Line #8 YMMV/SexAndTheCity


1	!!Tropes relating to the show.
2
3	%%* AwesomeEgo: Samantha.
4	* BrokenBase: Fierce debate still goes on to this day over whether Carrie or Charlotte was in the wrong in "Ring a Ding Ding". Was Charlotte a bad friend for not offering to help Carrie out, and a hypocrite for telling her she needed to "learn to stand on [her] own" while living in an apartment received as a divorce settlement? Or was Carrie [[EntitledBastard entitled]] for expecting Charlotte to bail her out of her self-induced money problems, disrespecting boundaries, and accepting Charlotte's wedding ring to sell as a down payment when the latter gave in?
5	* CatharsisFactor: Natasha giving Carrie an ''epic'' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, calling her out on ruining her marriage, causing her to severely injure herself and wrecking Natasha's lunch by gatecrashing and giving a very ItsAllAboutMe flavoured apology. Carrie can't do a thing but leave with her tail between her legs, knowing she deserved the whole thing.
6	** When Carrie storms over to Charlotte's apartment to demand why she didn't offer to lend her money, Charlotte points out that she is not responsible for fixing Carrie's finances and telling her she's thirty-five and needs to learn to stand on her own.
7	*** Charlotte later gives Carrie her wedding ring, which allows Carrie to make a down payment on her apartment. However we ''never'' see Carrie paying Charlotte’s loan back. (Which is something Carrie agreed to do).13
8	** Miranda calling Carrie out for going to Paris with Alexandr just to prove a point about how she's moved on from Big and telling her she's living in a fantasy land. She's proved absolutely right when Alexandr spends all day working while Carrie wanders around Paris alone and doesn't fit in with the culture, speak the language or have any friends out there.
9	* DesignatedHero: All four of the girls gets this to an extent at varying times, despite occasionally saying or doing questionable or even despicable things.
10	** Big also, often held up as some sort of romantic ideal even though he has many moments where he doesn't treat Carrie very well and basically stalks her after he's gotten married, showing incredible disrespect to her and his wife.
11	** Steve also, who's presented as a DoggedNiceGuy coming up against Miranda's bitchiness. Except that she made it clear that she wanted nothing more than their one-night-stand, which he responded to by essentially harassing her until she gave in.
12	* DesignatedVillain:
13	** Trey during his and Charlotte's disastrous marriage. While he was certainly far from perfect, Charlotte conveniently overlooked the fact that she rushed into marrying him, rushed into trying to have a baby two seconds after they reconciled, and went completely overboard with her efforts to procure a child once it was learned that she had fertility problems--infertility treatments, support groups, adoption lists, etc., nearly all of which she did without even discussing it with him. When an exhausted Trey asks if they can simply take a break from all the baby-making efforts, his completely understandable request is treated like a horrible betrayal and it's pretty much the beginning of the end for them. She dumps the blame for the failure of their marriage squarely on his shoulders and never once sees where she contributed to it. The closest Trey actually gets to being "the bad guy" in all this is when he gives Charlotte a cardboard cutout of a baby after finding out she can't conceive (which, despite being a joke, [[DudeNotFunny wasn't funny to her in the slightest]]).
14	** Natasha gets this in and out universe, with many people somehow seeing her in the wrong for having the audacity to marry Big.
15	** Miranda at the beginning of her relationship with Steve, for her completely justified annoyance with his refusal to take "No, I'm not interested in a relationship with you" as an answer and leave her alone.
16	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: TheMovie ostensibly had a message about rejecting the importance of labels (in both senses of the word), despite large chunks of the movie which are practically in-movie commercials for designer labels. The orgiastic display of wedding dresses ''alone''... In a larger sense, the series as a whole falls victim to this concept. We're supposed to be at least somewhat horrified by the narcissism and shallowness that's frequently on display, but the characters and their environment are a bit too glamorous for the "moral" to really take. Bushnell's original columns were considerably more trenchant in their appraisal of their social milieu.
17	* EscapistCharacter: On paper, Carrie Bradshaw would be this - she has a cool job, nice apartment, lives in Manhattan and goes to the hottest nightclubs frequently, has three awesome friends who show time and time again how close and devoted they are to her and she tends to date very good-looking, oftentimes well-off men. This may be why she's so widely disliked by fans of the show, since she still manages to be [[UngratefulBastard unappreciative]] and [[{{Wangst}} whiny]] despite all the good things she has, especially with her [[WithFriendsLikeThese frequently poor treatment of her best friends]] and boyfriends ''(especially'' Aidan).
18	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This American-made series was considered to be very daring and groundbreaking in its home country, the United States, for addressing issues of sex and relationships that other shows hadn't discussed before, especially from a female standpoint. Other viewers in the US watched it because they felt it was "hot" and "saucy". In Europe, the show was also appreciated, but more for its comedy and camp value and in an ironic way, because the fact that the main cast always have sex without removing their bras or with [[ModestyBedsheet sheets covering up their genitals]] [[CoversAlwaysLie still comes across as very prudish for a show with the word "sex" in the title]].
19	* HarsherInHindsight:
20	** Any time Carrie mocks Samantha or the two have a falling out falls into this when you consider how Creator/KimCattrall has made it clear the rumors of an ongoing feud between her and Creator/SarahJessicaParker were ''not'' fake and because of this, she has refused to return for a third movie while Creator/KristinDavis and Creator/CynthiaNixon are on-board. Likewise when ''Series/AndJustLikeThat'' came out Creator/KimCattrall wanted nothing to do with it. Many fans of Samantha Jones made up their own reasons of why she left New York because the reason ''And Just Like That...'' gave was extremely out of character for her.
21	** Big practically forcing himself on Carrie--grabbing and kissing her even while she pushes him away and says "Fuck you" (in other words, "'''''NO'''''")--didn't look right even then, and it sure as hell doesn't now in light of the sexual assault allegations made against Creator/ChrisNoth in late 2021.
22	* HilariousInHindsight:
23	** Creator/CynthiaNixon coming out as bisexual puts several incidents in the show in a new light:
24	*** Miranda's rather brash reaction to Samantha's (admittedly sudden) coming out ("Oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm a fire hydrant!"), especially considering that the way Nixon accepted it would end up being [[IronicEcho not too dissimilar to the way Samantha did, in fact.]]
25	*** An even better example of this is a first season episode where Miranda is assumed to be gay by a co-worker, who sets Miranda up with a female date for a company event. At the end of the episode, she considers how life would be much easier if she were a lesbian, testing this by kissing her same-sex date.
26	*** Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte once reacted to Carrie's GuyOfTheWeek being bisexual with reactions that nowadays would be considered extremely biphobic, complete with Carrie ultimately stating in a rather {{Anvilicious}} manner that she did not believe bisexuality to be "a real thing".
27	*** Perhaps most ironically given the aforementioned incidents, the sequel series ''Series/AndJustLikeThat'' actually [[QueerCharacterQueerActor makes Miranda bisexual like her actress]], where she has an affair with an assigned-female-at-birth non-binary person behind Steve's back.
28	** Berger's entire courtship of Carrie is shockingly reminiscent of [[Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia The D.E.N.N.I.S. System]],[[note]]Demonstrate value, Engage physically, Nurture dependence, Neglect emotionally, Inspire hope, Separate entirely[[/note]] to the point that you almost have to wonder if the creators were inspired by Jack Berger when they were creating Dennis Reynolds.
29	* HollywoodHomely:
30	** Miranda, though men aren't put off by her looks so much as her powerful career and a demeanor that intimidates and emasculates them (however, at least one guy in-show ''really'' finds that attractive).
31	** Harry qualifies as well, as he is rather homely, but portrayed almost as a hideous beast at times. And apart from rather terrifying back hair that appears in only one episode, he isn't really that far from some [[InformedAttractiveness apparently "hot"]] or not commented on-screen (but slept with) guys in the show.
32	* HollywoodPudgy: Miranda's "baby weight", Samantha in the movie after she gains -- at most -- five pounds. To the show's credit, the differences between the characters' usual sizes are at least ''visible''.
33	* IfItsYouItsOkay: Is Samantha really bisexual, or is Maria the one exception to her heterosexuality?
34	* InformedWrongness:
35	** Charlotte is painted as a self-centered jerk for not lending Carrie $10,000 and citing NeverLendToAFriend. Many viewers were on Charlotte's side, given Carrie's financial irresponsibility.
36	** Miranda, for continually rebuffing Steve at the beginning of their relationship. She made it clear that she wanted nothing more than their one-night-stand, yet she's supposedly wrong for getting increasingly annoyed with his refusal to accept this and leave her alone.
37	* LesYay: Carrie has shades of this with a guy's mother in the episode "Shortcomings". Carrie even notes that she was really breaking up with ''her'', not him.
38	* MemeticMutation: Woke Charlotte is starting to make its rounds online, with people using Charlotte to point out and correct the problematic things the others (mainly Carrie) say, such as Carrie's infamous statement of NoBisexuals.
39	* OneSceneWonder: Lexie Featherstone, an aging HardDrinkingPartyGirl played by Creator/KristenJohnston who appeared in the show's third-to-last episode "Splat!", in which she complains about how boring life has become to her before falling to her death from an open window. It went to the point that ''Vulture'' [[http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/sex-and-the-city-oral-history-splat-episode.html published an article about that episode.]][[note]]That's a pay-per-view site.[[/note]]
40	* PeripheryDemographic
41	** Gay men, famously, to the point it's almost considered more of a "gay show" in the popular imagination than it is a "chick show".
42	** Straight males, too. See TestosteroneBrigade.
43	* RetroactiveRecognition:
44	** [[Series/MadMen John Slattery]] as a politician Carrie dates for a couple of episodes.
45	** [[Series/{{Suits}} Harvey Specter]] is an artist who has a thing for filming the sex he has with models. Apparently.
46	** Miranda is presumptuously set up with a same-sex partner at her company ballgame by [[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} Sterling Archer]].
47	** After leaving Big, Natasha went to [[Series/BlueBloods law school]].
48	** That's [[Series/GreysAnatomy Bailey]] as the cop who allows Samantha to continue littering the neighborhood with flyers denouncing Richard as a cheater.
49	** [[Creator/KatDennings Maxine "Max" Black]] was the 13-year-old Jewish girl who hired Samantha to arrange her Bat Mitzvah party.
50	** A bleach-haired Creator/BradleyCooper as a guy Carrie hooks up with in an attempt to make herself feel young and carefree again.
51	** Miranda pretends to be an air stewardess in order to date [[Creator/ClarkGregg Agent Coulson]].
52	** Lew, the old friend Miranda encounters again in "Sex and Another City" is played by Sam Seder, who while never having left his acting carer, would later become more famous as a left-wing political commentator.
53	* RonTheDeathEater: Charlotte often gets lambasted for her ItsAllAboutMe attitude after learning Miranda was not only unexpectedly pregnant but also considering terminating the pregnancy. Though she reacted irrationally, the show had made it clear, and portrayed realistically, that she was in a difficult place mentally due to her stress over getting pregnant and blaming herself for her failure to conceive; but some viewers treat it as her simply throwing a petty tantrum.
54	** In a similar vein, some criticize Charlotte for putting herself in the place of Natasha while upbraiding Carrie for having an affair with Big when she wasn't involved. However, that was the only way for her to get the typically selfish and narcissistic Carrie to think about someone beside herself during the affair and understand how badly she was hurting and humiliating another woman and helping desecrate a sacred bond.
55	* TheScrappy: Unusually for a TV Show, a case can be made for Carrie - ''the main character.'' But watch any video of SATC online and the comments will be full of comments on about how petty, dramatic, selfish and whiny Carrie is, especially how badly she treats Aidan or takes her friends for granted.
56	* SpiritualSuccessor: There is a similar vibe at times to ''Series/AllyMcBeal'', albeit without the eccentricity and CGI. Samantha is much like Ling (perhaps even subconsciously lampshaded when she once represents Lucy Liu as herself), Miranda is much like Nelle, Carrie has some similarities to Ally, and Charlotte is like a more conservative version of Georgia.
57	* {{Squick}}:
58	** Charlotte walks in on Trey talking to his mother while taking a bath.
59	** While babysitting Miranda's son, the only way Samantha can get him to sleep is by using her vibrator as a rocker. Miranda walks in and sees it and says that it had better not be used (it wasn't).
60	** Samantha's subplot of one episode is the fact that her boyfriend's cum tastes like shit, but she doesn't want to stop giving him head. In the end, they reach an agreement that involves Samantha agreeing to only give him head if he's okay with eating his own cum.
61	* StrangledByTheRedString: Steve and Miranda. Throughout their on again/off again relationship, she seemed angry or annoyed at him most of the time, outright asking him "What are you, fucking crazy?" when he proposed to her after she got pregnant, explicitly saying that they were not in love--something he readily agreed with. They co-parent very effectively, but there's zero sign of them rebuilding their relationship. Literally out of nowhere, she declares herself to be madly in love with him and that he's the love of her life. She acts like a bitch to and about his perfectly nice new girlfriend, rebuffing the woman's sincere attempts at getting along with her, and ditches her own perfect new boyfriend to reunite with Steve. The whole thing comes across as though the writers just rushed them into it so that Miranda could EarnYourHappyEnding in time for the series finale. Justified because Miranda's character arc is her learning to [[DefrostingIceQueen let her guard down and open up to others,]] especially Steve. Steve's love for her is always clear, even when he dates other women, and there are hints even before Brady is conceived that Miranda is jealous of Steve's new flame but won't admit it.
62	* TestosteroneBrigade: While its male fanbase is often stereotyped as being [[FagHag composed primarily of]] CampGay men who watch it for the fashion, during its prime it also had a very large contingent of straight male fans, as it featured a ton of female skin and enough of the male perspective (at times) to occupy straight men's interest.
63	* TheUntwist: Samantha gets suspicious of Richard's absences from work and his late nights, so she follows him. TV convention would have it turn out that he's been planning some kind of surprise for her, but sure enough--especially given his playboy reputation--he's cheating on her.
64	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Charlotte regarding hers and Trey's disastrous marriage. First, she rushes into it within five minutes of meeting him and it inevitably falls apart just as quickly. Then, after they've reconciled, they get all of another five minutes of happiness before she rushes into baby-making. And when that doesn't work out, she goes completely overboard in her efforts to procure a child--infertility treatments, support groups, adoption lists, etc., all without stopping to ask Trey how he feels about any of this, leading him to confide in his overbearing mother, which she blasts him for even though she blabbed about their problems to ''complete strangers'', ultimately driving him away. Lastly, she foolishly quit her job before she even got pregnant and following her divorce, not only can she not get it back, but she's overqualified for everything else. This all sucks, but she's the victim of her own stupidity.
65	* ValuesDissonance: A couple examples regarding time and place.
66	** In the first few seasons, Carrie smokes cigarettes. ''A lot.'' Back when the series began, it was questionable -- but acceptable. Nowadays it would not be acceptable, and would be a major turnoff to a lot of dates. In fact, it appears that the series caught-on on this during its run, as she eventually weans herself off of them as she's dating Aiden, as it was indeed a major turnoff for him.
67	** Carrie's [[NoBisexuals attitude]] [[HolierThanThou about bisexuality]] also has aged poorly. While her beliefs--that bisexuality is a Gen-Y fad, that bisexuals are confused, and that identifying as a sexual orientation besides heterosexuality is a choice--were commonplace at the time of the show airing, it's especially jarring that a sex columnist is so ill-informed. Conversely, Samantha dismisses Carrie's dismissal of bisexuals (and her discomfort with her current boyfriend having a male ex), proposing a gender-fluid future of pansexuality in the then-nearing turn of the millennium; her viewpoint remains progressive even by today's standards.
68	** Similarly to Big's behavior mentioned above, there's Steve's behavior at the beginning of his and Miranda's relationship. Miranda makes it abundantly clear that she wants nothing more than their one-night stand, and he responds by refusing to accept it and hounding her until she gives in. This is obsessive and stalkerish behavior portrayed as sweet and cute, something that wouldn't fly today.
69	* {{Wangst}}:
70	** Carrie's ''endless'' whining about Big and how he doesn't do X for her can get very annoying. Also applies in-universe, as even her friends call her out on it after their second break-up in "Games People Play".
71	** Carrie's love interest Berger, when he starts feeling intimidated by Carrie's success. His reaction to Carrie pointing out a minor fashion mistake in his book -- and she loved and praised the rest of it -- is especially blown out of proportion.
72	** Carrie whining about Natasha and her friend giving her "the look" when accidentally bumping into them, especially because she and the audience knows she deserves it (she ''slept with Natasha's husband''), but she spent an entire episode bitching, complaining and practically stalking Natasha until Natasha [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech epically tells her off.]]
73	* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHerBack:
74	** A few examples, but most notably with Carrie and Aidan after she had an affair with Big. He was still deeply hurt by it, could no longer trust her, and in the end, they realized the damage was done and there [[AvertedTrope was no saving the relationship]].
75	** Charlotte telling Miranda that she likely won't be able to have children.
76
77	!!Tropes relating to the film:
78	* DesignatedHero: Carrie, whom the audience is ostensibly supposed to identify with and care about, is a self-and-shoe-obsessed character whom in real life would be an extremely annoying girlfriend/wife, and not a very good friend.
79	** Especially a KickTheDog moment in the second movie where, when Charlotte says it's not a wise idea for her to go out to dinner with Aidan, after all that's happened between them, Carrie retorts, "Okay, you're crazy, you are crazy in Abu Dhabi. Just because you're worried about your marriage, everybody's gonna cheat. Have a nice night." Poor Charlotte is almost in tears after that, and Carrie ''does'' end up kissing Aidan, so Charlotte was right all along.
80	*** And Carrie also said this in front of Miranda, who had Steve cheat on her in the first movie.
81	** And, as Big himself lampshades, she bitches him out in the second movie ''for buying a television'' and having the audacity to want to stay at home and watch it instead of going to parties all the time. Her treatment of Big overall is ridiculously petty and she comes off like ControlFreak, whining about him not wanting to go to the party with her, then going off to Abu Dhabi for two weeks without him.
82	** Samantha in the second film. She's blatantly and ''constantly'' disrespectful towards the culture of the country she's visiting, repeatedly refuses to put something less revealing on even when Miranda begs her, acts like she did nothing wrong when she's arrested for public indecency -- and ''then'' thinks it's a good idea to throw condoms at Muslim men on the way to prayer!
83	* HilariousInHindsight:
84	** The waiter in the first movie mistaking Miranda and Carrie for a couple when Cynthia Nixon is bisexual in real life.
85	** In the second movie, Anthony is going around telling people he is allowed to cheat...at his wedding to Stanford. Carrie asks Stanford if this is true and Stanford replies only in the 45 states their union won't be recognized. In 2015, five years after the release of the 2nd film, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legalized in the United States.
86	* StrangledByTheRedString: Stanford and Anthony. They hate each other on the show and are both annoyed that Charlotte assumes that they'd like each other just because they're both gay men. TheMovie plays it straight and [[PairTheSpares gets them together,]] while the second film opens with their wedding.
87	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The whole wedding fiasco in the first movie was nearly entirely Carrie's fault because she refused to listen to any input from Big and allowed the entire thing to turn into a publicity stunt, then refuses to let him explain himself when he gets cold feet for a few minutes. She spends the rest of the movie acting like she's been traumatized by what he did, even if it all could have been avoided if she'd just less of a selfish {{Bridezilla}}. It's even worse considering that Steve cheats on Miranda, but she manages to keep a StiffUpperLip and carry on as normal because she wants to make the separation as painless as possible for Brady, but the girls barely give her any sympathy over being cheated on by the father of her child.
88	* {{Wangst}}:
89	** When Big almost calls his and Carrie's wedding off in the first movie, Carrie's reaction is to go to bed sick and depressed like someone died, and Samantha at one point has to ''spoonfeed'' her while she basically looks like a victim of war or a natural disaster.
90	** In the second film, Charlotte is incredibly stressed out with having to raise her two children...except that she's a stay-at-home mother, ''and'' has a full-time live-in nanny to help her! Well, fair enough, we all deal with stress differently...but the big breaking point, where she has to hide from her children in a closet? Happens because her elder daughter gets paint on her skirt while they were baking cupcakes. A cream vintage Valentino skirt, which she decided to wear whilst baking cupcakes and finger-painting with her children. Not to mention, Charlotte was desperate for a baby in the series, but then when she finally has a child in the second movie that proves to be demanding, she seems to just shove her off on a nanny, which comes off as a little ungrateful.

Context YMMV / SexAndTheCity