The famous chick flick show Sex and the City, which ran from 1998 to 2004, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in June 2023. The show has recently seen a rise in popularity – although personally, I think it will be popular forever. Sex and the City follows four girls – Carrie Bradshaw (chaotic, wannabe journalist), Samantha Jones (confident sex lover), Miranda Hobbes (cynical, Harvard-graduate-turned-lawyer) and Charlotte York (classic hopeless romantic) – as they live their lives in New York City and try to manage friendships, careers and romantic relationships. Narrated through Carrie’s sex column, each episode is about a new, unhinged sex-capade.
While one can view Sex and the City as somewhat of a comedy – all the girls have funny one-liners and Carrie is beyond ridiculous at all times – I watch it as a lovely representation of girlhood. The show, as it is named, unapologetically discusses sex and other topics surrounding being a woman that mainstream shows often don’t depict (and if they do, it’s often stilted or censored in some way). The girls face issues like body insecurities, infertility, fights with friends, horrible first dates, religious and political differences, and workplace inequality, and the reactions and solutions are shown through the true lens of women. Although the show definitely doesn’t do everything right – the writing is often racist, homophobic and/or transphobic – the girls are all realistic, fleshed-out characters who each have unique personalities and ambitions. Even though so much (SO much!) has changed in the dating world since the show was in its prime, it remains relevant because the main characters remain relatable to this day. I like to say that everyone is mainly a mixture of two of the girls.
Personally, I think I’m Carrie with a layer of Miranda. But you could be a Charlotte with a dash of Carrie or maybe a Sam with touches of Charlotte. Or literally any combination. I think that’s the point of the show; the girls are all so realistic and we each have a bit of all of them in us. Combine four fabulous girls and the aesthetic of Manhattan partying in the ‘90s, and you have a hit show that people will keep coming back to for years…
This brings me to all the reasons Sex and the City’s spinoff show, And Just Like That, which takes place 11 years after the second tragic Sex and the City movie, should’ve never happened. One of the main appeals of the original show is that it was so daring, it was so scandalous. And Just Like That turns our four fabulous girls into a depressing trio who don’t have any of the same spark that made the original come alive. With Sam Jones (Kim Cattrall) missing from our main cast, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) can’t seem to rebuild the chemistry they had on-screen two decades ago. While the original show is risky, the spin-off seems afraid to take any risks at all.
As I mentioned before, the writing of the original show was often problematic in numerous ways. The spin-off attempts to compensate for the original’s heteronormative whiteness by writing in characters of color and random LGBTQ+ characters. Carrie’s new best friend comes in as the “fierce” South Asian real estate agent Seema. I loved her and her luxurious attitude, but it was obvious that the writers were trying to fill the void that Kim Cattrall’s absence left. Charlotte and Miranda also go on their own journeys making friends with women of color and suddenly have revelations that other cultures outside of their completely white friend circles exist. Miranda, in particular, has many revelations. Season 1 of And Just Like That has Miranda suddenly become infatuated with Carrie’s boss and come out to her friends as queer, all while dropping major career opportunities to fly across the country for this newfound love.
I am all for diversity in mainstream TV shows, but major changes to characters like this are unnecessary and make the diversity seem forced and unrealistic. The girls do face important issues in the series – miscarriages, divorce, grief, friendship breakups, motherhood, etc. – but the corny writing ruins it. In an effort to stay relevant, And Just Like That turns all its characters into shells of themselves.
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sex and the City, I think it’s important to remember why the original was so special; it stuck to its truth! The show was an ode to owning all the parts of yourself, even the sort of embarrassing ones. When rewatching the show, I think it’s important to not only hold on to those values, but incorporate them into our lives as well.
Alefiya Presswala is a Sophomore Journalism major who has all six seasons of Sex and the City on VHS, DVD and digital. She can be reached at [email protected].