Ooh, ooh, I'll start!

Shut up, Carrie.

I have just been watching the DVDs and noticed something that I never noticed before, even though I've watched the show the whole time. SJP has man hands!

And her head is out of proportion to her tiny little body as well.

Just felt the need to share these observations.

I've commented several times in the big thread that I think she has old lady hands, not man hands. They're not out of proportion large to her body, and they're not thick, they're thin. And they look all dry and scaly like an old lady's hands would. As far as I know, there's no plastic surgery to make your hands look younger - they're the true age show-er. Take a gander at Joan Rivers' hands (if she's not wearing gloves).

Since Sex and the City has left the air, I have been watching the DVDs religiously. My friends and I are always like "Which Carrie do we want to see tonite?" Season 1 Carrie almost always wins. She dressed somewhat normal (for Carrie), wasn't prudish, and wasn't nearly as self-absorbed as she was by the end of the run. If only we could have had the Carrie Bradshaw attitude of season 1, the Carrie Bradshaw clothing of the last two episodes of season 4, and the hair of Carrie during the series finale and it would be perfect.

Hey all! It's so sad to be in this new forum ::sniff sniff:: (thanks for getting us going Sars, I kept looking for it, but was too timid to start it myself).

Has anyone read the new TVGuide that has an interview with Kim Catrall re: her supposed feud with SJP? I didn't want to buy it just for that and didn't have time in the grocery store to read it in line.

As far as DVD watching, I usually pick Season 4 when Carrie gets back together with Aidan, Sam dates the woman, Charlotte and Trey start "trying" and Mir's mom dies, etc. I'm not saying thats the best season, but a lot of those eps have some really great lines in them (plus I'm a sucker for Carrie and new-improved Aidan).

I always pick the episodes where she's with Big (and happy!)
I did start over with season one last night - I'm going to live the whole thing again!

I have the TVGuide and it has about four questions relating to that. Here's two of them:

TVG: There have been rumors that you and Sarah Jessica Parker don't get along.
KC: It's been an amazing challenge to overcome what people seem to want more than anything else-to see women at each other.

[B]TVG: Did you and Sarah Jessica ever fight on set?
KC:[/B] I never,ever had a fight with her. We had discussions. I care about the work. I'm playing this character,and if[something] doesn't feel right, you fight for it.

That second answer at least gave a little more insight than the first.

I have the TV Guide issue, and found it to be a pretty boring piece. I just got the "Kiss & Tell" book and I loved it!!! It was so good. I read it on the plane back from Vegas, and couldn't put it down.

Did Kim say anything about a possible movie? I got the feeling that she is the only cast member who doesn't want to do it.

BTW the Kiss and Tell rocks.

So who liked the series ending? It was somewhat anti-climactic.

I LOVED the finale! It showed more character growth then I expected. To say it was anti-climatic isn't really true. Carrie finally came full circle with Big, Miranda truly became part of her family, Samantha learned how to love, and Charlotte got everything she didn't know she wanted.

I was one of the viewers who didn't want the show tied up neatly with a bow, but for me, this was the perfect ending. For the first time all the girls are at peace, happy with themselves, each other, and their lives.

Maybe you just have to have watched the show from the beginning to think the ending was climatic...or just completly obsessed. I fall into both of these catagories!

I hated the finale. I found both Carrie and Miranda to be traitors to their previously developed characters. They were suddenly both wimps who just had to accede to society's expectations of women. It was as if the writers had to tie the show up in a neat little bow. Just as Samantha had to be given cancer in order to slap her back to reality. Couldn't have a strong woman just whoring around and enjoying it, now could they?

Oh, and Miranda's dog did NOT get humped by another Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so there's no way the puppies could have looked just.like.her. And, a dog show judge would not allow a dog in a competition with one leg shorter than the other and would certainly not award it a ribbon.

So I guess Big was going to change his spots, and settle down, and they were going to live happily ever after? And Miranda was going to take care of a baby and her husband and her mother in law and manage the house and a job?

Phui. The show was so wonderful and different, and ended sooo badly. For me.

I think I read somewhere (probably AOL News) that the movie is dead. It isn't going to happen. Which I think is a good thing, I honestly don't see that many people paying $10 to see it in the theatres. If they did a few movies for HBO, that makes more sense.

Okay, it's not the same, but look at it this way--we diehards can post here all we want, about anything having to do with SATC, and nobody will tell us that we posted on the wrong thread!! :)

Funny, Sassandthecity, I have been doing the same thing. Had a couple days off last week--I should have been spring cleaning, getting caught up with school stuff, etc., but nooooo I spent 2 days watching Seasons 1 and 2!! LOL I am up to Season 3. I have a totally different perception on the Carrie/Big (Can I still call him that?) thing. When they sleep together in his bed while Natasha is on vacation, he is SOOO ready to end it with Natasha, or maybe that is just the feeling I get. He realizes he made the mistake, and is ready THEN to be with Carrie. (I think, anyway). She is the one that is scared to death, and I can't blame her, but I do think that he showed that he was ready. SHE is the reason she let herself get dragged around for six seasons!! God do I need to get a life or what? Not only am I surmising on the lives of TV characters, but surmising on things that have ALREADY HAPPENED on said programs? LOL

ETA: Did we ever find out what they were putting on the SATC Tubey thing?

The series finale basically makes it difficult to have a movie because many of the plot points which had been driving the series for years were resolved.

I thought finale was pitch-perfect. And that's just my two cents =)

And, yes, the new, updated (paperback, cheaper!) Kiss and Tell book is so great. I have read the whole thing cover to cover about twice. Its far more satisfying than the retrospective special they did before the finale (I'm sorry, but I don't give a rats ass that Star FREAKIN' Jones thinks she is Carrie- barf).

I'm relieved that the movie talks appear to be stalled if not totally dead. The series was already beginning to slip towards the end anyway and a movie would be capitalistic overkill. Please, MPK and SJP, leave well enough alone! The series finale ended on such a high note (for me at least) and a movie would have to dredge up more conflict in order to have a plot and I'd hate to see them mess with how its been left.

I just watched my season 2 DVD and saw the episode "La Doleur Exisique", which I hadn't seen in a loooong time. Everything in the old ep looks and feels different now looking back. Not really in a bad way though.

Bondgirl74, it is Sexy Tubey - Abso-fuckin-Tubey - suggested by none other than, BondGirl74 :-)

Bondgirl74, I've been rewatching too and I just finished watching the affair episodes. When Big and Carrie are talking about his calling Nitasha, it frustrates me when Big asks her if she's in or out. I want Carrie to ask him what that means. Does he want things the way they were before he left for Paris? We know that in the long-term, that wasn't enough for Carrie. I just with they would have fleshed that out a bit because a part of me never bought that Carrie would be able to stay away from him. I mean, she couldn't manage to do it before....when she had so much to lose. I understand that for the purpose of the show, we had to see her meet other folks, screw over Aidan, etc., but I wanted a better explanation from Carrie.

I did love the Season 4 episodes (when Big brings her ballons on her b-day and when they go to the jazz club) where we get to see him become a real friend to her.

As for the finale, I still wish we'd had more Big time. Myself, I would have happily traded some of the scenes of Carrie looking bored and upset (like the part where we see the boat go by) for some more conversation and smooching with Big. How about a little montage of them finally enjoying Paris together....just for a few days??? That would have been my dream. : )

we haven't had the finale in the UK yet, but I don't hold out much hope.
There seems to be an ideology that a woman really is better off settling down. Miranda's storyline pissed me off the most.
But as ever, Carrie was annoying. She moves to Paris, where she doesn't know the language, she's leaving behind a great career (which she really doesn't deserve), she knows one person and seems to have thought for about a day as to whether she should go. Fine - it is, after all, Paris. Be brave, carpe diem and all that. Except when she gets there, she's totally miserable, that's understandable to an extent but she didn't try to stick it out AT ALL. Or bother exploring Paris. Or looking for her crappy necklace. And Alexandr's (sp) daughter was a completely one dimensional character purely used as a plot device. Unless she shows any depth in the last episode.
and Kristin Davis' acting worsened in the last series.

Ah, always makes me cry. The song at the end Anna by Gunnar Madsen was so good and so appropriate. They used some of Madsen's other stuff throughout the season.

I rewatched season 1 the other day. Something funny I noticed: those Manolo Blahnik mary janes Carrie practically has an orgasm about in the Vogue accessories closet ("I thought these were an urban shoe myth!")...Carrie was wearing those very shoes in the pilot episode. You can see them when Big is helping her pick up her purse.

You know what? You can keep your Bigs and your Smiths and your Aidans. I don't care. I don't care that my friends think I'm weird. Harry is officially my favourite SatC man, ever. I've been loving Evan Handler ever since it's like, you know (yeah, I know) and every time I see him I love him more. Aside from being all hairy and gross sometimes (which didn't bother me), he was perfect, even putting up with Charlotte's constant freak-outs. Plus he loves pizza! He's right up there with Stanford as the most under-appreciated man on the show. Am I the only one feeling the love?

Sorry about that little rant there. The series is over. Finally I'm free!

I was also annoyed by Miranda's ending -she gets to earn most of the money, raise a child, look after her immature husband, and scrub her mother-in-law's back in the bath - what happened to the independent, cynical, intelligent woman of the first few seasons. *sigh*

Carrie, I couldn't care less about. She just loved not getting what she wanted from Big, and that's what'll continue to happen in my head after the finale.

Harry is indeed adorable - he's the sort of guy I hoped Miranda would also find - he's easy-going, intelligent and funny. Far and away the most charming of the girls' long-term love interests.

Salon wrote an article about Charlotte as the unsung hero of the series. Harry is definitely wonderful. Those dogs steal the show though.

Yeah, but like all the characters, she had to change a bit too. I kinda think it was nice to have Miranda be more loving and less cynical.

I agree, that Harry was the best S&TC man, period.

Now that you're all mentioning him, I guess Harry was an interesting character. And don't forget that he, um, really knew how to please Charlotte. And Charlotte, for all her stupidity on putting a dog in heat on the ground in the presence of male dogs, was the least objectionable at the end. At least she didn't stray too much out of character.

On the other points, which have been talked about here and elsewhere, I don't agree. In the 'pre-game' show, the wardrobe lady was talking about the plethora of shoes that Carrie had, to the tune of $40K, yet she couldn't afford the down payment on her apartment. Well, Ms. Wardrobe Lady said "it's not a reality show".

Well, no it isn't. So I don't want to see Samantha get cancer. I want to see her continue to whore around and enjoy the heck out of it. I don't want to see some sappy MTM moment when everyone throws their hat, er, hair in the air. Bunk.

And Carrie? Carrie was an annoying, whiny little girl child right to the end. When she got that simpering look on her face with Mr. 'Beeg Trouble for Moose and Squirrel', I wanted to squeeze her cheeks shut. As has been noted, they talked French in France? You were left out of the conversation? Noooo, really? You couldn't find enough to do in France? You idiot. You couldn't get a cell phone to work in Paris? Why not? A woman falls out the window and everyone goes 'oh well'? Why?

And Miranda. She annoyed me most of all. So she moves to Brooklyn. And she keeps her job, I imagine. And squicky husband stands there like an idiot, having brought his obviously ailing mother home the same night she had a stroke or an episode of Alzheimer's, and the dear couple decide to have her move in? Huh? Anne Meara should have revolted at the stupidity of it. But oh yeah, let's suddenly have enpowered Miranda give up her personality to bathe an obviously ill woman who suddenly might panic in the water and what happens if her son started screaming at the same moment? Eh?

But that's right, this wasn't a reality show. So why all the freaking reality????

Mature? No, they did not have to mature, that was the whole point of the show, I thought, from the very beginning. These empowered, single, successful, smart, sexy, clever women could make a life for themselves in a man's world, take on a man when they wanted one, but not be beholding to a man like they were all Scarlett O'Hara. I'm surprised Carrie didn't start muttering 'fiddle dee dee' at the end. They could be alone without being lonely, they could end the show the way it started, they didn't have to 'Disney-fy' the four women like this was 1930 and Hays was still in charge of censorship. Clear Channel and Viacom are taking over enough of the media in America and homogenizing and sanitizing it to the point of prompting my gag reflex. I didn't need HBO and S&TC to cave too.

Nope, hated the ending.

clainnyc, I've been re-watching seasons 1 to 3 on dvd, too. About that Natasha thing, do you still recall that she said she knew that Big & Carrie were having an affair, just not in their house? (forgot the ep title, the one with the scissors thing, sorry, me bad!). It just got me wondering: how'd she found out about it, when did she found out about it, if Big already knew that Natasha knew and was just mind-f*cking with Carrie again blah blah...Yeah I know, I have too much time in my hands.

Whatcha think about it though? :o)

I don't agree with this at all. I loved this portrayal of Miranda's life, because it was quite dark and complicated. She'd changed enough to let real intimacy in, and this is one of the prices of human intimacy -- sometimes you get stuck with something truly burdensome and difficult, because the people you love require it.

She bathed Steve's mom because she was filthy and needed to be cleaned. (And Magda was watching Brady, so that's a non-issue.) And the couple invited her into their home because Miranda realized that Steve would be devastated by putting his mother in a home, and they would share her care; Steve's mom was part of Miranda's responsibility, too, because they were a fmaily.

You seem to be complaining about two contradictory things: that somehow the ending was "sanitized" and yet it was "too realistic." To me, it was realistic in a appealingly unromantic way: Miranda was trapped, but that was because she'd chosen to give herself over to family life, and just as she'd always feared, this meant compromising and not always having control, in addition to the more positive aspects of family life.

In the big picture of the show's finale, I also had a problem with everyone ending up paired up. But I didn't mind the individual endings: I liked that they didn't keep the characters as static cartoons, that they let them go through very different, nuanced paths as the seasons went by.

Cake, ITA. Miranda's storyline was really the only one in the finale that got to me. I adored that the formerly coldish, brusque Miranda would so openly offer her home to her husband's sick mother. It absolutely showed me that love had broken through her shell (we'd seen glimpses of that previously too, from the girls, like when her mother died). Such a lovely ending to a lovely character

Did I say sanitized? Not sure. Yes, I am complaining about two things. That they felt they had to tie up all the loose ends, that they couldn't leave the women as they were.

Carrie just had to find her man, she couldn't be shown as strong and alone, with the prospect of finding her true love some day, she had to be shown involved in a completely unbelievable relationship with the Russian and then be saved by Big.

And the 'realism' of giving Samantha cancer to punish her for her whoring ways? Yes, I found this unpalatable. Just as Carrie could afford $40K of shoes but not her apartment was not realistic, I would have preferred Sam to continue to stay in character. I don't need progress in a sitcom. I don't need Monica and Chandler or Niles and Daphne to pair off, or Jamie to have a baby. I like the characters as they are presented to me in the beginning of a show, and the best shows, 'Seinfeld' for example, exit just as they started.

And re Miranda, I still don't buy for one minute that a woman with a baby and a house and a job and a husband can also take care of a woman who either has had a stroke or Alzheimers. Growth or not, it wasn't realistic. And if they suddenly wanted realism, then show the facts. The husband and wife should have sat down to discuss it, not just suddenly make up their mind while standing in a hallway. They should have been shown talking to healthcare professionals and going over the stresses of being a caregiver. And the fact that an Alzheimer's patient could possibly hurt themselves or the baby. Who was going to take care of the mother when Miranda was at work? Magda? Take care of the baby and the mother? Pay another professional to take care of her? Did they have all this much money? They wanted realism, then don't deal with it in a fantasy land Lifetime television manner.

Then again, the polls before the show ended showed that the majority of women viewers wanted Carrie to end up with Big. So it seems I'm in the minority anyway in hating the finale.

Loving would have been fine, but did she have to be paired off with a man obviously her intellectual inferior (money isn't the issue for me, it's intelligence), have his baby and look after his ailing mother? It would have been nicer, for me, to have had her paired off with someone more like Harry or the doctor she dated earlier in the last season - someone with whom the relationship would have been equal. Why couldn't she have ended the series being her independent, cynical, intelligent self but also in a relationship? I kinda think that the way her character ended made it seem as though you had to compromise your entire personality in order to be intimate with someone and that's not true. What irritated me is kinda epitomised by the episode in an earlier season that focussed on whether or not you could change a man, and the conclusion based around Miranda/Steve was that you couldn't but you could change a woman. All the compromise in the Miranda/Steve relationship has come from Mir and that makes me angry.



Absolutely!



This didn't annoy me nearly as much. Well, Carrie in general has been extremely irritating for the past couple of seasons, but her ending fitted her character. She's been like this all the way through - she's incredibly passive and incapable of taking control over her own life. You can see this clearly when you think about her finances - not only did she have no savings when Aidan made her buy her apartment, she didn't even think she should have, she thought it was mean of Aiden to ask her to buy the place. As far as I could tell, she thought Aiden should give her the apartment just for being her. It's not at all odd, given that, that she should jump at the chance to be Alek's kept woman and then be rescued by Big. That's just Carrie. Yes, it's annoying, but it's not out of character.

Good point, gal. I guess my biggest complaint was with the writers for Miranda and Samantha caving to the new 'morality'. But you are correct about Carrie, she always was a dithering idiot with flashes of fun.

Ah well, good show, gone before it got completely idiotic, so for that I should be grateful. Thank the media gods that the movie was shelved.

stoneyburke, I have to respectfully disagree with you here. I don't think that they "caved" to anything. We have seen a lot of character changes, if not growth, in all of the characters over the years. Are we to expect that Samantha remained single and promiscuous well into her 60s and 70s? While there would be nothing wrong with that, (I guess), the fact of the matter is that people do grow up and change their personal mores and values. I had no problem with Miranda finally softening to the people she loves, nor did I have a problem with Samantha finally letting a bona fide GOOD guy into her heart.

I agree with BondGirl. I think we saw the changes in Samantha and Miranda that let them to where they ended up, and therefore their endings were right for those characters at that time. I also thought Charlotte was right where she should be.

The only one I had a problem with was Carrie ending up with Big, I did not think that was a natural ending but rather a contrived one. I would have been much happier if she'd ended up solo, so we could see that it was ok to be coupled up or single in the city and be fine with it. We just didn't see the changes in Carrie and Big that would lead them to that point.

stoneyburke, you are not alone!! I agree with everything you wrote and am still disappointed with the way they ended the series. Not that I didn't see it coming several years ago. The minute the show became popular they were practically obligated to tie things up in the most conventional way possible.

A couple of responses to points people have made about the "maturity" angle:



"Real" intimacy is about more than just getting married and having a kid, and Miranda was always open to "real" intimacy. She has been, from Day One, a loyal, honest, stalwart companion to all of her friends. She has openly expressed her love for them, been a rock for them to lean on, and, yes, leaned on them herself. That's just as valid a form of intimacy as any other. For the producers to dismiss her relationships with her friends as somehow secondary to the "real" deal (marriage, family, and doddering mother-in-law) was, in my opinion, a slap in the face to many viewers who had bought the party line about the show being a "celebration of singlehood as a valid lifestyle choice."



Growth can be represented in many ways. It just so happens, that this show chose to represent "growth" in the same way for every single character: getting a man.

There's nothing wrong with showing characters changing, getting into new relationships and new situations, etc. I just have a problem with marriage being represented as the penultimate "happy ending" for everyone.

Now, I respectfully disagree with this - though I understand why you feel this way - because I think they made it clear that Carrie was not 'saved by Big'. She made the decision to leave Alek before she even knew Big was in Paris. I thought Carrie's 'happy ending' was superbly encapsulated in the voiceover where she said that the most important relationship you have is with yourself, and if you find someone to love who loves that you... well, it's the icing on the cake. [I'm deliberately paraphrasing here]. And I do think Big loved her - imperfectly, sometimes ineptly - but for herself.

I loved the ending. Neither Carrie nor Samantha went for marriage - at least not at the fadeout, and I doubt that Samantha ever did - and both Charlotte and Miranda had to show tremendous growth to get to their own happy endings. Both had to not only adjust their expectations, but explore themselves to figure out what was really important. And in the end both got more than they ever expected, especially Miranda.

It all left me with a smile on my face. Through tears.

I'm sorry to beat a dead horse into the ground (I think that is the phrase), but how unrealistic is it really, that 4 great friends all end up with a man? Not only did I not find this disappointing, but I am one of those who were PLEASED with the ending, and I had no problem with Carrie's in particular. In my opinion, Carrie couldn't NOT end up with him.


ETA:
I agree with TudorQueen's points and think that if these storylines were to be continued, neither Carrie nor Samantha WOULD end up in a marriage, but would end up in a happy committed relationship with the men that they respectively chose.
Carrie was not "saved" by Big. I think that for the past three seasons, Big had been looking for Carrie and she had been trying to be so strong and stay away from him because it was the "right" thing to do, and because it would make her friends happy. Big did love her, for herself, and Carrie did love him, for himself. She always did.

Thanks, Eliot, I figured I was but I still hate the finale anyway. For everything you said and especially for the message the show gave at the end. I always took away from this show, in the beginning, that it was perfectly fine to engage in hedonistic activities as long as no one was being hurt. Carrie hurt Aidan, Big hurt Carrie, but everyone went on. They had their sense of self upon which to rely. How much more realistic than the treacley little woman Miranda turned into, which is supposedly realistic.

Granted, Carrie's waffling was evident in every show towards the end, so I could see her hip hopping her way into security. But Miranda's turnabout was out of left field, as far as I am concerned. IF she was suddenly going to get realistic and they HAD to have her move to Brooklyn and do the house and husband and kid thing, at LEAST have the brains to have her sit down with Steve and discuss putting his mother in a home. That last bath scene squicked me out to no end, and it's not a pretty picture I have in my brain. Again, it belonged on Lifetime, NOT HBO.

And yes, if Samantha was NOT given cancer, for which there was no justification other than to do a Pat Robertson on her, yes, she COULD have whored around until she was 60 or 70. So? She has a fantastic job, she was, until she threw her hair in the air, a passionately empowered woman who, if she wanted to, used men just like men use women. So?

But again, the MSNBC poll was overwhelmingly in favor of Carrie settling down with Big, so the viewers got what they wanted. I think SJP said every other ending they considered was 'silly'. Not sure what they were, but if the filmed ending wasn't silly to her, I'd like to know how she defines silly.

My 'dead horse' point is that they were NOT lonely women, they HAD each other. They weren't single, lonely women who NEEDED men to complete them. And, apparently in deference to the new morality of today, the writers felt they had to send out the message that women NEED men to complete them.

I still prefer 'Seinfeld's' ending.

Absolutely agree with both of these points. We were just so beaten over the head with the "Miranda has learnt to lurve" point and I don't think she was ever a cold and loveless soul to begin with. She had intimacy to begin with, we didn't need to see her compromise so completely to gain intimacy with a husband, baby and mother-in-law. We could have seen her make some compromises, her husband (anyone but Steve, please!) make some compromises and seen them both adjust to family life, but instead what we got again and again was the message that to be a real woman you have to make sacrifice after sacrifice and that's what love is all about. And it's not. Dammit!

I don't think Natasha really *knew* about it. I think she strongly suspected and her suspicions were confirmed. She found Carrie in her house and was like, "Aha! I knew it!" It probably wasn't a coincidence that she came home early from the Hamptons. That's just what women do when they suspect their husbands are having affairs and they think they might catch them.

Yeah, I have too much time on my hands too.

As anyone can see in the threads from the original SATC forum, I had some real problems with the finale: I wanted there to be some model for living single throughout life. And of course there are various kinds of intimacy, some of which Miranda excelled at.

But I really disagree that Miranda's changes were unrealistic or a sell-out. Miranda was a great character, but she was also fascinatingly flawed. She began the show with strong friendships with women and a dramatic and notable distrust of men. And she wasn't having much fun with the whole thing, either; she really struggled with a sense of bitterness and anger and resentment. Along the way, she mistreated nice-guy Skipper, and was pretty screwy with Steve at first, too -- not that he didn't contribute with his own flaws. Like Samantha, she seemed to have trouble seeing men as human, but whereas Samantha kept them at a distance by treating them as disposable candy, Miranda pushed them away by being consistently cagey and cynical and judgmental, and therefore never risking opening up and getting disappointed and hurt.

This is not to say that Miranda wasn't also a total babe. She was funny, sharply intelligent, independent and a really solid no-bullshit friend. But the notion that it was a bad thing for her to be able to accept a non-cookie-cutter man -- Steve -- for his numerous good and loving qualities; put her own idiosyncratic stamp on motherhood; and in the final analysis, open her home to her ill mother-in-law? That's both realistic and complicated to me -- neither sanitized nor a stretch. It's not like they showed her smiling and saint-like about the whole thing; she was clearly upset, burdened, and struggling when she spoke to Charlotte. She seemed like herself, only with a different life. To me, that's not a narrative cop-out: it's the messy flip-side of love, and I loved that they showed it.

(Oh, and as to the practical "who is taking care of Anne Meara" question: Miranda said that Steve had been taking care of her during the day, since he works at the bar at night.)

Cake:


I agree with this. I also think that just because the show ended with Maa living with them doesn't mean she doesn't eventually go to a retirement home with medical professionals. I think I too would take in my mother-in-law for a period of time, but taking care of someone with Maa's condition is difficult. And Miranda & Steve have the monetary ability to put her in a care facility.

At least that's how it ends up in my head.

Don't you remember ... Miranda told Charlotte how Steve was getting up early, even after getting home from the bar, to watch after his Mom?

And she still COULD whore around until she was 60 or 70. Hell, all of us "could". I am just sick and tired of people thinking that just because a woman ends up with someone, that she is any less "independent" than a woman who chooses to remain single. If some of us choose to remain single, whoring around, and remain happy doing it--then so be it. I just think that in this particular situation, the timing was right for Samantha to find "her guy" so to speak, or for him to find her. Now, "too contrived" to ME would be 4 twenty-something young women, probably sorority sisters, all finding the man of their dreams before the age of 23, falling in love with them, and then all getting married and having children before the age of 25. The characters on Sex and the City--I am okay with the fact that they all lived very different lives than one another, and managed to all find love (their definition of it) in their late 30s.

Bondgirl74 said:

This is exactly what I think, as well. I've been trying to stay out of the fray on this one, because while I agree with a LOT of the criticisms of SATC, I still have a love for it I can't always make a good argument out of (it would just go something like this: "because I just looooove it"). But I have to strongly disagree that any of the girls' portrayals in the finale were "sell outs". And the above quote pretty much says it for me. I'm sorry for those of you who don't agree, because the finale was so satisfying for me knowing they each made different decisions that took them to unexpected places of growth and fullfillment.

I didn't think her getting married, having a baby, looking after her mother-in-law was all intrinsically bad, it was the way in which it was done that bothered me. My main issue here is really Steve. The fact that they paired her with someone who wasn't intelligent, wasn't cultured was to my mind a) completely unrealistic (let's face it, how many Harvard educated lawyers are going to be able to have a decent conversation with a bartender let alone marry one? it's not as though Steve was ever even given any interest in anything that they could talk about either. My issue here isn't with jobs/money, to clarify, it's to do with intelligence and having shared interests) and b) really beat us over the head with the "Miranda, the tough lawyer lady, really needs a simple, loving guy". It was the exaggerated nature of this storyline that annoyed me. If she'd ended up with a guy more like Harry - someone simple and loving but also someone she could talk to, that would have been just fine, but making Steve's only good qualities being simple and caring just really oversimplified it. I'm not sure if I'm really making sense here... I just felt that the "tough lady gives into love" thing was overemphasised to the point where the actual relationship failed to convince.

And, as for the messy flip-side of love, my problem is that every compromise in the Miranda-Steve relationship has thus far been made by Miranda. She compromised on her schedule back in Season 4 (no small thing, it sucks getting no sleep when you have a pressurised job), she moved to Brooklyn, she looks after his mother, she brings in most of the money. If there were compromises on both sides, I'd see it as realistic and stuff, but as it is it just reiterates the message that, for women, love is sacrifice even if you're a tough lawyer.

On a completely different note, was anyone else annoyed by the opening credits of the series? I love the show, but always found myself fast fowarding the credits on my DVDs. It's way too long a sequence, Carrie is sporting some of the worst outfits and hair/make-up choices ever and that's saying something for Carrie. And, most annoyingly of all, the other three girls aren't there! I always assumed that they would do what Ally McBeal did and at some point realise that the other characterss were pretty important and put them on, but they never did. It always seemed odd to me, because casual viewers (read, people who came to visit me and were made to watch an episode or two) always saw it as a show about four women and not about one woman and her three friends which made the credits just seem very odd.

I would have been disappointed if Carrie had ended up alone, because that's never what she wanted. Even in the last episode, as she is breaking up with the Russian, she makes it very clear what she is looking for: real, passionate, inconvenient love. It's what she was always looking for throughout the show. Sometimes she had it (Aidan) and blew it, sometims she watned it (Big), but couldn't get it, but that "want" never changed.

As for Miranda, the way her ending went was the most real to me. I've always identified with her most out of all the girls. But there were times when her cynical hardness (especially toward Steve) was maddening, almost a caricature of how she started out. At the beginning of the season, Miranda was so emotionally stunted she couldn't tell the man she loved him. To look at how her story arc ended, I'd say it's an amazing breakthrough for Miranda. And it wasn't because she needed a man-- Lord knows if that's all she wanted she could have stayed with Robert the Hot Doctor.

I don't think settling down with a man you love is "selling out." Or giving up your identity or your independence. None of these girls had to do that in the relationships they finally chose. They had done it in the past-- Carrie with Berger and Alek, Charlotte with Trey, Samantha with Richard-- but in the end they were able to have it all. A great life, great friends, and love from a good man. What's wrong with that?

Well we finally saw the final episode here last night. It was a bit too sentimental but I'll let them off.

I was happy with everyones endings except from Carrie's.

Charlotte finally got what she wanted with the baby coming to complete her family. And we all love Harry, right?

Miranda has always been my favorite and it's so good to see her with Steve and happy. She was so stubborn before but I'm glad they let her accept Steve. Could you have imagined her with a kid and a husband in Brooklyn a few years ago? I just have to say I love Steve and if they fucked this one up I'd be very annoyed.

Samantha even having a storyline was a shock to me. I found her the most boring character at times. I thought I'd find Mir's conclusion most satisfying but Sam's just beat her to it. Thank God for Smith!

Carrie was just a load of crap to me. I mean I knew she couldn't end up in Paris with the Russian but to have her go back full circle to Big? Were they trying to say that Big had changed in some great way and so was worthy of her? Well she's better than I am 'cos after all the crap he's pulled over the years I'd be a bit nervous getting back with him. I think I would have liked it better if she had ended up alone in a way. Anything but Big or the Russian. Too bad Adian was out of the picture...

Most definitely!
They showed the 'food poisioning' episode last night. He was so sweet to show Charlotte that Aleks wasn't the only romantic guy in NY. Of course, it ended kind of badly, but the shot of them holding hands in the bathroom was so cute. That never would have happened with Trey!

Count me in as "just wild about Harry"! He was a good person who loved Charlotte - adored her, really - but was willing and able to call her on her sh*t. He 'got' her friends and while he was passionate about what he believed in, he was always willing to discuss the issues with Charlotte, to compromise [the nudity around the house] and to create an environment where she could really be herself. And he really was everything Trey wasn't: open, loving, emotionally generous.

I thought Harry and Char were much more romantic than Carrie and Alek in The Ick Factor. And who could forget Harry declaring, that fucking fromage!



That scene was so heartbreaking to watch. They barely said anything in those scenes but I was able to feel their sadness just as well. The absolute best part of the episode for me was the scene of the night before where she couldn't sleep and Big knocked on her door. She didn't even have to ask who it was. I love how she stood there for a few seconds before she opened the door. And the way he just put his arms around her and carried her to the bed. Sniff. I DLed the song from Kazaa because it's so beautiful.

Please ignore my mushy ravings. I've been schooling my younger cousin over SATC by watching seasons 1-5 on DVD this week.