LINDA FANG

Sex and the City  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sex and the City is a multiple Emmy Award, Golden Globe award–winning popular American cable television program. The original run of the show was broadcast on HBO from 1998 until 2004, for a total of six seasons.

Set in New York City, the show focuses on four mid-thirties (and one who is in her mid-forties by the end) female characters. The sitcom had serialized story lines, as well as dramatic elements and tackled socially-relevant issues such as STD's, safe sex, multiple partners, promiscuity and often specifically dealing with women in society in the late 1990s, and how changing roles and definitions for women affected the characters.

The show was primarily filmed at New York City's Silvercup Studios and on location in and around Manhattan. Since it ended, the show has been aired in syndication on networks such as TBS, WGN, The CW, and many other local stations. However, basic cable outlets edit out certain explicit show content that was broadcast in the original version.

[edit] Premise

The show was based in part on writer Candace Bushnell's book of the same name, compiled from her column with the New York Observer. Bushnell has stated in several interviews^[specify] that the Carrie Bradshaw in her columns is her alter ego; when she wrote the "Sex and the City" essays, she used her own name initially; for privacy reasons, however, she created the character of Carrie Bradshaw, a woman who was also working as a writer and living in New York City. Carrie also has the same initials, which reiterates her connection with Bushnell.^[1]

Darren Star, the show's creator, paid $50,000 to Bushnell for complete rights to her columns.^[2] The show "bears only a passing resemblance to its source material";^[2] the columns were "darker and more cynical" than the "gentler" series that Star produced.^[2] According to Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, by Amy Sohn,^[3] Star wanted to create a show that expressed true adult comedy, sex, in an up-front way.

The narrative of the show focuses on Carrie and her three best friends. The women discuss their sexual desires and fantasies, and their travails in life and love. The show often depicts frank discussions about romance and sexuality, particularly in the context of being a single woman in her mid-thirties. Each episode in season one features a short montage of interviews of people living in New York City regarding topics discussed in that episode. These continue through season two but were then phased out.

Another feature that would eventually be scrapped was Carrie breaking the fourth wall (for example, looking into the camera and speaking to the audience directly, also known in older drama as an aside). Bradshaw would question scenarios and ideas, asking the audience for an opinion or insight on different situations. The pilot, however, also had the characters of Miranda and Charlotte as well as a few minor characters speaking directly to the camera/audience. The last such event by Carrie occurs in episode 3 of the second season, "The Freak Show".

The method of expressing inner monologues was shifted exclusively to voiceovers by Carrie in future episodes. Her main narration usually revolves around the premise of that week's "article", where she sums up her thoughts with, "I couldn't help but wonder...". As she says that, her computer monitor is shown while she is typing the text of her voiceover, ending up with the theme of the episode expressed as a question such as, "Are we sluts?" or "Can you really have sex without politics?"

[edit] Overview of characters

• Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the narrator of each episode. Each episode is structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column, "Sex and the City," for the fictitious newspaper The New York Star. A member of the New York glitterati, she is a club/bar/restaurant staple who is known for her unique fashion sense (particularly footwear). This is evident in the episode "The Real Me" in season four, when she is asked by Lynne Cameron (played by Margaret Cho) to be in a New York fashion show. She works on her PowerBook in her apartment, writing newspaper articles focusing on the different aspects of a relationship. In later seasons, her essays are collected as a book and she begins taking assignments from Vogue and New York Magazine. Carrie is house-proud; her one-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment is in an Upper East Side brownstone. Despite several long-term boyfriends, Carrie is entangled with "Mr. Big"(Chris Noth) in a complicated, multifaceted on and off relationship.

• Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) is the oldest and most sexually confident of the foursome. Samantha is an independent businesswoman, with a career in public relations. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and calls herself a "try-sexual" (meaning she'll try anything once). One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. When Carrie confesses to her that she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend (and cheating on her own boyfriend, as well), Samantha tells her that judging is not her style and offers her support. She has a conspicuous sexual appetite and avoids emotional involvement at all costs while satisfying her physical desires. She believes that she has had "hundreds" of soulmates and requires that her sexual partners leave, "an hour after I climax." During the course of the show it is revealed that Samantha's glamorous, impenetrable facade and dismissive approach to love actually hides a sensitive, caring nature. Samantha has a number of relationships in the show (including one with a lesbian artist named Maria), albeit far fewer than the number of her casual sex encounters. In Season 3, she moves from her full-service Upper East Side apartment to an expensive loft in the then-transforming Meatpacking District. In Season 6, Samantha's character further develops when she is suddenly diagnosed with cancer when visiting a plastic surgeon for a breast implant consultation. An operation and chemotherapy challenge Samantha, but she beats cancer and it becomes clear the experience has renewed her with a new perspective on life and love with her most permanent and fulfilling relationship yet, with a younger man, model/actor, Smith Jerrod.