That’s where Sex and the City, the TV show, shined. It was intended to be a comedy with occasional moments of sappiness and seriousness. You knew what you were getting. And as I watched the trailer for the movie, (that’s slated to be released on May 30) I saw what’s missing from the other two shows.
For every moment of Carrie Bradshaw’s romantic angst (does she or doesn’t she marry Big?), there was Samantha Jones’ over-the-top ogling of male eye candy. For all of Miranda Hobbes’ cynicism (complaining that women had only two choices for Halloween costumes, “witch or sexy kitten”), there was Charlotte York’s sunny optimism (riding the carousel with her husband Harry and their adopted daughter, and later announcing she’s pregnant). There was a balance. When the foursome converged for their ubiquitous gatherings, those meetings were sometimes intense (dissecting Carrie’s love life), sometimes not (Samantha chastising Miranda for failing to wax and for growing “a national forest”). The movie seems—at least according to the trailer and going by six seasons of the TV show on HBO—like it will be a light confection, with a dash of social commentary and winks of realism amidst the oversized flower pins, crazy hats, and six-inch-high platform shoes.
From what I’ve watched of the networks’ new offerings which seek to fill the void left by Sex and the City, they haven’t yet found the right, magic mix. But all is not lost. The shows’ creators—Darren Star, the producer of Sex and the City, produces Mafia, while author Candace Bushnell, on whose book Sex and the City was based, produces Lipstick—could re-jigger their formulas and decide whether they want their program to be a soap opera, drama, comedy, or a dramedy, not all four poured into the margarita blender and dumped into a salt-ringed glass. Right now, Mafia’s future is uncertain while NBC is still airing the Lipstick episodes completed before the writers’ strike.
In the meantime, I’ve got May 30 circled on my calendar and the original quartet on my HBO On Demand to tide me over.
