Sex and the City ran from 1998 to 2004, six seasons and 94 episodes of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha talking about love, sex and New York. It made a name for itself as one of the most talked-about shows of its time, and it still gets mentioned today. This review sets out what the show got right, what it got wrong, and why its reputation has cooled since the cameras stopped rolling.
Trailer, via HBO.
Carrie’s Apartment
Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment is the heart of the show. It is small, bright, full of books, and always clean. It is where she writes her column, eats cereal, and receives the flowers that arrive for her after every episode. The apartment is more than a setting; it is a character. It gives the show a sense of place that few other sitcoms manage.
The Four Friends
The show follows four women, and each carries a distinct personality. Carrie is the writer, the romantic, the one who gets hurt. Miranda is the lawyer, the practical one, the one who laughs at the idea of love. Charlotte is the teacher, the hopeful one, the one who believes in fairy tales. Samantha is the businesswoman, the confident one, the one who knows exactly what she wants. Together they form a quartet that audiences found easy to follow, even if the show often treated them as types rather than fully developed people.
The Episodes
The show is built around short episodes, each centered on one friend’s story. Some episodes hold up. Others feel thin, built around a joke that lands once and a conversation that goes nowhere. The show’s best moments come when it slows down and lets the characters talk honestly about what they want, not just what they get.
The Sex
The show is called Sex and the City, and sex is everywhere. There are scenes of nudity, of partners changing clothes, of bodies touching. Some of these scenes are well done. Others feel dated, awkward, or simply there to fill space. The show never quite finds the balance between frankness and comfort that it promises.
The Fashion
Fashion is a star of the show, and the costumes are part of the reason the show remains popular. Carrie’s signature black dress became a style reference for years afterward. The show’s approach to fashion is playful, sometimes over-the-top, and it never takes itself too seriously.
The Writing
The dialogue is sharp, often funny, and frequently quoted. But the writing has its limits. The show tends to treat men as objects rather than people, and it often reduces its female characters to their romantic choices. The show’s view of romance is also narrow, focused on finding Mr. Right rather than on building a life. That narrowness has aged the show poorly, and it is the main reason its reputation has cooled since the cameras stopped rolling.
The Legacy
The show changed what audiences expected from a comedy about women. It made the personal public, and it made the public personal. It put a spotlight on the way women talk to each other about their lives, and it showed that those conversations could be funny, sad, and honest all at once.
The Final Word
Sex and the City is a show with a strong identity, but it is not a perfect one. Its strengths are real: the apartment, the fashion, the dialogue. Its weaknesses are real too: the dated treatment of sex, the narrow view of romance, the tendency to reduce its characters to types. The show is worth watching for what it did well, but it is not a show that holds up perfectly across all 94 episodes.
Here is a rough ranking of the seasons, based on how well they hold up:
- Season 1 — the strongest season, with the sharpest writing and the clearest sense of what the show wanted to be.
- Season 2 — still strong, but the show starts to settle into its formula.
- Season 3 — the middle period, with mixed results.
- Season 4 — the weakest season, with several episodes that feel thin and unfinished.
- Season 5 — a recovery year, with some of the show’s funniest episodes.
- Season 6 — the final season, which tries to wrap everything up but ends on a note that feels rushed.
Sex and the City is a show with a lasting influence, but it is a show with flaws. It is worth watching for the writing, the fashion, and the apartment, but it is not a show that holds up perfectly across all 94 episodes. It is a show worth remembering for what it did well, and worth forgetting for what it left undone.
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