🫐 Soul Snacks

3 min read

Dear Snackers,

I began re-watching the Sex and the City series on Netflix a couple of months ago, culminating yesterday with Mr. Big showing up in Paris to get Carrie back from the Russian. The entire sixth season was el-ah-VATED. The fashion was sort of a visual feast, and there were many more meaningful moments than the earlier seasons – Samantha’s breast cancer, seeing Miranda stop being a cold-hearted bitch to Steve, Charlotte and Harry adopting. I will say I think Big should have proposed in Paris. Oh well. By the final episode, I was more than ready for it to be over. I don’t watch much TV, generally speaking, but I was fully addicted, squeezing in episodes wherever possible, racing to get through to the end. Alas, I relinquished many of the hopes I had for being productive this summer to my children’s schedules and Sex and the City. Throughout the course of my re-watching, there were a few things I realized that were not as poignant the first time I watched the series in college, which I believe I binged on a box set of DVD’s belonging to one of my roommates.  Those realizations were:

1. Samantha was my current age, 42, when the series began and 48 when it wrapped, and she was depicted her at her real age. The first time I watched it, it didn’t occur to me how unreasonable it would be for her to have the energy to fuck so many people. Secondly, her body was ridiculous. I looked it up and I read that she consumed no alcohol or sweets, which is sort of annoying considering how often they were filmed drinking and eating. Thirdly, she is only two years younger than my own mother in real life, which means that my mother was just two years older than me when the series debuted, which feels crazy because time really does fly. 

2. I graduated from college in 2005, the year after SATC ended, and I lived in Manhattan for eight years, and I can safely declare that there was not a snowball’s chance in hell that Carrie could have afforded an apartment on 73rd between Park and Madison on a writer’s salary….or her wardrobe, or shoes or dinners out at every hot spot for that matter. I remember feeling intense envy over Carrie’s clothes when I was in my 20’s, wishing I could have afforded some of those dress/shoe/overcoat combinations. I think it was the most I ever wanted anything material, but alas, I was dead broke along with most every other 20-something I knew in NY at the time. Though I never owned a single pair of Manolos, I did manage to get my paws on plenty of martinis. 

3. During season five Sarah Jessica Parker was pregnant. I had no idea while watching the show the first time around, and even though her bump was totally concealed throughout filming I was so aware of her pregnancy this time and, particularly her voluptuous breastfeeding boobs and postpartum baby hairs at the start of season six. Once you’ve been there, it’s so obvious. I kept wondering how she was feeling in real life during filming and how the fuck she got through the sex scenes with Berger – what an asshole. 

All in all, watching the series again brought back a lot of memories of what it was like to be young and living in NYC. The one thing that does feel real about that show is that, in New York, anything actually is possible. I’m going to write all about that in my book one day. 

Caitlin 

• LISTEN: If you should have the good fortune of roadtripping alone or with children who aren’t music dictators, here’s a great playlist for your next ride.