The most satisfying discoveries are the ones that you least expect.
It happened one Sunday nearly four years ago. I lay sprawled on the couch, aimlessly flipping from one television channel to the next in hopes of finding something at least moderately entertaining. It wasn't until I landed on HBO that I found what I was looking for; something that greatly exceeded my expectations for the evening. That something was the now infamous, wildly popular HBO original series Sex and the City.
Now, I'm not much of a television person. As a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons, and I never jumped on the Seinfeld bandwagon. But despite my lack of television exposure, I like to think that I know a good show when I see one. After all, there are plenty of programs on television that I don't like. Had there been anything else entertaining on television that fateful Sunday night, I may have never come across Sex and the City at all. But luckily I did, and in it I found one of the few programs on television worth getting addicted to.
Who would have thought that a program following the sexual misadventures of four women in Manhattan would garner such attention and build a truly fanatical fan base amongst women across the country and even across the border? The folks at HBO must have when, in 1997, they ordered 13 episodes of the comedy that is based on novelist Candace Bushnell's exploration of what it means to be a single female in the city that never sleeps. Four seasons, several Emmys, and countless boyfriends later, Sex and the City is one of the hottest tickets on television. The only question is: "Why?"
It isn't just about the sex -at least not anymore. It may have been what caught our attention back in 1998 when the show premiered, but it didn't take long for anyone with a discerning enough eye to realize that the series is about more than just getting laid. It's about getting laid and laughing about it, or crying about it, or throwing your hands up in the air and giving up on it. Ask any fan why she watches, and you can rest assured that you'll never get the same answer twice. Granted, women find a certain appeal to the series' frank and comic approach to the female dating experience. Yet each devotee has her own reasons for tuning in Sunday after Sunday that go beyond simply appreciating the program's overall style.
The remarkable characteristic of Sex and the City is that while it has succeeded in catching the eye of female audiences as a whole, it has also tapped into individual emotions and experiences through four remarkably unique women who each encapsulate different lifestyles and dating styles. Whether it's Carrie the columnist (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha the publicist (Kim Catrall), Miranda the attorney (Cynthia Nixon), or Charlotte the art dealer (Kristin Davis), anyone who watches the show has their favorite Sex and the City woman. From who they date to how they date to all the sex in between, no two Sex and the City women are the same. While they may appear to comprise an unlikely group of friends (after all, you wouldn't exactly expect Samantha the sexaholic and Charlotte the inhibited traditionalist to be bosom buddies), they pull it off. Whether they're getting together for brunch, shopping for shoes, or crying over the most recent tangle in an obviously doomed relationship, women buy it because there's something about their own lives that they recognize in these women and their friendship.
Sure, not everything about Sex and the City is true to life. The lifestyle may seem a little too glamorous (how many New York journalists can afford to live it up like Carrie does?) and the women may seem to bounce back a little too easily from heartbreak and failure. But would the show really be as much fun to watch if they were plagued by financial difficulties or wallowed in sex-less misery? Probably not. The show redeems itself when it can, reminding us how fallible and honest these characters can be (think Carrie giving Big a second chance and Charlotte putting up with her husband's Oedipus complex).
As amazed as the series' loyal fan base may be to hear this, not everyone loves Sex and the City as much as they do. The series has often been accused of being crass and unrealistic -usually by men. What the men fail to recognize, however, is that women talk about sex as much as they do.
The male population also must not tune in that often, because if they did they would realize that the show isn't just about sex. Ok, it's mostly about sex. But the series gets away with it because it deals with so many different kinds of sex, from one-night-stand sex to meaningful sex. The show is comic and entertaining without ignoring or trivializing the baggage that often goes hand in hand with love, sex, and relationships. Even monogamy-impaired Samantha has her moments of getting emotionally involved and having to deal with the consequences. The Sex and the City women get their hearts broken, too - it happens to the best of us. But even when the show gets sentimental, it manages to deliver some of the best one-liners on television.
It's been four seasons, and the show is still going strong. It's matured as a series without losing those elements which made it a hit in the first place, and people can't seem to get enough. I know that all good things must come to an end, but until that happens, I'll be tuning in faithfully every Sunday night to see what the Sex and the City women get themselves into next.
