Sex and the City

Sex and the City was an American cable television program based on the book of the same name. It was originally broadcast on the HBO network from 1998 until 2004. Set in New York City, the show focuses on the sex lives of four female best friends, three of whom are in their mid-to-late thirties, and one of whom, Samantha, is in her forties. A sitcom with soap opera elements, the show often tackled socially relevant issues, such as the status of women in society. Sex and the City premiered on June 6, 1998, and the last original episode aired on February 22, 2004.

Overview

Carrie Bradshaw and her three best girlfriends navigate the rocky terrain of being single, sexually active women in the new millennium. The show became famous for shooting scenes on the streets and in the bars, in restaurants and clubs of New York City while pushing the envelope of fashion and shattering sexual taboos.

Receiving consistent critical and popular acclaim, it was based on the book that was compiled from the New York Observer column "Sex and the City" by Candace Bushnell. The first season of the show is a free adaptation of its source material, but from the second season on, it took on a life of its own and went further than the book ever could. Each episode in season one featured a short montage of interviews that Carrie supposedly conducted while researching for her column. These continued through season two; then they were phased out.

Season one of Sex and the City aired on HBO from June to August 1998. Season two was broadcast from June until October 1999. Season three aired from June until October 2000. Season four was broadcast in two parts: from June until August 2001 and then in January and February 2002. Season five, truncated due to Parker's pregnancy, aired on HBO during the summer of 2002. The twenty episodes of the final season, season six, aired in two parts: from June until September 2003 and during January and February 2004.

Characters

Main characters

• Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the literal voice of the show as each episode is structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column, "Sex and the City" for the fictitious newspaper, The New York Star. A member of the New York glitterati, she is a club/bar/restaurant staple who is known for her unique fashion sense; violently yoking together various styles into one outfit (it is not uncommon for her to pair inexpensive vintage pieces with high-end couture). A self proclaimed shoe fetishist, she focuses most of her attention, and bank account, on designer footwear, primarily Manolo Blahniks. (Though she has been known to wear Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo as well.) Often meeting "her credit card limit" in one shopping trip, it is unclear how the modest income of a newspaper columnist could support such an addiction, but in later seasons, her essays are collected as a book and she begins taking assignments from Vogue and New York Magazine. Another source of her New York pride is her apartment, a one-bedroom place in an Upper East Side brownstone, it is her home for the entire run of the series, which she purchases in the fourth season. Her blemishes include having had an abortion after a one-night stand (ten years prior to the show's continuity) and an affair with a married Mr. Big during her relationship with Aidan. Defining statement: "I like my money right where I can see it - hanging in my closet."
• Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) is an art dealer with a Connecticut blue-blooded upbringing. She is the most conservative and traditional of the group, the one who places the most emphasis on emotional love as opposed to lust, and is always searching for her "knight in shining armor". Often scoffing at the lewder, more libertine antics that the show presents (primarily in Samantha), in her own way, she presents a more straight forward attitude about relationships, usually based around "the rules" of love and dating. Despite her conservative outlook, she has been known to make concessions (while married) that even surprise her sexually freer girlfriends (such as her level of dirty talk, oral sex in public and "tookus-lingus"). She gives up her career shortly after her first marriage, divorces upon irreconcilable differences around in vitro fertilization and receives a Park Avenue apartment in the divorce settlement. She eventually remarries to her less than perfect, but good hearted, divorce lawyer, Harry Goldenblatt (after converting to Judaism). She is a graduate of Smith College. Defining statement: "I've been dating since I was fifteen, I'm exhausted. Where is he!?"
• Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a career-minded lawyer with extremely cynical views on relationships and men. A Harvard University graduate from Philadelphia, she is Carrie's best friend, confidante, and voice of reason. In the early seasons, she is portrayed as masculine and borderline misandric, but this image softens over the years, particularly after becoming pregnant by her on again-off again boyfriend, Steve Brady. Of the four women, she is the first to purchase an apartment (an indicator of her success). In the final season, Miranda and Steve marry and relocate to Brooklyn in order to make room for their growing family. Defining statement: "I can't have a baby. I could barely find time to schedule this abortion."
• Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), the oldest and most promiscuous of the group, she is an independent publicist whose relationship pattern could be considered stereotypically masculine. A seductress who avoids emotional involvement at all costs while satisfying every possible carnal desire imagineable. She believes that she has had "hundreds" of soulmates and insists that her sexual partners leave "an hour after I climax". In Season 3, she moves from her full-service Upper East Side apartment to an expensive loft in the then-burgeoning Meatpacking District. Over the course of the show, she does have a handful of real relationships, including one with a woman. Defining statement: "Fuck me badly once, shame on you. Fuck me badly twice, shame on me."

Recurring characters

Friends

• Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson), often referred to as the show's "Fifth Lady", is Carrie's best friend outside of the three women. A gay talent agent with a sense of style parallel only to Carrie's, you get the impression that they have a long standing relationship built within their younger, wilder days on the New York City club and bar scene. The only supporting character to receive his own storylines (occasionally), he represents the show's most constant gay point of view to sex on the show; generally based around the physical insecurities and inadequacies of someone who doesn't "have that gay look". In the last two seasons of the show, he is partnered with Broadway dancer, Marcus Adente.
• Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) is an event planner who becomes close to Charlotte after styling her first wedding - he goes on to style Charlotte's H&G photo shoot, her second wedding and Carrie's book release party. He is not self-effacing like Stanford and freely presents no-nonsense (often bawdy) advice to Charlotte. (Upon hearing that she hadn't had sex since her divorce, he exclaims; "if you don't put something 'in there' soon it'll grow over!")
• Magda (Lynn Cohen), the Ukrainian housekeeper-cum-nanny who was introduced in the third season becomes an ersatz mother figure and a thorn in Miranda's side. Her attempts to push traditional marriage/motherhood attitudes on Miranda are both subtle (buying her a rolling pin "To make pies. It's good for a woman to make pies.") and intrusive (replacing her vibrator with a statuette of The Virgin Mary).

Boyfriends

The main characters all went on dates or had sex with characters who appeared in only one episode, or small story arcs spanning two or three episodes, but the characters listed below are the focus of multiple episodes that form story arcs significant to the show's continuity. In most cases, these characters have played large roles in as many as two story arcs.

Carrie's boyfriends

• Mr. Big (Chris Noth), referred to by Carrie and her friends simply as "Big", both excites and eludes Carrie throughout the run of the show, as she always believes he is the man for her, but many times, he's not able to fulfill her emotional needs. A wealthy financier (Samantha calls him "the next Donald Trump" in the pilot), who is based on New York publisher, Ron Galotti. Carrie and Big's on again, off again relationship begins and ends in season one and then a second time in season two. After two years of commitment issues and emotional unavailibility, Mr. Big marries a twenty-something socialite Ralph Lauren executive named Natasha (Bridget Moynahan). Within seven months of his marriage he begins to pine after Carrie and starts to have an affair with her, until Carrie breaks it off. After divorcing Natasha, Big and Carrie become friends, with their sexual history always lying just beneath the surface. He eventually moves to the Napa Valley in California, but is visited once by Carrie, while on her book tour and he returns to New York a year after that for an angioplasty. In the end of the series, he returns to tell Carrie he is ready to commit to her, but is brutally rebuffed. He doesn't give up, and, after the blessing of Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda, tries to re-claim her love one last time in Paris. In the end, the two prepare for an open, honest relationship in New York. At the conclusion, we discover that Big's name is actually John.

• Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) is Carrie's other long-term boyfriend. He is a sweet, good natured furniture designer and Mr. Big's emotional opposite. At first, Carrie is put-off by their seemingly perfect relationship and over time works through her issues of emotional unavailability, but ultimately, she cannot meet his needs and they break up for good. In season three, Aidan ends "it" when she comes clean about the affair, they get back together a year later, eventually move in together and she accepts his marriage proposal before the break up for the second and final time. Carrie and Aidan unexpectedly see each other on the street; Aidan holding his baby son Tate. It is revealed that Aidan married another furniture designer named Cathy.
• Jack Berger (Ron Livingston) was Carrie's intellectual counterpart, a sardonic humorist writer whose career is cooling down just as Carrie's is heating up. Theirs was a relationship of witty banter and common thoughts, but everything falls apart when his defeated attitude clashes with her contented state. Carrie learns, when it comes to relationships, Berger's talk is just that; after they agree to try and make things work, he breaks up with her through a post-it note.
• Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) is a famous Russian artist who becomes Carrie's lover in season six. He sweeps her off her feet with huge romantic gestures and shows her the foreign pockets of New York that she has never seen before. Her relationship with him brings up all sorts of questions in Carrie's mind about finding love past "a certain age" and whether or not she wants children. When he's preparing to return to Paris for a solo exhibit he invites Carrie to come live with him, which she does, after several deliberations (and one fight) with her friends. After spending some time there, she realizes that he will never reciprocate the level of emotional involvement that she offers because his life and career will always come first.

Charlotte's boyfriends

• Trey MacDougal (Kyle MacLachlan) fits Charlotte's knight in shining armor archetype to a tee; a Scottish American heart surgeon from family money, their whirlwind engagement and a fairy tale wedding stop cold with a sexless honeymoon, brought on by Trey's impotence. After a brief separation, they reunite with a healthy sex life only to discover that Charlotte will have difficulty getting pregnant. Eventually, their disagreements on whether or not to pursue in vitro fertilization leads to divorce.
• Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) is Charlotte's divorce lawyer who is incredibly attracted to her from the beginning. She is not attracted to him, but tries to pursue a sex-only relationship with him, which leads to one of exclusivity and love. After her conversion to Judaism and one big argument that sends them in separate directions for a few weeks, the two marry and begin trying to have/adopt a child. In the end, they are approved for a Chinese adoption.

Miranda's boyfriends

• Skipper Johnson (Ben Weber) is a geeky, sensitive twenty-something web designer whom Carrie introduces to Miranda. From the moment they meet, Skipper is enamored with her, but Miranda is unimpressed and irritated by him. They date for a short time, before Miranda breaks up with him due to "being in different places".
• Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) is a bartender who has an unconventional on-again, off-again relationship with Miranda. Having been stood up by Carrie, she meets him unexpectedly at the bar at which he works, what she thinks is a one night stand but turns into dating. Their differences in income, aspirations and status, as well as their attitudes about living together and having kids are the catalysts for their break ups. Over the course of the show, Miranda puts Steve through the wringer quite a bit, but he looks beneath her cynical exterior and finds her softer side, while at the same time, choosing his battles carefully. In season four, he opens his own bar, called Scout (alongside Aidan) and gets Miranda pregnant (despite losing a testicle to cancer and Miranda having only one functioning ovary). They decide to raise the child (Brady Hobbes) together, separately, but are back together towards the end of Season Six, they have a small intimate wedding ceremony and he convinces her to move to a house in Brooklyn.
• Robert Leeds (Blair Underwood) is a sports medicine doctor who moves into her building during season six. He is the seemingly perfect man: successful, sexy, and utterly devoted to her. Robert and Miranda have lots of fun and great chemistry, but when the time comes, she is unable to declare her love for him.

Samantha's lovers

• James (James Goodwin) is a man Samantha meets while out by herself at a jazz club, she makes a conscious effort to not sleep with him until she gets to know him first. When they finally do have sex, she discovers that he is under-endowed to the point that she cannot enjoy herself. She begins pulling away physically and cannot bring herself to tell him--until she is faced with the prospect of couples counseling.
• Maria Diego Raez (Sonia Braga) is a sensual lesbian artist that Samantha meets at a solo exhibit while admiring her work. Maria is immediately attracted to her, but since Samantha doesn't believe in relationships they try to maintain a friendship, the chemistry proves to be too strong and it isn't too long before Samantha is introducing her lesbian lover to her stunned friends. At first, Samantha has a great time "getting an education" as Maria teaches her about lesbian sex and how to make an emotional connection while making love. Unfortunately, Samantha begins to grow uncomfortable when the relationship talk starts to replace the sexual activity and Maria is equally uncomfortable with Samantha's sexual history. The two separate, after they have sex with a strap-on.
• Richard Wright (James Remar) is a successful hotel magnate who doesn't believe in monogamy until he meets Samantha. He seduces her, and when their no-strings-attached sexual relationship begins to escalate, both parties struggle to keep their emotional distance. Eventually, they give in and attempt exclusivity, but, being a stranger to monogamy, Samantha is plagued by suspicion at every turn. When she does catch him cheating, she breaks up with him, but eventually takes him back after he begs for her forgiveness. In the end, Samantha still has her doubts about Richard, and breaks up with him. Towards the end of the series, Richard re-surfaces, admitting that Samantha was the best thing that ever happened to him.
• Jerry Jerrod (Jason Lewis) is a young waiter Samantha seduces in a trendy restaurant. She tries to maintain her usual sex-only relationship with him, but he slowly pushes for something more. He is a wannabe actor whose career Samantha jump starts using her PR connections, getting him a modelling job that turns into a film role. Just when she thinks Jerry's age and experiences aren't enough for her, he gives her unconditional support during her fight with breast cancer. In the final episode, Jerry tells her that he loves her, which she counters with "You mean more to me than any man I've ever known", which, for Samantha is a far greater statement.

Cameos

As Sex and the City gained popularity, a number of celebrities had cameos on the show, some playing themselves and some playing characters. These include the following:

• Nathan Lane as Bobby Fine, "I Love A Charade"
• Amy Sedaris as Courteney Masterson, "Cover Girl" etc.
• Donald Trump as himself, "The Man, The Myth, The Viagra"
• Jon Bon Jovi as Seth, "Games People Play"
• Alanis Morissette as Dawn, "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl..."
• Matthew McConaughey as himself, "Escape from New York"
• Vince Vaughn as Keith Travers, "Sex and Another City"
• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Debbie, "Escape from New York"
• Carrie Fisher as herself, "Sex and Another City"
• Hugh Hefner as himself, "Sex and Another City"
• Sarah Clarke as Melinda, "Politically Erect" (as Sarah Lively)
• Margaret Cho as Lynn Cameron, "The Real Me"
• Alan Cumming as O, "The Real Me"
• Heidi Klum as herself, "The Real Me"
• Ed Koch as himself, "The Real Me"
• Molly Shannon as Lily Martin, "Cover Girl" etc.
• Lucy Liu as herself, "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"
• Candice Bergen as Enid Mead, "A 'Vogue' Idea"
• Heather Graham as herself, "Critical Condition"
• Jennifer Coolidge as Victoria, "The Perfect Present"
• Tatum O'Neal as Kyra, "A Woman's Right to Shoes"
• David Duchovny as Jeremy, "Boy, Interrupted"
• Geri Halliwell as Phoebe, "Boy, Interrupted"
• Carole Bouquet as Juliette, "American Girl In Paris; Part Deux"
• Valerie Harper as Wallis, "Shortcomings"
• Tony Hale as Tiger, "The Real Me"
• Will Arnett as Jack, "La Douleur Exquise!"

Episodes

Season 1 (1998)

Season 2 (1999)

Season 3 (2000)

Season 4 (2001–2002)

Season 5 (2002)

Season 6 (2003–2004)

Quotations

The following are quotations from the TV special, Sex And The City: A Farewell, that aired introducing the final episode:

Michael Patrick King, Executive Producer: "People thought, oh it's just about sex or it's just about fashion. And then slowly over the years people start to see it's really about love ... and relationships ... and sex ... and basically the battlefield of trying to be in love – whether it be with another person or with yourself."

Sarah Jessica Parker: "What the show has to have, and has had to have in order to survive six years, is a soul."

Kim Cattrall: "The show is a valentine to being single."

David Eigenberg: "They were honest about sex, they were honest about the humor of sex."

Kim Cattrall: "Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you, now it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be ... and who you want to spend it with."

Broadcasters

In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 and its digital sister channel E4 broadcast episodes of "Sex and the City", while older episodes are rerun on Paramount Comedy 1. In Canada, the show airs on Bravo! Canada and Citytv Toronto, and in Germany it is shown on Pro7. In the Netherlands, the show is aired by NET 5, and in Sweden it is aired by TV3 and ZTV. In Italy the show airs on La7. In Australia it was broadcast on the Nine Network. Rerun rights were sold to Network Ten, where it was briefly shown on Monday nights before low ratings forced it off the air. It has now returned to Network Ten on Friday nights. Australian Cable and Digital channel W airs 2 episodes each weeknight. In Japan, the show is aired by Lala.tv. In Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and Pakistan the show airs on HBO Asia (season 1-6). Hong Kong's TVB Pearl also aired the show at midnight before. Sex and the City was banned in Singapore until July 2004, when the government allowed the television series to be aired on cable after being censored. In Latvia this serial can be seen on TV3. In Denmark it is currently shown on TV3 as well. In the Philippines, its reruns are being aired by RPN 9. In Turkey it is broadcast by ComedyMax channel.

In Romania the show was aired by ProTv and later by the sister channels Acasa TV and Pro Cinema. HBO Romania also aired all seasons.

Criticism

Some commentators have criticized the television show as promoting immorality by encouraging a hedonistic lifestyle and treating women as sexual objects. Additionally, they argued that it is at times mere pornography with a superficial plot. The characters are also wealthy and unabashedly elitist, which raises further questions about the morality of the show.

Others claim in response that Sex and the City is an attempt to realistically – yet artistically – portray sexual behavior in the urban United States. Others have noted that the show tends to portray its main characters as shallow and superficial.

Still others take issue with the show's depiction of New York City, pointing out that though New York is one of the most culturally diverse cities on the planet, the show rarely features any minority characters.[1]

When Sex and the City was run in syndication on TBS, some viewers organized boycotts of the station, arguing that this would put the program within access of young children.

Some commentators criticized Sex and the City's distorted presentation of female sexuality, claiming the sexuality is more akin to that of the allegedly gay, male writers of the show. The frequent obsession with penis size by one character is taken to be atypical of women and more typical of a phallocentric male focus. Others have charged that the ridiculing of men with small penises is wrong, contributing to body issues for men similar to that of young women over their weight or breast size.

DVD releases

All six seasons of "Sex and the City" have been released commercially on DVD. They have been released officially on Region 1 (Americas), Region 2 (Europe) and Region 4 (Oceania) formats, but illegal bootleg editions have also surfaced for Region 3 (Korea, Thailand) as well as Region 0 (Universal) and can even be found on eBay. In addition to their region encoding, releases vary depending on which region they were released in. Region 2 DVD's of "Sex and the City" have been criticised by some fans for having little or no special features, but Region 1 editions have included Director Commentary, Cast Interviews and more.

In addition to standard single season DVD Boxsets of the show, Limited Edition Collectors Editions have also been released that include all 6 seasons in one complete set. Even these vary between Region 1 2 and 4. While Europe got a complete set that came with special "Shoebox" packaging (A reference to Sarah Jessica Parker's character's love for shoes in the show), the USA and Canada version came packaged in a more traditional fold-out suede case and with an additional Bonus DVD including many Special Features. Oceania's edition came packaged in a Beauty Case.

As well as missing out on some Special Features, many fans in Europe had trouble with the Region 2 edition of the Season 1 DVD. Unfortunately, the show was not converted into a PAL video signal, and remained in its original American NTSC format. This caused some compatibility problems with some European television sets and DVD Players. Thankfully, the Season 1 boxset is the only one to suffer from this problem, and all subsequent Region 2 DVD releases of the programme were appropriately transferred to PAL Video. In Europe, "Sex and the City" boxsets were released through Paramount Pictures - who own certain rights to the programme's broadcast as well. American and Canadian DVD's were released through the programme's original broadcasters, HBO.

Soundtrack releases

There have been several CD Albums released to accompany the series Sex and the City. These releases span various record labels and some are even unofficial. The two albums from Irma Records are seen to be the best because they contain tracks used in the show's actual soundtrack that are difficult to find elsewhere. The other two releases have little or no tracks that appear on the programme's actual soundtrack.

The title theme song was written by Douglas J. Cuomo.

Sex and the City - Soundtrack [Import]
2001/2002
Sire Records
13 Chart Hits - Including the Main Theme from the Show

Sex and the City - Official Soundtrack
March 1, 2004
Sony TV
2 Disc Set - 36 Hits.

Irma at Sex and the City - Part 1 - Daylight Session
April 19, 2004
Irma Records
2 Disc Set - Part of a 2 Part Collection. Ambient and Chilled Sounds from the Show's Soundtrack

Irma at Sex and the City - Part 2 - Nightlife Session
April 19, 2004
Irma Records
2 Disc Set - Part of a 2 Part Collection. House and Electronica Sounds from the Show's Soundtrack