Once, I was outside a bar on West 4th Street when a couple tourists came and asked me: "We are looking for friends. Is it here?" While I was still trying to decode their question, my friend standing next to me quickly jumped with an answer: "It's not "Friends". It's "Sex and the City", and it's just around the corner." She pointed to the next crossroad, Perry Street.
That's when I realized the couple was looking for "Friends" apartment on Bedford Street. But just a block away, on Perry, it was another famous TV show apartment, Carrie's, from "Sex and the City"– in the show Carrie lived in the Upper East, but the building front that appears on the show is actually on Perry Street.
While they walked away, excited on their journey through the West Village and sitcom's iconic impossible NYC apartments, I turned to my friends and said: "They came looking for friends and what they found was sex and the city."
It's a fun memory to start this post.
"Sex and the City" and "Friends", together with "Seinfeld", are iconic shows that simultaneously influenced generations and changed TV history. Even today, you still can find people arguing which one was funnier, "Friends" or "Seinfeld" - personally, I'm team "Seinfeld". SATC was more niche than the others but no less iconic.
After six successful seasons and two feature films, Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte - Samantha decided to give it a "no, thank you, I'll pass" - are back. And boy, last week they were the talk of the town once again.
I'm going to start by saying a few things:
First, yes, I was a fan, but towards the end, I think the shoes, bags, and all the fashion had turned the characters too much into accessories. Secondly, I never bought Carrie/SJP's nice girl schtick. Finally, we can't fix the past.
The first two things are still there. SJP does her Carrie as she does her public persona: an illusion of dimension and relatability. The fashion is more costume than ever, especially after Patricia Fields, taking a cue from Kim Catrall, decided to give it a pass to series reboot too. Just like Sam, Patricia will be missed.
However, the problem with SATC 2.0's "And just like that" isn't necessarily the past; instead, it's the present and the future that seems to be out of synch. The updated reboot tries hard to make the characters and storylines more relevant to the current revisionist spirit. "And just like that" taps into sensitive topics gender-fluidity, sexual orientation, racial sensitivities, and privilege. But does it with the same depth of window shopping at now-defunct Barney's. Actually, this is very consistent with what the characters have become over the years: a bunch of middle-aged privileged white ladies who lunch. But, of course, they display a culture and wokeness veneer – as any Upper East lady should – to counterbalance their frivolous lifestyle.
Carrie is now a sex podcast host working alongside Che Diaz, a "queer, non-binary, Mexican-Irish diva". She is still obsessed with shoes and "fabulous fashion", but the character itself doesn't seem to have evolved – she looks and acts like a wax figure of the "original" Carrie. The other characters seem mostly frozen in time too. Maybe except for Miranda. In the sequel, she quit her corporate layer job to go back to school to get a Masters in human rights. Seeking to advocate for women in need, Miranda joins African-American professor Dr. Nya Wallace's classes at Columbia. There, after several uncomfortable interactions, she's forced to face her own racial bias. Despite the fact that the show's script is mainly weak and shallow, Miranda's bit has more depth. It shows a middle-aged woman trying to get updated with diversity and culture while dealing with the challenges of aging.
Meanwhile, Charlotte tries to become friends with fellow parent Lisa Todd Wesley "LTW", a biracial documentarian and humanitarian who is, of course, on Vogue's best-dressed list. Not much to say here - Charlotte was always the least layered character of them, to put it nicely.
AJLT gets it right to cast a very diverse and inclusive group of characters to try to fix the whiteness of the original SATC. But the new characters don't have their own storylines, depth, or dimension. They seem to exist only to make the main cast look woke.
And there's Samantha's absence. "She is no longer here", tells Carrie before detailing the reason behind their friendship's fallout and Samantha's moving to London. Samantha's piece is clearly a metaphor for SJP and Catrall's very public rift. Unfortunately, the result is more embarrassing than explaining. SJP has done already an exhausting press and social media tour sharing her side of their squabble. Still, it seems her attempt to maintain her innocent profile wasn't enough for her. Alternatively, she used the show to send a message or shape the narrative. But unfortunately, it was enough for many viewers who begin to see the cracks in her carefully crafted public persona.
Lastly, as for the sex and the city, there's still some left of it in "And just like that". It's refreshing that the show addresses sex after the '50s – shocker! – and the city and its "come back" spirit. However, the sex seems a little forced. Watching Carrie watching Big masturbating fails to be provocative; instead, it appears random and uncomfortable. As for the city, we don't get to see much of it, except the character's apartment and a few classic luncheon scenes. Overall, it lacks NYC's famous excitement and energy, but that is the "post" Covid reality.
“Sex and the City” was perfectly in tune with its time when it was aired in the late 90s and early 2000s. Of course, it had issues - many issues. But they were a reflection of that time, and its legacy surpasses far beyond its misses. SATC presented a flawed vision of the world. Still, women were multi-dimensional in this world, and they had the same power, imperfections, and freedom as men.
But in "And just like that" efforts to be relevant today, it tries to relive the past by attempting to rewrite it. SATC's legacy - especially forgetting the two awful features films - has a guaranteed space in the future. However, trying to reshape or write off what was uncomfortable had the opposite effect. Now we can’t stop seeing it. Which helps AJLT to look already old
In the end, we thought we were going to meet old friends, but instead, it seems that just like Samantha, they are no longer here.