Sex and the City
I love Sex and the City. I think it would be safe to say that I could easily out SATC trivia pretty much every woman out there, because I've watched every episode of every season so many times that I have them all but memorized- and I'm not talking about the diluted, safely edited versions that TBS airs. I'm talking the gritty, R-rated HBO originals. I own them all and I value them like I do my favorite books.
Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda are very special ladies to me. When I was newly 21 years old, I had just moved out of my parents house to live by myself completely for the first time. I had returned to the "nest" for an 8 month stint to re-cooperate and collect my wits after surviving a year-long drug and alcohol binge/roller coaster ride of being completely irresponsible and immature living out on my own...being unemployed, broke, dropped out of college and suffered an emotionally devastating break up from a douche bag fraternity guy who had claimed to love me while at the same time cheating on me and lying about it for months.
After I had "healed" (for the most part...more just learned how to control myself enough to exist like a functioning adult without mom and dad's help), I had gotten a new full-time job managing a designer sunglass store and had rented a townhouse all to myself. I had sworn off men and was feeling very independent and strong and "together." Despite all of that though, there were still those moments of living alone as a single girl whose friends all had boyfriends, that life felt very lonely and empty.
I remember one night watching HBO (my one "indulgence expense" that I scraped by to keep for myself as a treat), and I was feeling particularly low. An episode of Sex and the City came on, and for the first time, I was intrigued. Although I had heard of the show before, I had never watched it.
That night, I watched the episode "They Shoot Single People, Don't They?" As soon as it was over, I put my shoes on and drove to Hastings to buy the entire second season on VHS. I didn't care how much it cost, I had to have it. I wanted to watch all of them immediately. I was off the next day at work, so I spent the entire next watching every episode of the season back to back...thus beginning the Sex and the City tradition I would continue until the day the last episode aired.
It's like the show was written for ME...and it was! For women like me of all ages. It was hilarious, touching, well-written, honest, raw, reflective, insightful and aimed specifically towards single, independent women. They were strong and confident, yet they still were vulnerable and flawed. It wasn't so much the "girl power" thing or the fashion...but more so the overall insightful nature of the show. It highlighted and focused on so many of the very things I was going through and had gone through that it spoke volumes about the universal experiences of being a female in this day and age.
I fell in love immediately.
I'm torn between feeling wary about a Sex and the City movie, and feeling excited to be "reunited" with the ladies. I would hate to watch anything that might soil the way that I feel about the characters and their story lines...I'm a pretty picky movie critic, especially when it comes to something I hold near and dear (i.e. Batman). I was concerned that since the actresses and characters are all older and aren't single anymore, the fun and wit wouldn't be there, therefore making the movie cheesy and void of any real entertaining substance.
Then I had to question if those concerns reflected something that I might be concerned with about my own existence. I too am older and and no longer single. I am no longer 21 and in the prime of my free woman status- I am married and pushing 30 now. Everything has changed. But I shouldn't go being concerned about life after younger single years being cheesy and void of any real entertaining substance. I should know better. It's all evolution.
Granted, this is a MOVIE we are talking about here versus real life- but any real fan of any show or movie gets truly attached to characters and their stories. They watch them grow and go through all of their b.s. and joys and upsets- you evolve with them.
If anything, there might just be an element about this movie that I will be able to appreciate more now that I am no longer single and no longer living a single chick's lifestyle.
Here's a good review by Entertainment Weekly (one of the only publications whose reviews I will take seriously- BURN YOUR GAZETTE movie review section. They don't konw squat).
Sex and the City.
