Two more ‘wishes' are we granted…two more walks in the most fashionable high heels on the pavements of the Big Apple we are granted and then the fairy tale comes to an end. For those who have no clue what I am talking about: the ladies of ‘Sex and the City’ under the guidance of Carrie Bradshaw are about to wrap it up. When the news popped up on the HBO Instagram I did for a split second did hope that this was fake news…but then it made me start thinking about the journey that SATC and ‘And Just Like That’ had been on and then suddenly a peaceful sensation popped up inside of me.
For those who have been growing older, taller, wiser and more aware of fashion or even sex ( believe it or not the series made many of us more aware of certain aspects linked to our more private and intimate lives, or at least that is what my impression is) this has been quite a journey. I do remember seeing that young and ambitious writer walking through the streets of NYC in her most colourful and excentric outfits and just could not resist smiling and dreaming away. I was right out there with her and honestly many of us young women where hoping to walk into her shoes when we saw her lunching, dining, shopping and other upscale activities that make life more appealing than the life we had to face. It was as if I was under a spell!
After all, Carrie Bradshaw seemed to have got it all sorted it out…or at least that was what it seemed at the beginning. The longer the series went on the more profound it became. Carrie is not the easiest fictional character being around. It is not easy peasy what she does and that we had to wait for about 27 years to see a certain side of her that perhaps many of us also hide or at least play hide an seek with. Sure there will be stories out there that Sarah Jessica Parker might have not been agreeing to end the show and that there were issues behind the camera going on. It is never easy to let go and so having to say goodbye to Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha and Carrie &Co is therefore hard.
The social media outlets and most of the entertainment has already print in BOLD what they think about this. And nope it is not all sweet sugar cane and pink bubblegum. As it goes are some people now also telling that they had already given up on the series and that this was already one to three seasons too many. So many things are people commentating about and reading about it is as if you get to dissect 27 years of television.
For the sake of what? It might be a strange thing to say but in the preview of the upcoming episode there is a line hiding that tells me so much. And as always I might be overanalysing the whole thing, but as mentioned in a few previous entries I am going to be more outspoken again…so here we go *takes a deep breath before going on. We see Carrie seeing in the office of her agent who has been reading her story and she gets a compliment that she happily receives. But then the agent asks her where the last chapter is. Our main character’s face that the camera then shows us tells it all. Believe me that when an author or writer is misunderstood then the curtain falls abruptly and there won’t be an encore in most cases. When Miss Bradshaw then replies that her agent is holding the last chapter this individual goes on saying:’What you have written is a romantic tragedy.’ When I heard that line for the first time I just let it slide…and honestly if we would not have told by HBO and Jessica Parker what we know now then I might still considered a byline in the whole series. I can’t undo that now..can I? Not after everything that happened in those 27 years.
Nope…I am sorry and don’t you worry I am not going to change your opinion about this TV-series. Tastes are personal and it took me a few Cosmopolitans in the company of my close friend N (she will forever remind me of Carrie and believe me she comes very close to the fiction) to get the hype. Deep down there is this sense that writing the last chapter is perhaps the one chapter we have highest expectations about. It was in episode 10 we know that this colourful lady wrote a novel that might contain ingredients that she cooks with daily. It is Miranda who questions her about it and that scene is rather a profound one. Our closest friends are sometimes the most cruel and honest to the bone ones. Miranda seems to be disappointed in her friend and wonders what her friend is trying to do by writing this novel or more specific the way she has written down the story. In the years to come that scene will end up being called a foreshadowing of what is to come...I might be wrong but that is okay.
Still thanks to the internet you can read so many comments or should I rather call them reflections about what happened in that scene. There are also fans and critics that have been dissecting the passages that have been thrown at us. Harsh critics are everywhere to be found, and honestly I don’t think that what Miss Bradshaw is writing down has got Nobel Prize for literature potential.
Carrie her writing took place in front of a window on a computer while sitting on a chair at a small table. It was the spot she would put down her thoughts about what she knows best, her own life. Here and there were some poetic undertones to be discovered in her musings. Personal I think that the high heeled fashionata never ever has been forsaking her writing in those 27 years. She tried hard to stay true to her self and always sounded sincere and genuine. She owned her writing. That takes a lot of guts. That she now wanted to try writing something new, something that she has not tried before and perhaps has no experience with and that takes courage and also is very risky business.
That it is her cranky neighbour Duncan, who happens to be highly regarded author is the one who ends up complementing and also seems to encourage her makes no sense to some of us. Duncan is an accomplished author who has got tons of experience under his belt and also he comes with his set of flaws and quirks that can set off easily anyone who would meet up with him at a Starbucks counter in the morning when you are still low on caffeine intake. I get the outrage of some people about that story line, but it goes in mysterious ways also in the world of TV-series script writing.
Oh yes, he might have been flirting with his neighbour and oh yes I get that he might just have been passing through her life and not been interested in a long term relationship with the ‘would-be’-novelist. You don’t need to convince me of that. The thing is that in writing our most vulnerable parts are forced to be unpacked in front of anyone. Carrie has for 26 years long played it perhaps a bit too safe and did stick to the narrative that she was told she was very good at. Not only in her writing but also in her daily life. To us viewers most of the SATC episodes felt like a safety blanket and we longed for another serving of that classic cocktail in order to get us through the rather dark and less sunny moments of our grey and boring lives..
For years 'Sex and the city' has been serving exactly that what many of us viewers wished for and this despite it’s flaws and many strange, awkward and cynical moments. We, fans, were granted to be part of the most colourful lunch-, dining-, cocktail-, brunch-,shopping-gang. I never ever considered it a book club and the moments that Carrie is writing we are granted an insight in what her opinions and feelings are that she plants on a white page I have always treated rather as the best way to start and wrap up an episode.
Fictional Carrie made money by writing…her wardrobe tells you enough that she managed to be successful in that alley. Miss Bradshaw mastered writing a column for a newspaper and made herself a name for doing so. When checking the internet for a definition of what a column is you end up reading the following:’A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, where a writer expresses their own opinion in few columns allotted to them by the newspaper organisation.’ Carrie has been writing for over 2 decades in a space owned by others and honestly that sets up expectations…., very high expectations of others and not always yours the author, are then heard or asked about.
To me writing in fictional settings has got always a double layer and let us be honest we can name so many authors whose work we not consider of high quality. One glance at your own Goodreads-page you will find a book or even two you granted the maximum of stars that by others can easily shred to pieces. In the last few years there have been quite a few authors whose harvest of hard labour has been questioned by those who consider themselves highly qualified to do so and this for numerous but also not always straight forward reasons.
Those critics wrote down their opinions, suggestions, comments, outrage in newspapers, magazines or social media. The purpose of that specific writing was and still is not always clear to me. Still as always it goes in mysterious ways the internet and social media. So I tend to go with the flaw rather than having to over analyse every review that I come across. After all these pieces of writing are opinions. Just that and more than that...but just to be sure I once again I consulted Google:' Opinion pieces aim to persuade readers, spark discussion, and offer a specific viewpoint on a subject.’ Nothing more nothing less...just be clear.
In the year that marks the birth of Jane Austen I do wish to point out that writing is a very vulnerable action. Carrie Bradshaw is very much aware of that. She never ever asked Aidan to read a page of her novel…it seems as if she had already made up her mind when it came down him. She had already written inside her head chapters without him. Her writing was already ready to face the next chapter and all she had to do is be ready to say it out loud. That Miranda, the one friend she might have the most complex friendship with, is questioning Miss Bradshaw the author so openly and in a rather a 'cut someone's throat'-manner is perhaps another way for telling us that Carrie is ready to face the music.
Before ending this one I need to point out that Sarah Jessica Parker has been very honest about what the show has brought her. That Instagram post is a lovely wrap up and the images posted along with are such a nice tribute to her fictional character. Still…Mrs Parker made sure she got a lot more out of it then a few attempts to write a fictional novel. For one thing does Sarah Jessica get to keep a huge chunk of the wardrobe of Carrie has been been wearing over the last 27 years! She is going to own a Carrie Bradshaw archive that her twin daughters are going to be able to keep on diving into for decades to come.
To those lucky ones who own a pair of her SJP shoes that she might even have fitted you on in her now closed down store in Bleeker Street in NYC, please cherish them! They are the best 'Sex and the city'- souvenir and the ultimate attempt to let a mortal walk in someone’s else shoes. Carrie Bradshaw her shoes are together with her writing the proof that when we became vulnerable we are ready to face the music. Wrapping this post up I wish to use the own words of Sarah Jessica Parker in which she thanks all the people that have been walking along with here and put up with her story:’The symphony of all those emotions has been the greatest soundtrack and most consequential companion. Therefore the most sentimental and profound gratitude and lifetime of debt. To you all.’
Oh yes, Miss Bradshaw had a good run in those sparkly, fashionably, quirky, utterly expensive, colourful and so many more high heels. Nothing will take away from that…even not us questioning her writing that seems to hang by the threads and contains so many ‘wrong’ techniques that many specialist would start to curse out loud. Carrie Bradshaw might even know this…after all many of the stories this story told us exactly that. Deep down I do hope that in the last two episodes Carrie is not going to rewrite her novel. There is no need for that…and just like that she has finished her most personal and flawed chapter of her fictional life…one that many of not even dare to write about.
