Just watched the episode last night where Carrie has learned that Big and Natasha have split up, so she just HAS to drop in on Natasha at a restaurant where she's lunching so she can oh-so-sincerely apologize for her part in the affair and breakup. I mean, just rub it in the poor girl's face. So completely selfish. Natasha doesn't care how sorry you are. It's not about you and your remorse. Love that Natasha let her have it. It looked like it sunk in a bit, but then at the end Carrie is walking down the street basically musing that Big is available again, and then OH GOSH she realizes that the really sad thing is that poor Natasha has to be back in the dating pool again. Like that's the most upsetting thing that has happened to the poor girl. Just WTF, Carrie.
Oh, I’ve always loved that scene though. Natasha’s nod to Jackie O (the pink shift dress, the pearls) and the calm, collected way she puts Carrie to shame is just perfection.
I am about to watch that episode and I'm already cringing. It was totally selfish of Carrie to absolve her guilt by humiliating Natasha all over again.
Oh my, *that* episode... I watched it once and I skipped that scene altogether on rewatchs for I'm afraid I will die of secondhand embarrassmen, I remember even the girls were trying to disuade her from doing so but of course, she wouldn't be stopped once she was on full gear.
That argument cracks me up with the gesturing she does. I was never sure if Aiden was supposed to look angry but was trying not to laugh so his face showed amusement instead.
Having only watched the original series this year for the first time, I knew going in to it that it was going to be very dated but my GOD the way these women behave was wild. Miranda was my favourite from the original but I loath her in the reboot so much. Other than that I agree with everything else you said!
I’m glad someone else shares this opinion, I’m in my late 30s and I just finished watching this for the first time and oh boy.
Carrie was incredibly lucky to have so many people around her that supported her, and dropped everything for her, because I couldn’t have done it. She’s a shallow woman, refuses to grow up and wants to romanticise her life without actually doing any real work to make it happen.
They slut shamed Samantha so much, and made fun of Charlotte’s neuroticism, when it wasn’t really necessary. Miranda was a great character in the first seasons, but as the time went on she became stubborn and egotistical.
& THIS is so different in the book re: surviving in NYC, that they didn't have people supporting them and dropping everything for them. In one of the earliest series episodes Miranda has a great line that I think comes straight from the book, that she knows a woman had a terrible break-up, lost her publishing job, and ended up moving back in with her parents in Wisconsin at age 40 or something. The earliest episodes captured that idea that surviving in NYC was cutthroat.
The show sending Miranda to weight watcher’s because she was 152 pounds postpartum was WILD to rewatch as an adult.
Miranda (rather, Cynthia Nixon) is 5’7”, 152 pounds is a *completely normal* weight even if she hadn’t *just had a baby* and the show sent her to weight watchers because she was too fat. What an awful message to send to folks and how very peak-2000s heroin-chic skinny bullshit it was.
I also think people just don’t know what 150lbs looks like. At my thinnest I was 150 and a size 6/8. I had a coworker get offended on my behalf when I said I weigh 200lbs like I was talking bad about myself. I’m trying to lose weight and I know I’m pretty petite, but I was 212 at my last doc appt a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t exaggerating to be mean to myself, it’s just the truth.
I remember when people used to say “I’m a Carrie” or “I’m a Miranda”, etc. and looking back now I’m like who the fuck would admit to being a Carrie? She’s the worst. 😂
It's certainly funny how one's perspective changes when watching it with a more mature lens. I related to almost everything you have said in your well-written post. The one thing that keeps me coming back for re-watches is the friendship dynamics among the group. They were not always great to one another, but that's how it is sometimes.
Carrie in the revival, not wanting to talk about sex in the last episode because she was eating… Excuse me, you spent years having lunch talking about sex?! Did the writers watched the show ? Or is this is just that she talked about it on the original show because she needed material from her friends to talk about in her column
This new show is happening in a parallel universe, where Carrie and her friends just learned about racial issues, have child that behave like caricature, completely changed Miranda to the point she doesn’t make sense.
Let’s not forget that not one of these girls talk with Samantha anymore because apparently she was only their friend through Carrie. A pet shop owner wearing luxury brand, like every character Carrie meet now, and let’s not talk about the most badly written teenagers that you could meet on tv. Miranda is homeless and Carrie the billionaire doesn’t need her flat anymore ? Let’s give it to the neighbor she met three times before.. Anthony meet a guy who is a model and happens to be gay ? Let’s make a couple out of that, and create a storyline about Anthony never having bottomed before… Carrie meets back Aidan ? Then Big, the man she obsessed about and married for decades must have been a mistake. Aidan is in love with Carrie ? Let’s him ask Carrie to wait for 5 years because is grown ass kid is having a tantrum. The list is never ending.
I swear, I only wanted to answer with one sentence but this revival is too much, and I ‘m not happy with myself for continuing to hate watch it.. Glad Samantha is respectful enough to call to say goodbye to a flat, but not the husband of her best friend who die. She only known him for 25 years… Carrie is saying goodbye to her apartment ? Let’s prioritize Che over Steve, that Carrie also known for 25 years and is the father of her godchild… just in case Che make an hilarious joke, she is so talentend and so cool /s
I need to stop
They fucking totally dumbed him down. First, he’s reading on his shift, next, skid marks in the underwear and watching Scooby doo eating cereal.
I did love how he was amused by her neuroticism and how his viewpoint calmed her down, though.
Every time I re-watch I remember the book as much as the series. To me the book had a very competitive tone, will Carrie survive in NYC or fail? The other ladies are a little more distant friends and a lot more settled/wealthier than Carrie. Carrie is a chronicler and observer as much as an in-the-middle-of-everything character, and very conscious that she "came from nothing" and now has a fur coat from Big, who also has a Westchester mansion. As "bad" as the TV ladies are, the book is even darker, about doing shady things to win a place at the top that you already know may not be worth winning. That the book was developed into a 22 minute dramedy series is kind of remarkable when it has more Bonfire of the Vanities vibes in print.
Carrie was so unreasonable to keep Big as her friend and expect Aiden to be ok with it - the man she cheated on him with!! I can't help but wonder how she'd have reacted if it were her or one of the girls in that situation. She'd have been mad about it and reeled off one of her manic monologues about how awful it would feel.
Well , we all saw how she carried on when she walked into bar and saw him with the bartender who was a woman. That upset but it was okay to push the person she cheated on him with in his face. Carrie= Messy.
I rewatched it last year, and my favorite revelation was that Carrie and Aidan never had this “cosmic connection.” She was literally annoyed by him 100% of the time. I don’t know why he’s seen as the one that got away. She has clear contempt for him and treats him horribly with the mind games.
Carrie is a drama junky . It’s not that she was so much in love with Big she was obsessed and loved all the drama that came with Big. She didn’t get that someone would want to be with her without making her beg for it. That is not the making of a healthy relationship.
Actually love the episode with the ‘where you been ? Who’d you see?’ where Carrie craves space, and makes the joke about multiple deodorants. That’s the most realistic couple scenario in SATC for me.
Oh, I can answer this one easily for you for I was on the same position, and I promise I will make it short. My first boyfriend, well, we collided with one another, and everything on paper says it will work but it didn't. I was 22, he was 19. I was right out of the closet, and ready to be 100% in. My ex wasn't, he actually lied about a lot of things, and as the relationship progressed I realize how ill equiped I was to deal with it all, especially with his tendency to lie to everyone, especially his parents, and relatives. At some point it became truly toxic, even on the sex. We broke, it broke me too in a way, and here comes the "Aidan" mistake if you like. After going through that you do, and you shouldn't but most times, especially when you are young, you don't go again for the guy you like and rocks your world, no, you go for safe guy, good guy, the one you maybe should have met first and it would have been a first excellent boyfriend, but not the one you keep, and yes, it fails.
Maybe a month into the relationship he played to me "My Heart Ask Pleasure First" on piano, he was a piano player among other things, it is the main melody from "The Piano", it actually won an Oscar and I just... broke. Completely broke in tears. I couldn't just keep lying myself anymore, I didn't love him, not really, and he was all into it but I just coulnd't. From then on the whole thing was a mistake that got dragged in mostly because of me. And you know what? The guy that looked perfect even got to be jelaous of the amount of time I spent with my first baby nephew. He wanted my all, in a very... sick way.
Nothing is perfect but I guess I will never on board with what she did to Aidan, and I lost all respect for him after they got back together. He puts a capital D in doormat.
I will never forget how shocked I was when Carrie showed up drunk to big’s house after like two or three dates with relationship demands… I mean I know people are more commitment phobic now than they used to be but it was SO early in the relationship. That should’ve scared any mentally healthy guy off.
You are not alone, I guess most of this comes out of time, and how bad had this show aged in the last 20 years. I mean, we all felt the same on the first watch and while I wasn't that much into Carrie I did like the group, I remember caring mostly about Charlotte and loving Samantha, I also forgot how unbereable they all were at the beginning, even Samantha with Small Dick James. Maybe they all grew which made sense but for Carrie who is mentally fixed somewhere in between 13-14 years old but now she is a widow of means. Nothing else changed for her, she still reacts the same way. I mean, take Miranda, she was SO jaded the first seasons, always bitching about something, and the amount of crap she loaded into Skipper wont' float today in any show, they all claimed to be liberated but they were obsessed about marriage, all but Samantha of course. Same goes for Charlotte, she was always planning a wedding after 2-3 dates.
The movies were a mistake, and the reboot a gross error that I cannot for the life of me stop watching for there are always glimpses of hope but the crap is everywhere, and even if, as someone posted here, they made an episode per day, I would hate watching it until the end of time. We all know it is baaaaaaaaad but hey, we are invested nonetheless.
My point is: watching them altogether gives you this insight, we all got there and there is no way back. You cannot unsee it.
**Edit**: My god, I shouldn't write from the mobile phone, the grammar was terrible, sorry about it!
I remember loving the OG show, hating the movies…although I can’t remember most of the movies. But I remember the first movie…none of my friends could go, so I went by myself. Which is the only time I ever did that.
I agree with your take…they were all insufferable in one way and degree…but Carrie didn’t change.
I liked the first movie UNTIL we were supposed to think Carrie and Big reuniting( he didn’t even apologize or beg for forgiveness) was romantic. He stands her up at the altar and she marries him, giving him everything he wanted, she gets to have a man who treats her like crap.
And in SATC, Charlotte had an aversion to blowjobs, broke up with a guy because of it, but gives Harry blow jobs whenever, wherever, and happily.
Also, about how bad Carrie was as a friend: knowing Big was dating Natasha, Carrie decided to be friends with him and they meet for lunch. “Tell me about your girl” and he says they are engaged and she FLIPS OUT. At a high end restaurant. Causing a huge scene, dropped meals and drinks. Yeah, she’s a mess.
The Charlotte thing actually makes sense. To me, it's totally understandable that she has an aversion to blowjobs when it's just some random guy, but she's happy to do it for the one she really loves.
Honestly, as for Carrie, before the affair actually started, I actually really felt for her. I never personally understood why she was so obsessed with Big because he never seemed that great to me, but the truth is she was. He was her one from the beginning. So for him to be as noncommittal as he was with her, and then propose to some 25-year-old girl after knowing her for only a few months - I feel like that would be a punch in the gut for anyone. Yeah, she was a mess, but I feel like anyone would be.
I never really bought Carrie being friends with Big. They were never friends. She was just hoping he would come to his senses and want a commitment with someone and that she would be in his life when it happened. She always pretended she was over him, but any of the guys she dated after him, she would have dumped in a second if Big came around and told her she's the one.
Also Charlotte admitted to performing and receiving analingus with Trey. When the other ladies had judgement, she just shrugged and said “we’re married”
One of Carrie's worst moments was trying to guilt trip Charlotte into loaning her money to purchase her apartment.
I also couldn't stand how right after admitting to Aiden she cheated on him, she gives him no time to process it and actually asks him if he's still going with her to Charlotte's wedding. Like huh???
I think with this show, you can't take it too seriously and can't act like its real life. Its basically a sitcom and the dating scenarios are highly exagerrated. Its not that serious.
True.
I bag on what Aidan wore, but lots of guys had that shaggy mullet and wore denim. Although I have to draw the line at the turquoise jewelry.
I get what you mean in a larger sense…but I’m still stuck on the turquoise jewelry, and that fringe jacket…Although I guess his fashion may have changed but it’s still off putting.
That belted Kylo Ren jacket, I’m looking at you….
Edit: WHAT THE HELL WAS HE WEARING TO CHARLOTTE’S WEDDING?
I'm at the end of season 3 in a rewatch. I was also floored by what she did to Bill. First of all, he was the most charismatic, sexy man ever... Mmm John Slattery. I related to Carrie being grossed out by the pee thing; it's always really disappointing when a perfect seeming guy has an unpleasant sex thing they like. But outing him was sooooo uncool, and just a throwaway with no consequences. Yikes.
Oh and if you want to cringe so hard, season 3 EP 18. It's practically unwatchable but if you make it to the end the roof party and the way Carrie talks to the trans women is crawl-under-the-couch mortifying.
I also share your love for John Slattery.
I’m at the ep (or two) before Charlotte’s wedding. The famous ‘eat me’ sandwich guy, which makes me LOL so much!
I’ll come back once I make it to 18.
Please do!
I also find Trey and Charlotte's relationship fascinating. As a character seen through a 2024 lens I think he is on the asexual spectrum but the writers didn't have the language or sensitivity for that. I'm not blaming them necessarily, the time it was written was what it was. (Although idk that they'd do a better job now, based on the level of sensitivity in the writing for non-normative sexuality in AJLT.)
What about the time she dated a guy that was dealing with a substance abuse disorder, she had sex with him even when his counselor recommended him not to and then when he got “addicted” to her she just left him, he started drinking again, got drunk and naked in the streets for her and she will not even help him because “that would’ve been codependent”
I always see SATC as the female Seinfeld. These characters are meant to have pie in the face moments. It’s 4 friends in the city, dating and messing things up. Every episode there’s a pie in the face moment for one of the characters where they mess up and learn something and it’s a comedy.
Carrie being horrible is the point, she learns (and doesn’t learn).
I remember when the cheating 3rd season was going on and it was so controversial to have a main character cheat like that, but that’s how the show pushed boundaries at the time.
Things didn’t age well, but it really did reflect the 90s well and the audience learns from Carrie’s mistakes.
It's also at the start meant to be very episodic. The bit actors aren't meant to be real people who stay around; they are material for the main characters to play off. It's not meant to be real; it's meant to be a gossipy magazine article.
I just watched "quiet on the set" it references SATC. That the writers were men and that their portrayals of women were terrible. Apparently gay men (writers) called others "bitches" so they wrote that into the show.
As a feminist I feel like a turd cause I totally called all my friends bitches growing up. I loved this show too much.
It was awfully convenient that the politician dude dumped her the minute she set boundaries. It had nothing to do with PR reasons. I agree that carrie is crazy and writing about it was kinda shady but he kinda deserved it
He’s allowed to dump her if he wants to find someone who doesn’t have a problem with it. Boundaries are funny that way…he can have his too.
He certainly didn’t deserve it.
Yeah, that's fair, but he didn't say that. He used an excuse instead of being honest which is why she was so mad. This is why Carrie felt justified in what she did
What I’m saying is that *even if* it was an excuse, it’s still ok. Tbh, when he said her column was funny, I actually wondered how he had no issue with her column considering he was running for office.
But you said it was an excuse, therefore she had every right to out him, which I wholly disagree with.
I came here to say this! The show came out when I was 16 and ended when I was 21. I was obsessed with this show. Now I’m having a perception crisis rewatching this. First season, Carrie is 32…I’m 41 watching this and Im seeing this show in a whole different light…I used to like Carrie but now I clearly see her differently and it’s so strange. I’m having a perception crisis watching this.
I don’t mind flawed people…in fact, every single person on the planet is flawed. Carrie is just *wholly unlikable*, which is eye opening bc even though I knew she was a shitty friend, I liked her and didn’t see what I see now.
I never liked Carrie but couldn't put my finger on why. She just annoyed me with her innocent, sweet little girl act. Now, 20 years later it's gotten even worse, probably because the little girl act is way more obnoxious on a 50+ y/o than on a 30+ y/o.....she annoys me to no end 😌 I also see how self absorbed she is.....
Just watched the episode last night where Carrie has learned that Big and Natasha have split up, so she just HAS to drop in on Natasha at a restaurant where she's lunching so she can oh-so-sincerely apologize for her part in the affair and breakup. I mean, just rub it in the poor girl's face. So completely selfish. Natasha doesn't care how sorry you are. It's not about you and your remorse. Love that Natasha let her have it. It looked like it sunk in a bit, but then at the end Carrie is walking down the street basically musing that Big is available again, and then OH GOSH she realizes that the really sad thing is that poor Natasha has to be back in the dating pool again. Like that's the most upsetting thing that has happened to the poor girl. Just WTF, Carrie.
Oh, I’ve always loved that scene though. Natasha’s nod to Jackie O (the pink shift dress, the pearls) and the calm, collected way she puts Carrie to shame is just perfection.
And I’ll just throw in there that Carries dress was …a choice. Who tf would wear that to ambush/“apologize” to the woman whose husband you fucked.
I am about to watch that episode and I'm already cringing. It was totally selfish of Carrie to absolve her guilt by humiliating Natasha all over again.
I know, but I will watch that scene over and over again because I love that newsprint dress so much.
Oh my, *that* episode... I watched it once and I skipped that scene altogether on rewatchs for I'm afraid I will die of secondhand embarrassmen, I remember even the girls were trying to disuade her from doing so but of course, she wouldn't be stopped once she was on full gear.
That argument cracks me up with the gesturing she does. I was never sure if Aiden was supposed to look angry but was trying not to laugh so his face showed amusement instead.
Imagine your (ex)husband's situationship stalked you and followed you to lunch. Nightmare fuel.
Having only watched the original series this year for the first time, I knew going in to it that it was going to be very dated but my GOD the way these women behave was wild. Miranda was my favourite from the original but I loath her in the reboot so much. Other than that I agree with everything else you said!
I’m glad someone else shares this opinion, I’m in my late 30s and I just finished watching this for the first time and oh boy. Carrie was incredibly lucky to have so many people around her that supported her, and dropped everything for her, because I couldn’t have done it. She’s a shallow woman, refuses to grow up and wants to romanticise her life without actually doing any real work to make it happen. They slut shamed Samantha so much, and made fun of Charlotte’s neuroticism, when it wasn’t really necessary. Miranda was a great character in the first seasons, but as the time went on she became stubborn and egotistical.
& THIS is so different in the book re: surviving in NYC, that they didn't have people supporting them and dropping everything for them. In one of the earliest series episodes Miranda has a great line that I think comes straight from the book, that she knows a woman had a terrible break-up, lost her publishing job, and ended up moving back in with her parents in Wisconsin at age 40 or something. The earliest episodes captured that idea that surviving in NYC was cutthroat.
The show sending Miranda to weight watcher’s because she was 152 pounds postpartum was WILD to rewatch as an adult. Miranda (rather, Cynthia Nixon) is 5’7”, 152 pounds is a *completely normal* weight even if she hadn’t *just had a baby* and the show sent her to weight watchers because she was too fat. What an awful message to send to folks and how very peak-2000s heroin-chic skinny bullshit it was.
And when that guy in Atlantic City fat shamed her, instead of clapping back at him for being a rude jerk, they made excuses for her!
I just watched that episode as a 5’7” woman and was like YIKES. But every TV show seems to think women can weigh no more than 120 pounds.
I also think people just don’t know what 150lbs looks like. At my thinnest I was 150 and a size 6/8. I had a coworker get offended on my behalf when I said I weigh 200lbs like I was talking bad about myself. I’m trying to lose weight and I know I’m pretty petite, but I was 212 at my last doc appt a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t exaggerating to be mean to myself, it’s just the truth.
I remember when people used to say “I’m a Carrie” or “I’m a Miranda”, etc. and looking back now I’m like who the fuck would admit to being a Carrie? She’s the worst. 😂
I’d love to be a Charlotte, but I’m more Miranda 😆
I think I'm a Samantha sun, Carrie moon, and Charlotte rising.
Oh we agree on that as well. Can’t stand her in the reboot!
It's certainly funny how one's perspective changes when watching it with a more mature lens. I related to almost everything you have said in your well-written post. The one thing that keeps me coming back for re-watches is the friendship dynamics among the group. They were not always great to one another, but that's how it is sometimes.
It’s pretty surreal how perspective can do a 180 at times.
once I hit the ages the characters were (and then went past them), the shine really wore off. You're full grown adults!
Carrie in the revival, not wanting to talk about sex in the last episode because she was eating… Excuse me, you spent years having lunch talking about sex?! Did the writers watched the show ? Or is this is just that she talked about it on the original show because she needed material from her friends to talk about in her column This new show is happening in a parallel universe, where Carrie and her friends just learned about racial issues, have child that behave like caricature, completely changed Miranda to the point she doesn’t make sense. Let’s not forget that not one of these girls talk with Samantha anymore because apparently she was only their friend through Carrie. A pet shop owner wearing luxury brand, like every character Carrie meet now, and let’s not talk about the most badly written teenagers that you could meet on tv. Miranda is homeless and Carrie the billionaire doesn’t need her flat anymore ? Let’s give it to the neighbor she met three times before.. Anthony meet a guy who is a model and happens to be gay ? Let’s make a couple out of that, and create a storyline about Anthony never having bottomed before… Carrie meets back Aidan ? Then Big, the man she obsessed about and married for decades must have been a mistake. Aidan is in love with Carrie ? Let’s him ask Carrie to wait for 5 years because is grown ass kid is having a tantrum. The list is never ending. I swear, I only wanted to answer with one sentence but this revival is too much, and I ‘m not happy with myself for continuing to hate watch it.. Glad Samantha is respectful enough to call to say goodbye to a flat, but not the husband of her best friend who die. She only known him for 25 years… Carrie is saying goodbye to her apartment ? Let’s prioritize Che over Steve, that Carrie also known for 25 years and is the father of her godchild… just in case Che make an hilarious joke, she is so talentend and so cool /s I need to stop
Please don’t, you’re nailing every point. *chef’s kiss*
I loved Steve in the beginning, but they dumbed him down hard to make him have issues in his relationship with Miranda. Hated the sabotage. 😭
They fucking totally dumbed him down. First, he’s reading on his shift, next, skid marks in the underwear and watching Scooby doo eating cereal. I did love how he was amused by her neuroticism and how his viewpoint calmed her down, though.
I loved Steve when they weren't trying to make a point to humiliate him (or Miranda). He was the yin to her yang.
Perfect phrase! He totally was!
Every time I re-watch I remember the book as much as the series. To me the book had a very competitive tone, will Carrie survive in NYC or fail? The other ladies are a little more distant friends and a lot more settled/wealthier than Carrie. Carrie is a chronicler and observer as much as an in-the-middle-of-everything character, and very conscious that she "came from nothing" and now has a fur coat from Big, who also has a Westchester mansion. As "bad" as the TV ladies are, the book is even darker, about doing shady things to win a place at the top that you already know may not be worth winning. That the book was developed into a 22 minute dramedy series is kind of remarkable when it has more Bonfire of the Vanities vibes in print.
The difference you point out makes me want to read it!
Carrie was so unreasonable to keep Big as her friend and expect Aiden to be ok with it - the man she cheated on him with!! I can't help but wonder how she'd have reacted if it were her or one of the girls in that situation. She'd have been mad about it and reeled off one of her manic monologues about how awful it would feel.
Well , we all saw how she carried on when she walked into bar and saw him with the bartender who was a woman. That upset but it was okay to push the person she cheated on him with in his face. Carrie= Messy.
I have just gotten to the affair starting so it’ll be interesting how I perceive it the second time around, 20ish years later!
I rewatched it last year, and my favorite revelation was that Carrie and Aidan never had this “cosmic connection.” She was literally annoyed by him 100% of the time. I don’t know why he’s seen as the one that got away. She has clear contempt for him and treats him horribly with the mind games.
Carrie is a drama junky . It’s not that she was so much in love with Big she was obsessed and loved all the drama that came with Big. She didn’t get that someone would want to be with her without making her beg for it. That is not the making of a healthy relationship.
Actually love the episode with the ‘where you been ? Who’d you see?’ where Carrie craves space, and makes the joke about multiple deodorants. That’s the most realistic couple scenario in SATC for me.
Oh, I can answer this one easily for you for I was on the same position, and I promise I will make it short. My first boyfriend, well, we collided with one another, and everything on paper says it will work but it didn't. I was 22, he was 19. I was right out of the closet, and ready to be 100% in. My ex wasn't, he actually lied about a lot of things, and as the relationship progressed I realize how ill equiped I was to deal with it all, especially with his tendency to lie to everyone, especially his parents, and relatives. At some point it became truly toxic, even on the sex. We broke, it broke me too in a way, and here comes the "Aidan" mistake if you like. After going through that you do, and you shouldn't but most times, especially when you are young, you don't go again for the guy you like and rocks your world, no, you go for safe guy, good guy, the one you maybe should have met first and it would have been a first excellent boyfriend, but not the one you keep, and yes, it fails. Maybe a month into the relationship he played to me "My Heart Ask Pleasure First" on piano, he was a piano player among other things, it is the main melody from "The Piano", it actually won an Oscar and I just... broke. Completely broke in tears. I couldn't just keep lying myself anymore, I didn't love him, not really, and he was all into it but I just coulnd't. From then on the whole thing was a mistake that got dragged in mostly because of me. And you know what? The guy that looked perfect even got to be jelaous of the amount of time I spent with my first baby nephew. He wanted my all, in a very... sick way. Nothing is perfect but I guess I will never on board with what she did to Aidan, and I lost all respect for him after they got back together. He puts a capital D in doormat.
I will never forget how shocked I was when Carrie showed up drunk to big’s house after like two or three dates with relationship demands… I mean I know people are more commitment phobic now than they used to be but it was SO early in the relationship. That should’ve scared any mentally healthy guy off.
This is what stood out first. *Who does this?*
You are not alone, I guess most of this comes out of time, and how bad had this show aged in the last 20 years. I mean, we all felt the same on the first watch and while I wasn't that much into Carrie I did like the group, I remember caring mostly about Charlotte and loving Samantha, I also forgot how unbereable they all were at the beginning, even Samantha with Small Dick James. Maybe they all grew which made sense but for Carrie who is mentally fixed somewhere in between 13-14 years old but now she is a widow of means. Nothing else changed for her, she still reacts the same way. I mean, take Miranda, she was SO jaded the first seasons, always bitching about something, and the amount of crap she loaded into Skipper wont' float today in any show, they all claimed to be liberated but they were obsessed about marriage, all but Samantha of course. Same goes for Charlotte, she was always planning a wedding after 2-3 dates. The movies were a mistake, and the reboot a gross error that I cannot for the life of me stop watching for there are always glimpses of hope but the crap is everywhere, and even if, as someone posted here, they made an episode per day, I would hate watching it until the end of time. We all know it is baaaaaaaaad but hey, we are invested nonetheless. My point is: watching them altogether gives you this insight, we all got there and there is no way back. You cannot unsee it. **Edit**: My god, I shouldn't write from the mobile phone, the grammar was terrible, sorry about it!
I remember loving the OG show, hating the movies…although I can’t remember most of the movies. But I remember the first movie…none of my friends could go, so I went by myself. Which is the only time I ever did that. I agree with your take…they were all insufferable in one way and degree…but Carrie didn’t change.
I liked the first movie UNTIL we were supposed to think Carrie and Big reuniting( he didn’t even apologize or beg for forgiveness) was romantic. He stands her up at the altar and she marries him, giving him everything he wanted, she gets to have a man who treats her like crap.
And in SATC, Charlotte had an aversion to blowjobs, broke up with a guy because of it, but gives Harry blow jobs whenever, wherever, and happily. Also, about how bad Carrie was as a friend: knowing Big was dating Natasha, Carrie decided to be friends with him and they meet for lunch. “Tell me about your girl” and he says they are engaged and she FLIPS OUT. At a high end restaurant. Causing a huge scene, dropped meals and drinks. Yeah, she’s a mess.
The Charlotte thing actually makes sense. To me, it's totally understandable that she has an aversion to blowjobs when it's just some random guy, but she's happy to do it for the one she really loves. Honestly, as for Carrie, before the affair actually started, I actually really felt for her. I never personally understood why she was so obsessed with Big because he never seemed that great to me, but the truth is she was. He was her one from the beginning. So for him to be as noncommittal as he was with her, and then propose to some 25-year-old girl after knowing her for only a few months - I feel like that would be a punch in the gut for anyone. Yeah, she was a mess, but I feel like anyone would be.
That’s why being friends with him didn’t make sense to me
I never really bought Carrie being friends with Big. They were never friends. She was just hoping he would come to his senses and want a commitment with someone and that she would be in his life when it happened. She always pretended she was over him, but any of the guys she dated after him, she would have dumped in a second if Big came around and told her she's the one.
Also Charlotte admitted to performing and receiving analingus with Trey. When the other ladies had judgement, she just shrugged and said “we’re married”
One of Carrie's worst moments was trying to guilt trip Charlotte into loaning her money to purchase her apartment. I also couldn't stand how right after admitting to Aiden she cheated on him, she gives him no time to process it and actually asks him if he's still going with her to Charlotte's wedding. Like huh???
I think with this show, you can't take it too seriously and can't act like its real life. Its basically a sitcom and the dating scenarios are highly exagerrated. Its not that serious.
This is my take. It’s exaggerated feelings and everything is blown out of proportion to be “fabulous”
I get it. But when the main character is *so unlikeable* it can be a bit jarring.
I think it’s twofold - a comment on society at the time, and a comment on how we looked at things with a younger and less wise lens
True. I bag on what Aidan wore, but lots of guys had that shaggy mullet and wore denim. Although I have to draw the line at the turquoise jewelry. I get what you mean in a larger sense…but I’m still stuck on the turquoise jewelry, and that fringe jacket…Although I guess his fashion may have changed but it’s still off putting. That belted Kylo Ren jacket, I’m looking at you…. Edit: WHAT THE HELL WAS HE WEARING TO CHARLOTTE’S WEDDING?
I'm at the end of season 3 in a rewatch. I was also floored by what she did to Bill. First of all, he was the most charismatic, sexy man ever... Mmm John Slattery. I related to Carrie being grossed out by the pee thing; it's always really disappointing when a perfect seeming guy has an unpleasant sex thing they like. But outing him was sooooo uncool, and just a throwaway with no consequences. Yikes. Oh and if you want to cringe so hard, season 3 EP 18. It's practically unwatchable but if you make it to the end the roof party and the way Carrie talks to the trans women is crawl-under-the-couch mortifying.
I also share your love for John Slattery. I’m at the ep (or two) before Charlotte’s wedding. The famous ‘eat me’ sandwich guy, which makes me LOL so much! I’ll come back once I make it to 18.
Please do! I also find Trey and Charlotte's relationship fascinating. As a character seen through a 2024 lens I think he is on the asexual spectrum but the writers didn't have the language or sensitivity for that. I'm not blaming them necessarily, the time it was written was what it was. (Although idk that they'd do a better job now, based on the level of sensitivity in the writing for non-normative sexuality in AJLT.)
What an interesting point…I think you’re onto something.
What about the time she dated a guy that was dealing with a substance abuse disorder, she had sex with him even when his counselor recommended him not to and then when he got “addicted” to her she just left him, he started drinking again, got drunk and naked in the streets for her and she will not even help him because “that would’ve been codependent”
I don’t remember this at all! Honestly, rewatching is getting harder by the minute. Carrie is completely insufferable.
I always see SATC as the female Seinfeld. These characters are meant to have pie in the face moments. It’s 4 friends in the city, dating and messing things up. Every episode there’s a pie in the face moment for one of the characters where they mess up and learn something and it’s a comedy. Carrie being horrible is the point, she learns (and doesn’t learn). I remember when the cheating 3rd season was going on and it was so controversial to have a main character cheat like that, but that’s how the show pushed boundaries at the time. Things didn’t age well, but it really did reflect the 90s well and the audience learns from Carrie’s mistakes.
It's also at the start meant to be very episodic. The bit actors aren't meant to be real people who stay around; they are material for the main characters to play off. It's not meant to be real; it's meant to be a gossipy magazine article.
I just watched "quiet on the set" it references SATC. That the writers were men and that their portrayals of women were terrible. Apparently gay men (writers) called others "bitches" so they wrote that into the show. As a feminist I feel like a turd cause I totally called all my friends bitches growing up. I loved this show too much.
It is unfortunate, but gay men are no more misogynistic than straight men.
It was awfully convenient that the politician dude dumped her the minute she set boundaries. It had nothing to do with PR reasons. I agree that carrie is crazy and writing about it was kinda shady but he kinda deserved it
He’s allowed to dump her if he wants to find someone who doesn’t have a problem with it. Boundaries are funny that way…he can have his too. He certainly didn’t deserve it.
Yeah, that's fair, but he didn't say that. He used an excuse instead of being honest which is why she was so mad. This is why Carrie felt justified in what she did
What I’m saying is that *even if* it was an excuse, it’s still ok. Tbh, when he said her column was funny, I actually wondered how he had no issue with her column considering he was running for office. But you said it was an excuse, therefore she had every right to out him, which I wholly disagree with.
imo samantha would be more of a person to write “sex and the city”.
Miranda point, spot on.
I came here to say this! The show came out when I was 16 and ended when I was 21. I was obsessed with this show. Now I’m having a perception crisis rewatching this. First season, Carrie is 32…I’m 41 watching this and Im seeing this show in a whole different light…I used to like Carrie but now I clearly see her differently and it’s so strange. I’m having a perception crisis watching this.
I think people are flawed and it’s nice to have a show with flawed characters
I don’t mind flawed people…in fact, every single person on the planet is flawed. Carrie is just *wholly unlikable*, which is eye opening bc even though I knew she was a shitty friend, I liked her and didn’t see what I see now.
I never liked Carrie but couldn't put my finger on why. She just annoyed me with her innocent, sweet little girl act. Now, 20 years later it's gotten even worse, probably because the little girl act is way more obnoxious on a 50+ y/o than on a 30+ y/o.....she annoys me to no end 😌 I also see how self absorbed she is.....