own way, but I always thought one of the prevailing themes of the show was loneliness. Being lonely in a city, being lonely in a relationship or being lonely in your career. I thought that was one of the things the show did well (before it became a showcase for SJP): show how these four very different, not always likeable women found some degree of community and supported each other. The most recent iteration & certainly the movies kind of lost the beat, but I thought the early shows highlighted how lonely these people were, no matter how much they fucked around.

R34, that was exactly my experience—I wondered if I wrote this post yesterday and forgot. Nevertheless, lately I have been feeling a bit of a draw to continuing it as mindless entertainment… or self-punishment?

Watch Emily in Paris instead. It's mindless entertainment and French

It's ridiculous Kim never won any Emmy for making such an iconic comedy character as Samantha Jones. They kept giving the award to Doris Roberts for her samey performance in Everyone Lives Raymond. A disgrace.

You wanna talk about not winning an Emmy for creating an iconic role?

R61 I know what you mean. Fucking JLD

I liked that Carrie was wearing a tutu in the opening credits.

R61, pity that SJP is the one with the Emmys and Tonys.

Why not, r48? She was pretty hot back in the day

There's no disputing SJP dated John Jr. back then. She was just his type, skinny, blond, stylish.

Someone's jelly.

Why were 90% of the love interests, fuck buddies, one night stands, etc so fucking ugly?

As a woman, I see SITC as an excellent portrayal of a specific type of female friendship—where one woman is the hub and other women are the spokes.

Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha aren’t friends really—those relationships would dissolve without Carrie. But Carrie’s individual relationship with each is very believable.

Miranda and Samatha have genuine affection and respect for each other but not enough in common to build a friendship separate from Carrie.

It’s this relationship model that I found to be the genius about the show because it’s so authentic. It’s rare to find a group of women who share equal levels of connection in a friend group. And friend groups rarely survive without a hub keeping them together.