I didn’t want it, and just like that…

Carrie Bradshaw left me behind. I do not chase people, so when our girl went left, I went right after the disaster that was the second film. I wrote about the dissolution of our relationship here in 2014 More Sex? . So I tuned in with trepidation when the reboot aired on HBO Max. Julie Halston came across the screen of my MacBook Air, as the terrific trio waited to get into brunch, complete with SJP wearing a Dries Van Noten blazer and a feathered cap, with the pithy quips of Michael Patrick King coming out of her mouth, and just like that, I knew my Carrie was back. Let me address the obvious, if you like well written television and good acting, you will like this reboot. If you are predisposed to hate SJP and women, then you won’t. I get into the performance of racial/sexual dynamics and the casting of Nicole Ari Parker in my podcast, The Great Flood Has Spoken. Here in my blog I will focus on plot points and everything other than race/sexuality 🙂

The first scene dealt with the obvious elephant in the room, Samantha Jones is in London and won’t return texts or calls from Carrie, Miranda or Charlotte. It seems as if the acting stops and real life breaks through and we cannot tell if it is Carrie Bradshaw or SJP (the divide is liminal at this point) who is deeply saddened by the departure of Jones. This might seem like an attempt to make Jones (Cattrall) the devil, but in the second episode they cleverly redeem Jones for abandoning the girls by having her send a huge bouquet of orchids to top the casket of… (SPOILER ALERT)

Mr. Big, who dies of a heart attack atop a Peloton bike-the single worst product placement of all time…

This is good writing and great hedging of bets as it leaves the door open for Jones to return if the kerfuffle with Cattrall can be worked out. Though honestly…her character is not missed. Of course the writing could go south quickly, but from these first two episodes, I must report that the secret to the sauce is not Jones, who basically served as a comic sex clown by the last season of the series and the films, and who became quite the disgusting Karen in the souk scene in Abu Dhabi in SATC 2. Now of course she did not write these scenes, but at that point all the ladies have input into what is being written so…yikes.

We need Carrie single and a mess, and about to go broke and trying to find a man, and keep gainful employment and despite all that living life to the fullest with her girlfriends and in beautiful FASHION darlings! Especially after, during and in a pandemic, we cannot relate to perfect Mrs. Preston in the high-rise. Carrie had to be knocked off her pedestal so we can watch her figure it all out again, just like we are in 2021. Big had to die, because we would not have wanted either one of them cheating again or getting a divorce. We have to like/love Carrie and that would not have endeared her to us. Him dying gets the character out of the marriage cleanly and back into the dating relationship with NYC that makes it SEX AND THE CITY. Seeing her figure out dating in her fifties, (but make it fashion) is exactly the tonic this gay man needs ok?

Miranda is in an interesting character place with a son having sex in her house, and having to negotiate race in her new Masters program, at Columbia in Social Justice/ Human Rights, taught by a Black PhD. I cover this thoroughly in my podcast linked above, The Great Flood Has Spoken on Spotify.

Charlotte is raising two daughters who are now teens- yikes and who could not be more night and day in thinking, behavior and attitude, and she also has the relationship that brings in Nicole Ari Parker, also discussed on the podcast :-).

The given circumstances worked out for Carrie and the women by Michael Patrick King and his writers room of women (they aren’t credited in the episode credits but I know there is an uncredited writers room of women as they had the whole series) work really well. I look forward to seeing how they play out and I am definitely back in relationship with the adventures of Carrie Bradshaw and company!