RedHawk

Ah well, so now she buys a house on Gramercy Park and Aidan barely blinks. He makes a few remarks about how she should buy it for herself yada yada yada. I still want to see his red brick farmhouse -- in Norfolk -- that's "better" than Howards End.

It was just like Carrie to take a big advance and buy a Prada shirt, not for herself even but for her boyfriend. An advance is exactly that, an advance on what the book is expected to earn. If it did not earn that, Carrie would owe a repayment to her publishers. I think by that point it was probably a sure bet her book would sell, but I doubt she made millions on any one book. You have to have a big bestseller to do that. I soooo wish they had shown us Carrie paying Charlotte back at some point! That ring thing was a huge contentious issue for fans. ETA: It annoys me that of the four friends, Carrie who was always so bad with money wound up being the richest one, because she married the richest guy. Carrie was always conservative in this way, not at all an independent woman in the way her friends were.

I hope his name is on the deed and I hope he uses that to stake his claim to it. I'm sure she did not pay 100% of the mortgage and he can show that.

I didn't mean "small" earnings as in less than $25,000 a year, but small in comparison to Big's apparent millions. By the time of the second (shitty) movie she had enough of her own money to buy him a very fine watch. I was commenting more on how it seems that he controlled all his money and she didn't have any real understanding of his net worth, annual income, or what was in his will. I don't think he completely considered it her money ("theirs") as well, even if he was totally generous and paid for everything. There was still an air of "it's mine", just like how Miranda thinks the Brooklyn house is more hers and Steve should move out because she made the downpayment and her name is on the mortgage. (Why after all these years isn't Steve's name isn't on the deed? Looks like poor planning from Lawyer Miranda.) I don't find it weird, just foolish. Women who willfully pay no attention to their wealthy husband's finances often don't end up well. Carrie is written as so dumb about money that it just exasperates me. I would love for Big's wealth to have been much less than she imagined, perhaps due to recent losses, and for that $1 million he gave to Natasha to have made a little dent in her bottom line. ETA: She could still have been a wealthy widow who had enough to not need to work but not wealthy enough to buy a home on Gramercy Park. This fantasy life they've made for her in AJLT isn't as easy to hand wave away as the life she lived in SATC.

I loved that Enid got $100,000 out of Carrie. LOL! When she wrote a check for something (maybe to Enid, a few episodes ago) we got a glimpse of her checkbook and there was a previous check (a carbon or a notation) written as a donation to the New York Public Library. I didn't care enough to pause and try to see how much. Could have been $1,000. Maybe it was just late fees... It would be good to see Carrie more charitable but there are plenty of rich women who don't donate and/or participate in the charity circle and I can see Carrie continue her usual behavior of being all about herself. And I will say, everything we've seen about Big's money and Carrie's inheritance shows that he didn't share much info about his finances and she didn't ask. Another unrealistic fantasy aspect of the show. It's made to look like he paid for everything and she had her small earnings from her books, etc. for her own personal use (gifts and such). Probably he gave her a credit card and said, "Whatever you want, kiddo." Such a weird, unbalanced relationship.

Che's place isn't a condo, it's a rental apartment. Che has made a couple of comments about having a lease, and the letter that Carrie and Aidan picked up was from the management company not a condo board. My apartment has a "maximum 14-day stay" rule about overnight guests, and a strict rule against subleasing or listing on AirBnB/VRBO. You can be evicted for violating these rules and that's what Che is worried about. Aidan is definitely a friendly guy, but he was told to keep a low profile and why. The writers are making him behave like a thoughtless jerk. The whole thing of giving false names to the neighbor and saying they both were Che's cousin was complete idiocy, not at all funny. A simple cover story -- "Hi, I'm Che's cousin and we're visiting." -- would have sufficed. They aren't there for 30 days at a stretch, and they aren't causing noise problems, so likely the neighbor would have accepted their "visits" by the third time seeing them. In the neighbor's eyes better to have the same mature, quiet, white (as Che remarked) couple that come and stay every weekend rather than a bunch of unknown people coming and going on random days and at all hours.

When Kathy (Cathie?) called him "our puzzle child" I also thought "autism spectrum". No, let's not go there, Show. I don't trust you to do it well, at all. Yeah, I'm older and don't want to share my home again so I'd love to date a man exclusively and have him stay over sometimes but not live with him. My widowed mom dated the widower next door to her for several years. They were both in their 50s and had a great time together but kept plenty of space for their own separate lives. Carrie is a writer who writes very autobiographically. I thought it was ok for Kathy to ask (tell) Carrie not to write about her sons. She was right to think Carrie might not even take their feelings and their privacy into consideration. And I didn't mind her saying not to hurt Aidan again. It was a kind of warning. She may have picked up that Carrie is kinda self-centered/selfish, and perhaps she thinks they are rushing things and it's likely to crash. Like the woman who made The Face at Carrie over how Aidan was still hurting from her, Kathy was aware of his feelings about the breakup(s). She's an ex-wife who seems to be co-parenting well, no sign of serious rancor between her and Aidan. Some people care deeply about their ex even if they can't remain married. She came across like a normal person, and reminding child-free Carrie that Aidan's sons would also be affected felt like something a mother would do.

Clearly, she learned! 😉 Remember that Carrie also didn't know what a Brazilian wax was until she accidentally got one.

Similar to what I posted previously: Che could have told Carrie the plan to AirBnB their place and go sleep on their grandma's couch. Carrie could say something about "oh no, you don't want to do that for xyz reasons" maybe including "you'll get in trouble with your building management". She wouldn't have to say anything negative about AirBnB, just "Oh geez, that sounds awful!" and in a lightbulb moment offer to switch apartments as well as pay for the use of Che's when Aidan was in town. Instead it came off as actually promoting AirBnB, despite Che mentioning the annoying AirBnB guests. That was a fun scene I wanted to go on longer! Maybe Che could have opened Carrie's oven and laughed at the stack of sweaters stored in it. Just Che's reactions to some of Carrie's outfits hanging in the closet would have been funny. ;-) Exactly! Seema proposed renting the Hamptons house (at huge expense) for a single gal-friends summer. Carrie saying "He wouldn't be there that much" without even the courtesy of asking Seema if he could be there or considering how it would be an imposition on Seema's space was typical Carrie. I imagine that if Carrie or Seema met someone in the Hamptons, each would have been ok with the other having a man over from time to time. Seema doesn't want Carrie to not have a guy, it's just Carrie's glowing "love of her life" behavior about Aidan and totally forgetting her plans with Seema that was so very bad.

I know! Why can't Aidan have made money as AIDAN, not as some sellout we know Original Recipe Aidan would not have been. Sarita Choudhury has so much acting talent. I'm glad she finally got dialogue and a scene worthy of her. She even elevated SJP's acting, which overall was better than it has been in this episode.

Seemed to me like it was because Charlotte was an "older woman" and, in that girl's eyes, fat. That's why she brought out the horrid blacks shapeless dresses that Charlotte ordered away, calling them "muumuus". As someone pointed out, not a great way to act if you're working for commissions. And Charlotte isn't fat.

I totally agree. I wrote more about the need for them to handle their emotional past in the Spec and Spoilers thread. This is all Fantasy with a capital F because Big is gone and the filmed "flashbacks" of their relationship (if they really exist) had to be ditched because of the Chris Noth allegations. So no more "beautiful" memories for Carrie and MPK knows many fans wanted to see Aidan again. I guess we should have known when they kissed in the second movie, a move that made no sense from the Aidan we knew. So Big is dead, Carrie needs another Great Love, and fan-favorite John Corbett still looks good. So here we are. Will their past come back to haunt them and perhaps break them up again one final time? Will he enter that apartment and further the fantasy that he's Mr. Right for Her Now? I think it's 50-50 at this point. But enough, please, no more kitchen shopping!

I did get a laugh at Carrie saying they were wire hangers. SJP said that line perfectly. Aidan barely "apologized" for stocking Che's kitchen. I mean, I'm sure Che expects the Nespresso machine will stay when they finally stop "visiting" and Che clearly can't afford to stock their kitchen (although, uh, what was Che using in their previous apartment?) so sure, Che is happy to get the nice, upscale stuff. But Aidan's "privilege" was sure showing when he said "hope you don't mind" so casually, like he wasn't aware that he and Carrie should have asked for minimal permission and told Che they would of course let them keep everything they purchased. They're encroaching and it didn't bug Che but it kinda bugged me.

Good point about why they likely chose Norfolk. There's a Richmond in both places as well, both with red brick farmhouses, and that would have been a better and more believable place for Aidan to be living. So again, weak writing, low effort. I know he and Carrie are so into each other that they totally forget Hamptons summer rentals and their own children, but is Aidan ever going to hang out with or even ask about Steve, his old buddy and former business partner? That really was the attitude of Manhattanites until the mid to late '90s, when Williamsburg and a few other Brooklyn neighborhoods became hip places to live -- for people like Miranda who couldn't find or afford what she wanted in Manhattan.

Exactly! I've visited the Portsmouth/Norfolk area a couple of times in recent years but don't recall any bucolic farmhouse areas. Indeed, it's a rather industrial small port city. Maybe he lives in the "greater Norfolk area", or on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp (there MPK, I've given you a great location name for Carrie to riff on, like with "Suffern"). I had to laugh, it's like MPK told someone "find a city in Virginia that has short, direct flights to NYC". They might have picked Roanoke (LOL!), at least that general area has mountains/rolling hills and old houses, and an airport. And here many of us were speculating that Aidan and wife had moved to the Virginia horse country, an enclave of the wealthy within an hour of DC. I could understand Richmond, or the area around Charlottesville. But Norfolk? LOL!

Ok, so often we've heard this show described as a "fantasy" and now we're firmly in Fantasyland. I imagine Aidan in Norfolk will be more "farm" than "fashion". Will Carrie really like that? He can't go into her apartment. Carrie is New York and that New York apartment is Carrie. I totally understand and accept his aversion but in reality (no matter how wealthy) if they can't get that sorted out emotionally and stop hotel and apartment hopping they are never going to work. My speculation is that MPK thinks we viewers want and need Aidan on this show and perhaps in this season's finale there will be a blowup so it ends on a "will they or won't they stay together?" Carrie will continue to think of Big as "a mistake" and tell everyone that she realizes she was never really herself with him, only playing at being the "wife of Mr. Big" all those years.

Despite totally understanding Aidan's aversion to Carrie's apartment, I think she need to say a lot more to him than "I made a mistake". They need to have a real talk about their past. Aidan was not without his mistakes but he was honest with Carrie. That talk is not likely to happen I guess, but in real life all this rush to the red brick farmhouse fantasy would need a pause and unpacking of past transgressions. I would not so easily trust someone who had betrayed me in several ways. But then Carrie still married Big, so that's how this show rolls.

And it's so dumb to tout/promote Air BnB when they could have easily altered the story to simply have Carrie offer to switch apartments occasionally with her and Aidan paying and Che staying at Carrie's for free. Illegal subletting is still illegal subletting, so Che still would have asked them to tell the neighbors they were visiting/"cousins" whatever. AND mentions that Big owned a house in the Hamptons! So yes, why not at least have Carrie mention that she sold it or that it's rented full-time? And/or they had a secret love child who now has a claim to his fortune. And where is Lisette??? She was a good antidote to all these other eye-rolling, rude younger women. I totally get it. He bought that apartment to live in with Carrie and invested sweat equity in it as well. They spent a lot of time there even though he didn't fully move in. I had a very similar situation with a house, including that I never moved into it after putting money and work into it. If my ex and I had reunited years later and he was still living in "our" house after having lived in it with a (ex)wife (the one he cheated on me with), I would never have entered that house again. Too many bad memories.

Ok so Power Lad was the guy who lived with his parents in the swanky apartment? His mother caught him and Carrie smoking pot and when she ushered Carrie out Carrie took the pot with her. With the rise of the Marvel and DC Comics films, I like to imagine his comic book store did great business and he later inherited the apartment. Would get a kick out of Carrie running into him again. Don't care if I ever see Berger. The Post-It was hilarious and maybe he did it because he was worried she would hound him for "answers" and so he made it clear it was over. I too do not understand why Aidan didn't already have a hotel room and say, "Hey, it's ok, we can go back to my hotel. How about a night at the Ritz?"

I'd love for Carrie to run into Sam ("Powerlad", right, the stoner?) and find that he's made a fortune in legal cannabis sales! And where is Lisette?! I'd love to see more of her and send the Wexlers to their own series. Aidan may have been joking but in the Media thread @Snazzy Daisy posted an article that says MPK asked John Corbett to lose weight, cut his hair, etc. to resume the role. Corbett reports his response was, "I knew I was a fattie." :=0

At least someone (LTW's husband?) mentioned that Valentine's Night restaurant dinners are a ripoff and a hassle. Most sophisticated city people don't go out to dinner on Valentine's Day.

I really can't stand women who go on and on about "V.D." as one friend calls it even though now she is married and her husband gives her nice gifts. It's one day, get past it. Complaining about it is now a cliché. I was going to make the same comment about DC, but really, DC has very little in the way of fashion. There, I said it. It's been said by many who know far better than I. When I was younger people I knew in DC who wanted fashionable clothes shopped in Philadelphia. So, The Jacket. I can go with Aidan wanting to wear something fashionable that he thought looked kinda cool to "impress" Carrie. Apparently he has money now, lost 40 pounds, and is also in his late 50s so trying a tiny bit too hard to be a single guy going on a date again? I can see him buying it to impress Carrie yet also to tease her a bit about her own fashion choices. If that was his reasoning, I wish he would have had a line of dialogue to explain to us and maybe get a laugh. I also think that The Jacket was being worn as yet another fashion item on the show to sell it to guys who follow fashion and the women who date them. So they mustn't make fun of the Fashion. But we can! "Touch my monkey!"

IMO, for Big, Carrie "checked a lot of boxes" so he finally gave in to the relationship. She was younger, no kids, no ex she still had to be involved with, no parents. He didn't care that she didn't have money because he had plenty and it was one of several things that gave him most of the power in the relationship. In the '90s when these gals were in their 20s and early 30s they would have seen lots of messages to use condoms because of STDs of all sorts, and that they're not so reliable as birth control. Did they ever say that her Thursday-night guy was exclusive with her? If he's having sex with someone else, even once, then there's the risk he'll get an STD and pass it on. Right, this underlines how in the era when SATC was set and filmed most young women, and guys too, especially in NYC dating circles, were very conscious of using and carrying condoms to prevent STDs. At least that's how it was for me and people I knew.

Indeed, and so have ours! When this series was being promoted, before the premiere of season 1, I thought MPK and others were touting it not as a continuation of SATC so much as a different show with the three original ladies and some new characters. Maybe that's why we expected the three OGs to be shown as 50-something women living lives and dealing with actual things 50-something women might experience, with a bit of comedic flair at times, sure. Yet when we get these random parodic scenes like on old SATC amidst more serious scenes and we began the new series with Big's death and funeral, well, we don't quite know what we're to think. I mean, it bugs me that Miranda apparently is an alcoholic, and we saw her go to one meeting this season (which mostly served as a place for her to go when she was bored and lonely without Che) and I noted that she is drinking Perrier when the others have alcohol. But it's never mentioned elsewhere. Has she admitted to Steve that she is an alcoholic? I don't recall if she did in S1. She didn't bring it up in therapy, or any of her other issues for that matter. Like, if they writers are going to give her a drinking problem, how about maybe folding it in to some of her nearly inexplicable behavior/character change?

I got it when the other partner said, "He's creative, I'm business." The partner has always felt like he had to wrangle the "creative" (software) guy. They probably use the same dry cleaner and have for years, so they let him know when his partner hasn't picked up clothes for weeks. It was funny when that guy started kvetching to Carrie about his partner and it did sound like a spouse complaining. Loved how she slid out of the bed and that one-sided conversation and just left him talking! He had already exhibited an annoyance toward Carrie's very presence in his partner's life, so yeah, she didn't feel like taking that on. In this New York City Fantasyland there will be plenty more handsome, single, rich men who will be quickly attracted to 57-year-old Carrie.