By Emma Jane Cooke
As someone who has just finished the original Sex And The City franchise for the second time and is currently up to date with the movies and the reboot, the tumultuous journey of all the characters seem to be going haywire.
The Sex and The City franchise is nothing short of spectacular. What is a show if not representing the time it was made in? For a release in 1998, the show laid out the grounds of how young women were depicted within television and society. Other shows would come to follow but how would we discuss the current reboot without acknowledging what came before it.
The first episode can be described as not only a fan favourite, but truly paves the way by having the characters break the fourth wall with inclusion from the society of Manhattan itself. It feels personal and familiar to have a young Sarah Jessica Parker tell you, “Isn’t delayed gratification the definition of maturity?”. The boxy aspect ratio and the camera style of the late 90s is something that emphasises that the show is a timepiece, a story where a friendship between women is something that will stay consistent and outlive romantic relationships.
The dynamic between the four women is perfect because they are all so different yet bounce off each other where a light-hearted and affectionate connection is portrayed.
Whether you consider yourself a Carrie, a Charlotte, a Miranda, or a Samantha, you can’t help but feel for the honest and realistic depiction of Carrie Bradshaw during the first re-watch. It’s also easier to keep track of how many times Big truly screwed Carrie over.
The two movies that followed the series are controversial in their own right, Steve cheating on Miranda, Brady still being an actual written in character and not Miranda’s worst nightmare, Big leaving Carrie, or of course, when Samantha and Smith split.
The reboot series, And Just Like That, does not feature Kim Cattrall reprising her role as Samantha Jones. To this day, it is still a disappointing result but the question is, did Cattrall make the right choice?
The third season is currently underway with many fans online tuning out with each new episode. Aidan cheating on Carrie, making Seema wear an eye-patch, the entire Lisa vs her alive or dead dad controversy, Harry having cancer, the list goes on.
I will say, I will still tune in every Friday for the newest episode as I can’t seem to just shake the characters off. The show depicts their lives for over 20 years, yet the characters we are seeing during these present times are not something the fanbase is familiar with.
We get it, the women are older, and it truly is interesting to see how they have changed their day to day based on where they are in life, both in society and in age. It is important to have this depiction of an older generation just as important as it was to have in the 90s. The issues lie within how the writers are portraying these events. Harry urinating on himself was a slightly odd turn of events, it happens, but there seems to be a sensationalisng on just how much older all the characters are, but some of their life choices do not seem to be reflecting what the character would have done, say ten, twenty years ago. An example of this may be Carrie choosing to stay with Aidan after he admits to cheating on her with Kathy. Carrie forgives him immediately, does she feel as though this is karma for when she cheated with Big, does she feel as though she’s too far in with Aidan to be single again? This has yet to be explored as Carrie has not even chosen to tell the other women yet.
The newest series is halfway through, all I can say is I wouldn’t mind the return of some memorable faces to shake things up. Alexander Petrovsky, Trey Dougal, Samantha, the bones of the title ‘SEX and the city’, or even bring back Berger if needs be.