I do not remember when I first came across Sex and the City. Probably it was about six or seven years ago on some Hungarian TV channel. However, I certainly remember watching the show by the double episodes each night, back in England in 2005/2006. Then I also remember hot summer nights, watching episode after episode, being completely hooked and not being able to turn my laptop off until 3AM. That was the summer of 2008. And now it's the summer of 2010 and it has become kind of a ritual of mine: watching SATC episodes on long, hot, sweaty evenings when the heat is so unbearable that you cannot fall asleep. Episodes uncounted, almost until the birds start chirping and the sun is about to rise.
It's no surprise, I guess, if I say that I am a big fan of SATC. The TV show, I mean. NOT the book. That I am most certainly not a fan of. I've had the book for at least four years but never gotten around reading it until a few days ago. Of course, I went throught the first ten pages or so right after I purchased it (just as I do with every other book), but I guess I did not get hooked, so I just tossed it on my shelf. It kind of have been teasing me ever since so I finally brought myself to read it. Made myself to read it. Cause it wasn't reading itself for sure, if you know what I mean. Didn't even come close to being a page turner. Basically, it's just a bunch of stories about relationships in NYC: how they go and how people act these days. But I just didn't get it. It was like the pitching of several different stories: you get the summary, the outline, but not the real thing. That was my feeling with SATC, the book. Something was really really missing that the show most definitely has: style and the uniqe atmosphere of New York City. And, maybe even more importantly, good characters whom you have the chance to get to know and either fall in love or fall in hate. with them That bit is undoubtedly missing from the book. There are so many short-short stories in it with so many minor characters that there's no way you could get to know and like them. Except for, maybe, Carrie. Her character is quite well written and so is her relationship with Mr Big.
Over the years there were times when I admired Carrie because she's stylish, chic, a hip journalist/writer, and she could make it: living the American Dream in Manhattan. Then there were times when she annoyed the heck out of me, because I believed she acted real bitchy and selfish most of the time, and she was yet another whining thirtysomething spinster who could not shut up and simply appreciate her life. She always wanted more, especially when it came to relationships, and then when she had it, she didn't want it any more because she felt that her independence was threatened. These days I am quite okay with her, I think hers is a great character, though it still annoys me when she is whining and bitching around.
Anyway, my point is that the TV show is a classic, it will never run out of style; however, the book which the show is based on does not even come close to being entertaining, or even being readable, for that matter.
I won't mention the movies either, because I think they are unwatchably, horribly awful. Seriously, I almost vomitted on the screen when I was watching the first movie...
Nevertheless, I still love the show, especially on long hot summer nights.
