Thoughts On: Sex And The City (series)





A while back, a couple of years to be exact, I watched a movie that had long called my attention thanks to it’s successful box office receipts. Sex And The City was clearly something designed for women to watch, and while I normally don’t classify any movie as a chick flick, I knew this one thrived all over that heading. I had seen a couple of episodes before, but none of the very first episodes. I do admit that they were mainly giving advice to women about relationships, and the sex in those couple of episodes didn’t hurt either, for I’m always up for something sexy. Sarah Jessica Parker had been an unknown to me up until that point. Even stranger were the other actresses in the cast, but after seeing a couple of episodes I had my first glimpse of the fabulous four: Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda, and Carrie. I liked every bit of those characters even if the movie didn’t quite leave a strong impression, and made them out to be very superficial.
Being an avid watcher of E, I have now started 2011 watching it more than ever. Only one reason has attracted me now more than ever to this channel: Sex And The City. Not the movie, but rather something better. They are replaying all the episodes of the original series from the very beginning every night at the awfully early time of 7 pm central time. I would have normally liked to watch them later for that is when I will usually have time to watch them, and still I wasn’t sure if I would like them enough to get through the whole series. Last night I watched the first episode of the entire series, well at least about half of it. After an unwelcome interruption (picking my sister up from a soccer game) I was only able to watch the first twenty minutes and the last ten of the first episode. I know that’s not a great way to start watching a brand new (to me) show, but those few minutes had made an impression far more fetching than the later episodes or the movies did.
After spending the later hours of the night hoping to see a rerun of the first episode, I sadly went to bed expecting a better turnout today. Now that I have unwillingly woken up earlier than usual, I do find to like the channel even better at this time of day. As I ate breakfast after dropping off my sister at school, I decided to turn on the television and take my muffin to the living room. Out of norm the first channel I turned to was E, and the clock having recently turned 9 am, to my surprise, I was in for an entire rerun of that first episode. I couldn’t believe it, waking up early had actually been a benefit, even if my sleep was slightly deprived. Still, it was ok for I wouldn’t be able to get more sleep either way. So I sat enjoying that first episode which was by far so much different than the movies and those later episodes I had seen.
Fortunately they also played two more episodes and found myself spending more time than planned watching television at such and early. The timing was actually perfect for I didn‘t have any interruptions that I knew of. After watching all three of those first episodes I wondered why it was that I liked them, and then it dawned on me.
Sex And The City was not appealing to me for the beautiful lead characters or the sex or even the fashion while those, are reasons why the show is more appealing. No, it was that the main subject, at least from those three episodes, which was, a study on men. I love studying and observing human behavior. This show was a take on men from the point of view of a journalist, which in a way is similar to what I intend to do with my films one day, but study broader subjects than just men. Doubtful that all those categorizations of men were completely true, I found out a great deal about the things that might come to mind in the social world of relationships and sex. It was great to see how these women viewed certain men, and while I don’t know if those stereotypes of men apply to all places but New York, I did know that this show was exactly what I try to do on a daily basis, except my observations include everyone.
The show may appeal mostly to women, for it is women who might benefit from watching such a show, but I loved every bit of it. Maybe the characters were puzzling in that they behaved outside the norm, or at least my norm. I had never before seen women act like men, but I guess perhaps that was the purpose of the show, to elevate women to maybe not a higher but the equal pedestal men. That makes this show feminist in a fun and sexy way. I am now hooked on Sex And The City, and mock me as you please, but I know why it is. I think I not only will learn about men on this show, but about women as well. Here women (the lead characters) are not typical, but larger than life, and that makes for damn good show.
All in all I give Sex And The City my praise, and you can count on me to watch the entire series. In a way, the show too has made me get off my ass and write without fear for the first time in my life. You could say that I’m trying to be Carrie, but not for the reasons others would look up to such a character. She writes in an observational manner, and that was enough inspiration to pull out my laptop and write this brief thought on the show. Clearly she made an impression on me. In an unstated way she commented that a trick to writing was keeping thoughts long enough to put them to paper, and now I realized that I had all the tools needed to finally write without hesitation. Thank you Carrie, and I’m happy to say that I don’t normally watch television shows, but this one I will. I’m also not ashamed to say that Sex And The City is bloody brilliant.