Shifting gears a bit on this post. I’ve usually focused on film and themes around specific movies/genres/events. Here I want to look at a show that I’ve long admired, and reflect on it 21 years after it premiered on a still developing HBO platform. This show..drumroll..is the unparalleled Sex and The City (otherwise known as “SATC”)! Starring four talented NYC women, who on the surface are navigating dating, work, and fashion in the most powerful city in the world right before the turn of the Century. However, for the trained eye (i.e. pretty much any woman over 18 from 1998 on who has watched all 6 seasons more than 3x, as well as the movies – well, just the first one), it’s a story about friendship and finding oneself. And is it a love story? Yes, though I would argue not one about Mr. Big, but rather about the love one has as a young woman for a city that defines and shapes you, whether you’re getting splashed by a bus hitting a muddy puddle, running with a broken heel, or eating cheap pizza at 3am after a disappointing evening.

I recently listened to Sarah Jessica Parker’s interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and it was really nice to hear that her first critical observation in looking back is the lack of diversity, specifically a lack of women of color (or really any recurring characters). As I’ve re-watched the series, this is my biggest complaint. SJP also talked about the characters’ relationship with money and how this differed from her own experience (she grew up with very few resources and received government assistance as a child). I moved to NYC when I was 18 after having grown up in Vermont and Puerto Rico, raised by progressive, smart parents who despite not having vast amounts of monetary resources, exposed me to a myriad of cultures and experiences so that when I got to NY I felt right at home. I lived on a tight budget for all 12+ years there, so cannot relate personally to Carrie’s experience of high fashion parties, $400+ shoes, summers in the Hamptons, etc., or this homogenous version of the world.

But this isn’t an indictment of the show. I still think it holds up as one of the best shows ever made (of course behind The Sopranos and The Wire), so many years later. The witty, sharp dialogue; the prominence that LGBTQ characters play throughout the show’s arc; the hilarious, albeit dated, homages to contemporary fashion, all make it truly funny and worthwhile to watch. What really draws me in, though, is what lays at the core of Carrie’s many New York Star column musings – how we navigate the sharp ups and downs of life, and how we support each other along the way. How? Well, sometimes not well, and occasionally sitting on an apartment stoop crying in the rain. But, on a good night in SATC land you might find yourself feeling pretty good, sipping a cosmopolitan, waiting to get into a “hot” new restaurant, next to your also very cool best friends. Most importantly, you will be standing in the center of it, or as I like to call it..Manhattan.