Eve's Marathon Diary: Sex And The City Winds It Up

[Primetimer]

Sex And The City's final fairy tale of a season holds a surprising lesson.

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[zxy556575]

Thanks for the rewatch and awesome summaries, Eve. I nitpick everything now and tend to forget that I really did enjoy the show when it was airing.

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Also, who else here would watch THE FUCK out of a spinoff legal drama where Miranda and Harry start a firm together?

YES, please! (But NO to the movies, even with your fetching presence.)

Edited August 30, 2016 by lordonia

[pbutler111]

I've always wondered if Enid ever got that drape panel back. It must've been very expensive.

[Hanahope]

I know Harry wasn't the most handsome man, but he was clearly the best.  He's devoted to Charlotte, and loves having girls and being a father.  He doesn't mind be "out-numbered' by females (or even women).  She can work, or not, as her choice.  Charlotte clearly got the best future.  

Sam does like to do things on her own terms, but she clearly wants to share them with someone.   She wants someone like Charlotte, a person who's in love with her and willing to let Sam do the majority of career/decisions (though having a non-demanding job is ok), but still smart enough to converse with.  

Miranda is stuck with Steve (and I don't buy for a minute what a great father Steve is, when he has problems taking care of his son, and frankly I don't think he'd give a f if Brady wasn't a boy) The show started off depicting Steve as a bright guy, not quite Miranda's intelluctual equal, but not too far away, but he sure got dumbed down as the seasons progressed.

Frankly, Big is very similar to Petrovsky.  About the only difference is that Big didn't converse with other people in front of Carrie in a different language or make her move to a new country.  But both would do their own thing and ignore her many times, then make big romantic gestures when it suited them.  Big did seem ok with Carrie's career, but frankly I thought it was more so she wouldn't always be in his hair/under foot.  Petrovsky didn't seem to mind the career when it was in NYC, and I don't think would have minded it in Paris either, as long as it didn't interfere with his plans.  I could see Big ignoring Carrie as well for his business buddies, but still wanting her around when HE needed her.  I agree that the only reason the 3 women wanted Big to get Carrie was so that she'd come back to NYC.

[sinkwriter]

The episode with the death of Miranda's mother (and Miranda walking by herself down the aisle until Carrie jumps in and joins her), and the scene where Samantha says "the hell with it" and pulls her wig off (and all the women start pulling their wigs off and Smith adorably jumps to his feet, cheering wildly for her) are the moments that I could watch and re-watch a hundred thousand times. They make me cry, every time. I can't even help myself, even though I know those moments are coming. I just crumble.

[pbutler111]

Anyone ever try calling that phone number?

[Temperance]

Carrie and Big's ending seemed to be perfunctory like the writers were avoiding hate mail.
Samantha's cancer was a good-case scenario, but one of my closest friends went through a similar scenario and it rang true to me.
One of the best criticisms I ever heard of this show was that we never really know much about Miranda's law career what kind of law Miranda practices. (Some sort of corporate stuff, but it's hard to say.) We know next to nothing about her career and she wanted to make partner in the beginning but this seems forgotten? as a goal. And yes I would watch Miranda and Harry's law firms show.
Career choices are all but forgotten? in the end with the only career happy ending being Charlotte's adoption and subsequent stay-home-motherhood?

[sinkwriter]

Eve, I've enjoyed your posts about Sex & The City. I know the movies (obviously) aren't TV, but I'd love to read your thoughts on the 2 SATC films if you're allowed to post about it here on previously.tv. They go with the show, after all!

[WhosThatGirl]

Hm. This recap reminded me that there were several different endings to the finale that the show didn't go with. For anyone who wants to check them out, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNrv7A5hae0 the first one is hilarious to me, only because I never thought that would happen and the second one is pretty much what our lovely recapper stated about Big. Big was a guy who cried love to Carrie- and the first movie (I could barley get the 2nd one and I'm not sure if I count that one, it was so bad) kind of jumps on that too with Big, he keeps going around in circles in that one- time and time again and messed with her head a bunch of times. Like I know Aiden was not the guy for her but when she told Big he might be asking her to marry him, Big was all, "you aren't the marrying kind" like, WHAT THE HELL? And what does it matter to you?

Ugh. It's strange, when it aired, I wanted her with Big but when I watch reruns, I really do think he is a jerk. I really would never consider Big. I know Carrie isn't a great catch either at times, but Big was pretty awful to her and constantly played mind games with her when she no longer wanted anything to do with him.  

[zxy556575]

8 hours ago, sinkwriter said:

Eve, I've enjoyed your posts about Sex & The City. I know the movies (obviously) aren't TV, but I'd love to read your thoughts on the 2 SATC films if you're allowed to post about it here on previously.tv. They go with the show, after all!

OMG! To think that Eve's opinion of Steve could get any lower ...

[Hanahope]

15 hours ago, Temperance said:

One of the best criticisms I ever heard of this show was that we never really know much about Miranda's law career what kind of law Miranda practices. (Some sort of corporate stuff, but it's hard to say.) We know next to nothing about her career and she wanted to make partner in the beginning but this seems forgotten? as a goal.

Miranda did make partner in one scene, they showed her walking into a conference room with a bunch of male (of course) attorneys (maybe there was one or two females) clapping and she's smiling very big.  This might have been after the episode when she tried to pretend she was a lesbian to get the top partner's notice. 

 I thought it was hilarious in one scene where they showed Miranda at home with this huge law book copying/writing something down on paper.  Like any lawyer would ever lug some huge book home to copy down info about a case, especially one in a 'big law' firm like Miranda's.  Even in the late 90s, attorneys were already using computers for research and writing.  Even for those not yet computer savvy, they would have just taken the book from their firm's law library to their office and dictated the information for the secretary to type up.

But yeah, we never got real details about what type of law she did, nor, interestingly, do I recall anytime she had to cancel something with the girls last minute because her boss needed some memo or brief done, or she had to go schmooze a client.

[Quof]

She became partner in the episode where she and Steve broke up (yeah, which one?).  "Miranda lost a partner, but that afternoon she gained 25 of them."  

She did some sort of corporate law, I believe - in the episode with the braces she talked about piercing the corporate veil.   Yet she also compared something (I can't remember what, perhaps Expiration Dating?) to preparing for a trial you know is going to settle. But I don't think she was a litigator, she never made any references to being in court.   

[Hanahope]

25 minutes ago, Quof said:

She became partner in the episode where she and Steve broke up (yeah, which one?).  "Miranda lost a partner, but that afternoon she gained 25 of them."  

She did some sort of corporate law, I believe - in the episode with the braces she talked about piercing the corporate veil.   Yet she also compared something (I can't remember what, perhaps Expiration Dating?) to preparing for a trial you know is going to settle. But I don't think she was a litigator, she never made any references to being in court.   

Ok, so if only 25 partners, not a Big Law firm (which usually has about a hundred or so partners and many hundreds of associates).  A firm with 25 partners is on the lower scale of a medium sized firm.

Piercing the corporate veil is something you'd do in litigation (i.e. you want to hold the corporation's creators personally liable instead of hiding behind the corporation they made - usually when the corporation has no assets and insufficient insurance coverage), and one usually doesn't go to trial if one isn't a litigator.  Still, there are attorneys that do the hybrid corporation litigation, she could be doing that.

[Quof]

I'm guessing at the 25 figure, but I know it was a small crowd in the room. 

And as I said, she never ever mentioned being in court (except for the settling comment), so I don't see her as a litigator.   She certainly had more free time than any litigator than I know; yes, corporate lawyers can work long hours, but it is predictable, when you have a big M & A scheduled.   Litigators (I am one) regularly work nights and weekends when in trial, and also when you get hit with a motion or other court appearance at the last minute.    We don't have regularly scheduled long brunches, and evenings on the town are few and far between. 

[Joana]

I could have sworn there was a reference to Miranda's "long day in court" once? Maybe I've confused it with another show.

I don't think even the writers knew (or cared) what kind of lawyer she was. The show never really bothered to dwell into their professional lives. In the beginning it was fine as the focus was on other things like friendship and dating.  They also seemed to have rather realistic backgrounds - Miranda was what seemed a fairly run-of-the-mill lawyer, Samantha owned a PR firm (but didn't know the entire New York celebrity scene), Carrie was a writer (OK, this was one was always iffy as her "work" seemed to consist of sitting herself down in front of a laptop and typing up a dozen or so sentences in one go) and Charlotte worked in a gallery. Later on they were all made to be *successful* so that their increasingly glamorous lifestyles would be justified, but we were never really showed how they got there. They just never seemed like they had to miss out on or sacrifice anything. The writers tried to "get real" with Miranda and show her as a busy single mom trying to balance between her career and motherhood, but it still felt awkward. Like, she would complain about not having the time to wash her hair while having brunch with the other three. Come on. Although, at least we saw her work, whenever Samantha was shown at her workplace, she'd be screwing someone. I think they also tampered with Charlotte's backrground a bit, in early seasons it didn't feel like she was coming from huge money.

[AndySmith]

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why did Carrie get the fairy tale, while everyone else ended up with real life?

Because Carrie was the most fabulously amazing beautiful snowflake ever. That and SJP's EP power plus the writers and showrunners being so in love with Carrie...

Too bad Aleksandr Petrovsky was thrown under the bus. He started out as a nice, charming, social person until the writers decided they needed him to...not be, to advance the plot. Then again, that is consistent with how this show has done things in the past, when the plot needed to be advanced.

Carrie was really insufferable in Paris. Like, I get your boyfriend is busy and you're in a country where you don't speak the language, but damn, be proactive about changing your situation. Sign up for French classes. Contact english-speaking embassies (um, like your own embassy, to start with) and see what social and cultural events they offer, any social groups that you can join, etc. Get on the internet and search them out yourself. Not only would it keep her occupied, but it would also allow her to meet people and make new friends and network. But that would involve Carrie actually being proactive, which we all know, isn't her, she expects everyone to run after and tell her how awesome and fabulous she is. Heck, she probably had a mini-orgasm when she was invited to a dinner in honor of her and her book by a bunch of strangers.

I would have maybe preferred Carrie to be single. I did love her telling Big off the night before she left to Paris. That was one of the few times I really liked Carrie in the last few seasons. Shame she didn't follow up on that. Her not reuniting with Big at the end would have made her final message of "The most important relationship is with yourself" much better had she chosen not to get back together with someone who she was so clearly toxic with, and someone who was just so bad to and for her (not that she was all that much better to Big). But hey, at least they're both off the market and won't be torturing others.

I liked the ending for the other girls for the most part. Yes, even Miranda and Steve. That might have to do with the chemistry with the actors more than anything else, of course. But I was satisfied for the most part.

As for watching the movies...well, you may as well.

[zxy556575]

48 minutes ago, AndySmith said:

Too bad Aleksandr Petrovsky was thrown under the bus. He started out as a nice, charming, social person until the writers decided they needed him to...not be, to advance the plot

Even more so than with Aiden, I never understood what Aleks saw in Hot Mess Express Carrie. What was the attraction? She was completely unsuited to him.

Carrie and Berger made the most sense to me. He turned out to be neurotic and unstable, but I could totally  see them as a couple otherwise.

[Hanahope]

19 hours ago, Joana said:

The writers tried to "get real" with Miranda and show her as a busy single mom trying to balance between her career and motherhood, but it still felt awkward. Like, she would complain about not having the time to wash her hair while having brunch with the other three. 

IKR.  And we never saw Miranda get some 'emergency' phone call at work about her sick child and she had to experience exasperated sighs of her male co-workers when she had to leave the office.  Course, she apparently had the money for a full time nanny-housekeeper.

[Joana]

I think every one of them got a fairytale ending, or at least the show thought so. 

The character they always insisted the most on "keeping it real with" was Miranda, so it wasn't that surprising she'd end up with a husband who "didn't shake her core", a child she wasn't sure she wanted and a demented MIL she needed to take care of. Still, she was quite consistently portrayed as the cynical one and skeptical about the prospects of romance, so the fact that she cared enough about someone to allow to be uprooted from her Manhattan socialite lifestyle and be burdened with looking after a sick elderly person she wasn't even particularly fond of... In the universe of SATC it must have been a huge deal. She found true love!!!!11 Of course, in reality Miranda would be one those women who wake up one day after 10 years and wonder what the hell they had done with their lives.

Charlotte got exactly what she wanted, a rich guy who would worship the ground she walked on and treat her like a princess. She wouldn't be as likely to get that from a stereotypically good looking guy. And really, Harry's physical appearance was only a problem in the context of all those (increasingly more) impossibly good looking guys they dated/slept with over the course of the show. Had he appeared in season 1, it wouldn't have been a huge surprise if any one of them had hooked up with him.

As for Samantha, it was kinda annoying how the show kept on insisting of that image of Samantha as a sexual beast who doesn't do emotions. She's had several monogamous relationships and there have also been several guys she seemed to have a deeper connection with even thought it didn't turn into anything substantial. So, letting Smith hold her hand or whatever wasn't exactly as groundbreaking as they were making it out to be. Also while I do understand why Smith would be hung up on her - she helped his career a lot, she's obviously experienced and knows what's she's doing in bed, she's fun and easy to get along with, it's not difficult to see why he'd want to stick around, at least for a while. Also, he's a recovering addict and such people usually crave stability in their lives. Her motivation is much more difficult to figure out. Sure the sex was great, but we've also seen guys who'd screw her brains out only for her to lose interest fairly quickly, so it must have been something way more than just physical attraction if "he meant more for her than any other man in her life". And we never really got to see it develop. Most of all it just looked like the writers decided it's time to pair everyone off. 

[ChlcGirl]

I just wrapped up S6 20 minutes ago and I'm only slightly ashamed to say that I teared up when Samantha got Smith's flowers and "Waiting for spring" card.  So sweet.

[Princess Sparkle]

On 9/2/2016 at 11:43 AM, AndySmith said:

Too bad Aleksandr Petrovsky was thrown under the bus. He started out as a nice, charming, social person until the writers decided they needed him to...not be, to advance the plot. Then again, that is consistent with how this show has done things in the past, when the plot needed to be advanced.

 

I HAAAAAATTTEE what they did to Aleks all in service of having a Big/Carrie endgame.  I actually think the Aleks we were first introduced to is probably the kind of person Carrie would be happy to spend her life with, because he ticked off the boxes she wanted - he's worldly, he's into her, he supports her work, he wants to meet her friends, and he can keep her in a comfortable lifestyle.  And then within the span of 2 - 3 episodes, all of a sudden he hates her friends to the point where he can't even feign politeness TO THEIR FACES (the friends he begged to meet btw), he can't understand why she'd want to go to a dinner party celebrating her work (when he previously went out of his way to defend her column to his disdainful friends), and he can't even do her the courtesy of speaking a language she can understand in a conversation?  I'm not even going to the completely out of character slap business that happened in the last ep.  I truly feel like the writers originally were going to go for a Carrie/Aleks endgame, then realized they wanted the fairytale ending of her being with Big, and so they had to make Aleks look like an asshole in order to accomplish it.    

This season does have one of my favorite episodes, The Ick Factor.  The show's strongest episodes were always the ones that focused on the strong relationships the ladies had with each other, so at the end of the episode when Miranda tells Sam, "You are my people and we'll talk about it now!", I tear up.  That whole episode is great from start to finish.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Princess Sparkle

[Gothish520]

I just finished watching the series with my sister and we both LOVED the finale. Tears and cheers all around. I like where everyone landed, and even though I know there are plenty of bumps in the road in the movies, I thought the series ended on the perfect note for each of them.

I will take my comments on specific characters and story arcs to the appropriate threads after some contemplation and sleep. :)