Sex and the City - as a new series begins, Canvas returns to the original and asks how does it age? Photos / Supplied
As a brand new series of Sex and the City premieres, what better thing to do than revisit the original and who better to ask if it's still relevant than two teenagers who weren't even alive then. By Sarah Daniell
It dropped in the winter of 1998 — one year after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and one year before The Sopranos. It was a turning point in television.
We didn't use "dropped" back then to describe a premiere. But drop it did, like a big sex bomb. Sex and the City was set in the chaotic coolness of New York, it was a series entirely led by women who talked candidly about sex — on top, underneath, while drunk, in public places and private VIP rooms in nightclubs. Anywhere, anyhow. Nothing was off the table. Not even shoes. It was followed, later, with far grittier and fearless offerings like Girls (2012) — four 20-something females in New York talking about food, financial issues, friendship and f***ing — and Sex Education (2019). Both make SATC look demure by comparison.
But back then, no show had "gone there" and certainly not for this demographic of women. Columnist Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker); Manhattan lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon); Charlotte (Kristin Davis); and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) — 30-something women analysing dating, fashion and "funky" blowjobs over endless brunches and cocktails. Despite its painful lack of diversity — white heterosexual women talking about their privileged lives — it was a radical, engaging and movable feast of manhattans, masturbation, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Manolos (in no particular order). It was girlfriends and shoes and sexual exploration.
In 1998, I was 30-something too. I was hooked. The scriptwriting and the performances were sharp. Oh, yeah — and the shoes. Carrie loved labels, but that tutu she wore cost the costume designer $5 from a second-hand store.
Now there is a reboot — And Just Like That — minus one character, Samantha (it's complicated).
"I am Samantha," declared Cherry when I messaged my friends on WhatsApp asking them what they remembered about SATC. I think she meant "I was Samantha". She's a mother of two now, and in a solid relationship. But also, maybe not? Who says she cannot still be Samantha? Nobody, that's who.
"I watched it every week with my friend Rhys," said Rachel, "and it was all about the fashion and the friendship. And the shoes. And the freedom."
Freedom from expectations.
There have been two films (2008, 2010) but we do not speak their names. Would the new series — starring these actors now in their 50s — speak to the faithful who loved it back then and to a new generation?
And how does the original series hold up? Does it still have currency? Who better to ask than the next generation who weren't even there.
My twins were born a year after the 2004 finale of SATC. Would it be cringe? Would it be crackup? We sat down on a recent Sunday night over a chicken roast to study a few episodes.
Season 1, Ep 1. Theme: F*** like a man (i.e, have sex and feel nothing afterwards):
"Welcome to the age of un-innocence," says Carrie. "Cupid had flown the co-op."
Toxic bachelors. Everyone smoking tailor-mades indoors and on the street. A pair of Manolos cost $400 in 1998 (now they're upwards of $1500 — so, still stupid). The actors talk straight to the camera and also they use "vox pops" with randoms on the street giving their opinions on relationships (pre-Fleabag) — it's a technique phased out in S2. Carrie meets Big. The women are skinny, shiny, conventionally attractive and the only nod to diversity is in their hair colour — two blonde, one brunette, one redhead. The gay men are all outrageously flamboyant or buff personal trainers. It would take another show, Schitts Creek, to set the gold standard, nearly 20 years on, for gay males in a TV comedy/drama.
Daisy: Oh my God, I love the fashion. Especially Carrie.
Isaac: What is this about again?
Me: Charlotte really WAS annoying.
Season 2, Ep 10. Theme: Class systems, relationship power balances:
Miranda, a highly paid lawyer, is dating a blue-collar barman called Steve.
Carrie says: "He can make you come then make you a cosmopolitan."
The women discuss over pedicures. Carrie to Charlotte: "It's the millennium, sweetie — we don't say things like 'working class'."
Later on Miranda attends a high-voltage legal work "do": "Miranda was adrift in a sea of Italian wool crepe."
Daisy: Good lines.
Isaac: I think I like Samantha the most, so far. But what is it about — there doesn't seem to be a plot?
Season 3, Ep 4: Theme: Carrie dates a bisexual man:
In the new series, it's rumoured that Miranda's sexuality is going to follow Nixon's, who came out as gay when SATC ended. But back in the day, sexual diversity, gender diversity were not on the agenda.
Sample Carrie voice-overs: "John Wayne's a Jane."
"At least if you dress like a man, you don't have to wax."
"Is gender an illusion?"
"Pick a side and stay there."
"When did this happen — when did it get all confused?"
Sample dialogue — Samantha to Carrie: "Don't worry about the label."
Miranda: "It's greedy ... "
Charlotte protesting why she couldn't possibly dress as a man for an artist: "I'm bad at math, and I couldn't change a tyre to save my life."
Me: STFU Charlotte, you are annoying.
Me again: Is that actually Alanis Morissette pashing Carrie?
Daisy: It's not even that long ago ... I know it's lighthearted but it's weirdly out-dated. Also in the movie, Mum, which was really bad, Carrie gained weight and it was, like, this huge thing." Eye roll.
Isaac: Who is Alanis Morissette?
Season 7, Ep 7: Theme: Dumped by a Post-it note:
Carrie gets dumped by a Post-it note. What follows is a discussion about what is acceptable practice in dumping someone — Facebook wasn't yet a thing. Nor was the phrase "wasn't a thing". The friends head out to a club, score weed in a dodgy bar and smoke it in the street, Carrie gets arrested then un-arrested, they kiss strangers, and finish up in a diner eating banana splits. Carrie does not believe in the concept of the universe delivering and says it's flaky, but Charlotte says everything happens for a reason and that the Post-it note dumping would have a greater purpose.
Carrie: "Everything happens for a reason, say mostly women ... Do we either get married or learn something? Do we search for a lesson to lessen the pain?"
Me: What really comes through is the friendship.
Daisy: It's good, l like it.
Isaac: It feels like it should have studio laughter — like Friends.
Daisy: It's witty. Witty, smart comedy.
Isaac: Nothing happens, there's no plot.
Daisy: I would watch it. In fact, I think I might.
Isaac: There's a lot of words — never any silence.
How do the men come off?
Isaac: I don't think it's about men — it's about women.
Is it unrealistic to present a columnist dressed in high fashion every day?
Isaac: Daisy it's like you — you spend all your money on clothes, too, and if someone looked at you they'd think you were rich, but you're not.
Daisy: I think we're too young to relate to it. Our experiences make it hard because it's about casual sex versus relationships. But the friendships — yes — that's something to aspire to. And the fashion.
Me: Apparently you are doomed if you are over 30.
Let's hope the new series proves this wrong.
Sex and the City – Seasons 1-6 – are available to view on Neon and Sky Go. And Just Like That premieres with a double episode on Neon and Sky Go from December 10, and SoHo from December 20 at 9.30pm.
Plus, Beauden Barrett's new side hustle.