I am not ashamed to say that I've watched 12 episodes of Sex and the City today. Season three, episodes 1-12. By the end--the last four episodes, maybe?--I was watching with the commentary. Michael Patrick King is the only commenter on the eps I watched, and I actually really enjoyed it. Probably because I mostly know every bit of dialogue anyway, so it's interesting to hear some of the background. It certainly made the episodes more interesting. (And before you ask. Yes, S has been in the room the entire time I've been watching. He's likely a saint for putting up with me; on certain episodes, he would say things like, "Oh, this is the one with the dolls." or "This is the one where Charlotte dates the fighting guy." He's put up with me for so long that he's seen ALL of these episodes mulitple times. He pretends he doesn't like the show, but I swear, he really does.)
The commentary is specifically linked to the Carrie/Aidan/Big story arc--the affair and the fall-out, which happens to coincide with Charlotte's wedding arc. It is some of the most compelling Sex and the City, simply because Carrie is so immensely hateable. You want to scream at the TV, "What the fuck are you doing?" (I'd be lying if I said that I never have, too.) But it rings true to me. Certainly, it's uber-dramaculous; what affair ends in an emergency room? Very few, I'd guess. But the fact that Carrie isn't above temptation, the fact that she is good and bad, well, it works for me. And listening to Michael Patrick King explain many of the decisions the writers made only made it more compelling.
Sometimes I think that I'm supposed to be a "good" feminist and hate SatC, and sometimes I do--the political episodes are particularly cringe-worthy for me--but mostly I love it. I don't love it because that's what I want my life to be, because I'd be miserable trend-hopping, bar-hopping, etc. It's not the lifestyle I envy (Well, maybe the shoes. Okay, definitely the shoes.), or even the location. Because although I enjoyed my one little trip to New York, I know I could never, ever live there. Not for me. You know, once I read a review of Gilmore Girls that lambasted it for its unreal dialogue--its rapid back-and-forth, use of obscure references, etc.--and then a rebuttal to that review, saying that of course it wasn't real. What it was was a representation of how women THINK. Or something like that. But basically, in our heads, that's how things go. That was a digression, but I think the same thing about SatC. It's not realistic, not in so many ways, but it voices things that LOTS of us think and never say, and that's why we have an unreasonable loyalty to it.
How else to explain my rides on the SatC merry-go-round? (Finish season six, start season one, etc.)
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