S01.E02: REWATCH: Models and Mortals

[Bella]

 

 

"Suddenly, I felt like I was wearing patchouli in a room full of Chanel." - Carrie

Miranda makes the mistake of going out with a "modelizer" (someone who's obsessed with models); Samantha chooses to go out with a modelizer and has her sexual encounter videotaped; Carrie experiments with Derek the Model and flirts with Mr. Big.

 

Thread opens bright and early Monday morning, June 16.

[Hanahope]

Chuckled over how the female model was getting great trips and a boobs, the male model got a juicer.

 

Old fashioned cell phone!  I had one like that (where you had to pull up the antenna).

 

I don't know if it was the show, but I thought most of the models they showed weren't pretty at all.  Maybe the first model that was at the dinner party, but the ones on the runway, ugh.

 

And still talking to the camera.  Clothes all seemed fairly normal.

[MadRat]

I love the opening sequence with the dinner party and Nick's annoyed friends. I like to imagine they liked Miranda so much they dumped Nick and brought her into the friend circle.

 

I also love that Samantha has nothing to contribute to the "what I hate about my body" conversation. I know Carrie described her as "deluded" in the first episode, but in this case, I appreciate that she feels like she's allowed to like her body just the way it is. Even if she doesn't really believe it, I like that she said it.

 

The SoHo artist is gross and find it grosser that Carrie is all blase about him secretly filming women during sex and then showing it to other people. Grooooooss.

 

I found Stanford's model client endearing.

 

I don't really get what Big is doing in this episode. Is he playing hard to get? Keeping her interested until he gets tired of dating models? I mean, he's flirting with her, but in this cutesy, offhand, hit-and-run way. I dunno, I didn't date much before I met my husband so there are a lot of things in this show that I don't get.

 

 

And still talking to the camera.  Clothes all seemed fairly normal.

 

I liked the breaking of the fourth wall in this episode and the first, but I think if they kept it up it would've annoyed me. Mostly because Carrie got more annoying so her speaking her annoying thoughts directly at me would make me crazy.

 

I do look forward to the clothes getting crazier. 

[ShellSeeker]

I thought Samantha again came off badly in this episode, projecting desperation rather than confidence. She practically begged Barclay to film them having sex. Ick. And speaking of Barclay, trying to place the actor who played him was driving me nuts until I finally figured out that it was Harvey Spector from Suits.

The guy who played Miranda's date was a total glob of smarmalade. "Why fuck the girl in the skirt when you can fuck the girl in the ad for the skirt?" Eeeew. This episode also had some of Miranda's first good one liners: "So I'm what, your intellectual beard for the evening?" Hee hee. And also asking when men decided to only get it up for giraffes with big breasts.

Loved Miranda's black dress at the dinner party, and her hair too.

I thought SJP did a good job in the party scene, trying not to appear intimidated and insecure in a bar full of supermodels and the men drooling all over them. It would be easy to feel invisible in a situation like that.

[andromeda331]

I thought Samantha again came off badly in this episode, projecting desperation rather than confidence. She practically begged Barclay to film them having sex. Ick. And speaking of Barclay, trying to place the actor who played him was driving me nuts until I finally figured out that it was Harvey Spector from Suits.

 

 

I thought that too. She really came off as desperate and why? She has no shortage of men to sleep with. It would be one thing if she thought he was cute or something. But begging him to film them? Why? At the end Carrie says Samantha finally had validation. Why would she need it? 

[izabella]

At the end Carrie says Samantha finally had validation. Why would she need it?

 

I think the point was they were all intimidated by the model mystique, and models made them feel "less than."  Samantha wanted validation that she was as hot as a model even if she wasn't an actual model.

 

For all that they were supposedly enlightened women, they always seemed desperate for a man to me (except Samantha, who was desperate for many men).

Edited June 20, 2014 by izabella

[Bella]

Finally watched this episode.

 

I agree that the male model who went home with Carrie was sweet. I felt sorry for him, and Sanford was both clueless and annoying.

 

I prefer this show when the characters have normal clothes and hair.

 

Big delivered one of my favorite lines in this episode, which I believe comes up again in the series finale, the line about in the end just wanting someone who can make you laugh.

 

Samantha was sad, and I didn't see why Miranda bothered to confront her modelizer date. She should have just not gone out with him again if asked.

 

It was an okay episode, not quite good. It felt as if the writers were still getting their feet under themselves, and because of that, it lacked the energy and spark often seen later in the series.

[ShellSeeker]

I also thought that Carrie's voice-over of the definition of a modelizer was pretty funny: Modelizers are obsessed not with women but with models, who in most cities are safely confined to billboards and magazines, but in Manhattan actually run wild on the streets, turning the city into a virtual model country safari where men can pet the creatures in their natural habitat. Hee.

 

I also thought the model who went home with Carrie seemed like a nice guy. I liked that his dream was to move back to Iowa and have kids. It reminded me though, that we didn't really see or hear much about Stanford's work or career after the first few episodes. Was the unprofessional way he treated that client what put him out of business? The bit about which part of the billboard to hang on the wall was just painful.

[Maherjunkie]

Models are rarely pretty, it's just about the height.  I didn't blame the modelizer if he could appreciate "regular" women.  Seeking out a certain type if you can get them, is not bad.

[NutMeg]

[started rewatch a few days ago so VERY late to the party]

 

It seems to me there has been at least two retcon WRT Samantha - she seems very desperate here, we know she will later on be more powerful/in charge, and then again become the person she was in these first episodes. Or hopefully I'm misremembering, will see with the rewatch.

[SarahPrtr]

On 22/06/2014 at 3:40 PM, ShellSeeker said:

I also thought the model who went home with Carrie seemed like a nice guy. I liked that his dream was to move back to Iowa and have kids.

Yeah, he said he wanted to be a cop and maybe he was working towards that, but because of the way he looks, he was noticed by an agent and got picked to be a model.  They have people all over the country scouting shopping malls, bars and cafes to pick the next 'It' model.  Actually, that's how Ashton Kutcher was discovered (who actually IS from Iowa!).  A lot of those models do stay in large cities like LA or NY and maybe get into acting afterwards, but since Derrick said that he hates large crowds and felt lonely in the city, I imagine someone like him would work as a model and make decent amount of money, save up and move back home.