Exposing The Naked Truths of 'Sex and the City' --Printed February 25, 2004

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What do you get when you put four vivacious, New York City women in one half hour on HBO? Well, you get more than you think. On Sunday, February 22 at 9:45 p.m., of the 12 to 13 million viewers, some were teary-eyed to see the series "Sex and the City" end, while others just rolled their eyes at the foreseeable ending (don't worry-this article isn't a spoiler-for the last show at least). There are at least two very obvious innuendos that carried through this whole six season series. One theme was the power

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SAME OLD STORY: 'Sex' Misses the Mark

of the working woman holding their own, and the other being that it was only upper-class, white women. While this gave some people an idea of what it is like to live in a world of Dior, Tiffany and Gucci, did the show portray New York City accurately? Now granted, it's called "Sex in the City" and yet it's not a corner-working kind of show, but would it be so hard as to be true to the city and include some culture? Before "Sex in the City" gets bad, it is still a great show overall. At least the situations are realistic; as issues of single parenting, infertility, cancer, homosexuality and lost hearts are brought up throughout the saga of the four women, columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), publicist Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), and art gallery guide turned Park Avenue princess Charlotte York (Kristen Davis). To dissect these situations, at the highest point in Miranda's professional career, she is pregnant, yet she continues to work. Seeing how she made partner at her law firm, she is hardly hurting for money as she hires a full-time nanny to watch over baby Brady. During her first marriage to Dr. Trey MacDougal (Kyle MacLachlan), Charlotte discovers that she cannot become pregnant, crashing her ideology that her world was "perfect." Seeing how her first husband was a doctor that left her tons of money and her second husband was her divorce lawyer, she had access to the best medical care and services. The one thing that puts her equal in line with everyone else is when she and her second husband, Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) decide to take the adoption route Samantha was definitely an interesting character, as she wasn't afraid to let the world know what she thought and certainly had could have any choice of man. After she decides that she wants to have an operation for breast implants and goes through the routine exam, the doctor notifies her that she has a lump on her left breast. This is the beginning of a turning stone for Samantha as she moves on from a brief lesbian phase and inconsistent relationship with chauvinistic tycoon Richard Wright (James Remar), she grows up and eventually finds true love with overnight, movie star Smith Jarrod (Jason Lewis). Eventually she has to go through the chemotherapy, but does so at one of New York's premier female oncologists, something that not everyone can afford. However, even though she did the name dropping technique, the one that got her in was her famous movie star beau, something else that not many people have the opportunity to do. Finally, Carrie Bradshaw, who writes a newspaper column based on love experiences of herself and her friends. The only thing wrong with Carrie, is that she is unable to find someone (a man) who will settle down and treat her right. Up until the last season, she was unsure of what she wanted in a relationship. Her first real love was with Mr. Big, (who's real name is revealed in the last episode), and even though their love seemed perfect, there was this nagging factor that Big (Chris Noth) couldn't commit full devotion. The next serious man of Carrie's life was Adian Shaw (John Corbett), who proposed marriage to her in season four. Cold feet and bad feelings about Adian not being "the one," changed Carrie's mind, eventually leaving her lonely. This didn't last too long, as she and Charlotte visit an art gallery and fell into the foreign arms of wealthy, renowned artist/painter/sculptor Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov). After wining and dining her, he whisks her off to Paris, which leads to the conclusion of the series. The only diversity that viewers could find in this show was when Carrie had a relationship with a Russian, Charlotte converted to Judaism and Miranda had a romantic fling with African-American doctor, Robert Leeds (Blair Underwood) before settling with the father of her baby, Steve Brady (David Eigenberg). No where else in the show do you see an Asian, Hispanic, African, Indian etc… Even the extras were lacking in diversity. It seems as if the show's producers stuck Underwood in there as a pacifier to say "See? We include other cultures!" Yeah right; just because you stick one black man in there doesn't make up for the fact that the show lacks in variety. "Sex and the City" stays true to its purpose of empowering women and showing them that love really isn't a key to happiness. With rumors of a possible "Sex and the City" movie, we can only hope that writers and directors do a better job included more of the true New York City, rather than this dream world that half of us only wish we could experience.