Gen Z is watching Sex and the City for the first time. Our discovery? Carrie is a terrible friend

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Kaitlyn Huamani April 12, 2024

Sex and

t

he City is now one of Netflixs most-watched shows as it settles into its new streaming home. Since the series

April 1move to debut on

the platform, a whole new audience

of viewers,

many of whom werent born when the show premiered

on HBO in 1998 , changing the TV landscape

is discovering it.

The comedy has been streaming on Max and on Hulu (through its Live TV plan), but the “Netflix effect” is unmatched.

The

quick-paced witty

humor, the relatable dating woes and the core

of

friendship that hold

sthe show

Sex and the City together make it a timeless treasure, and its starting to resonate with a new generation

, myself included

.

As a Gen Z woman trying to catch up on pop culture

phenomenons phenomena

like SATC that came before my time, Ive started diving into some episodes with friends. We laugh, we debate whether were a Charlotte or a Miranda and we wonder what it wouldve been like to carry

a

beeper

s

.

One recent viewing party gave me pause about my enthusiasm for the show

, though

. In

the episode Season 4’s “Ring a Ding Ding,”

Carrie

,

famously played by

Sarah Jessica Parker,

is dealing with some financial troubles. She

only

has

only

$957 in her savings account and cant get a loan

to buy her apartment back from ex-fianc Aidan., and she storms to Charlottes house to interrogate why she wouldnt When Charlotte doesn’t offer her money, unlike her two other best friends, Carrie storms into Charlottes apartment to interrogate her.

Carrie makes her financial burden Charlottes problem

,

and proceeds to shame her for not offering help. Its a bad look for her (and Im not talking about some of her more questionable fashion choices).

This scene reminded me of plenty of others where she behaves selfishly. And I couldnt help but wonder is Carrie

just

an awful friend?

Over the many brunches,

drinks Cosmopolitans

and city excursions that Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and

Samatha Samantha

share, Carrie tends to

lead shiftthe

conversations to revolve around her problems. If shes not complaining about work or money, then shes complaining about Big. Or Aidan.

, O

r how awful she feels

for about

cheating on Aidan with Big.

Her girlfriends address this with her many times throughout the show, most notably when they gently suggest she should see a therapist. I dont need therapy, I need new friends, Carrie replies before

she insults insulting

Miranda and

proceeds to call calling

therapy self-indulgent.

The discourse over Carries own self-indulgent behavior has become a popular topic on TikTok

, with . R

ecent videos

that

highlight

ing

Carries worst moments or

calling dub

her the villain of the show

, getting have netted

hundreds of thousands of views. The SATC Reddit page is also bustling with first-time viewers

questioning and

calling out her behavior.

In o

ne resurfaced

viral

clip

,thats picked up a lot of steam is an instance when

Carrie makes Charlottes engagement about her own breakup. Her

ex boyfriend Bergerdumped dumps

her via a

P

ost-it note

, and . At lunch,

after Charlotte shows off her new engagement ring, Carrie

takes the sticks the

break

–

up note

, puts it over on

the ring and says, Paper covers rock, signaling that she only

wanted wants

to talk about herself that day.

The re

–

examination of Carries character is

not nothing

new. A blog titled Carrie Bradshaw

I

s the Worst that started in 2019 has been posting a detailed breakdown of Carries

questionable

behavior

in from

practically every episode. As the

show’s

original audience

of the series

grows up and rewatches the

show series

, taking a closer look at the revered characters

and their qualities

is natural.

Traits that once seemed like quirks suddenly take on new meaning.You can only watch the same episodes so many times before you pick up on things you didnt quite catch the first time around.

Carries missteps and flaws all boil down to

how she consistently didnt her inability to

show up for her friends when they need

ed

her

(when Miranda hurts her neck after getting out of the shower, Carrie sends Aidan, who finds Miranda naked on the bathroom floor)

. Whether shes skipping out on dinner plans with the girls to hang out with Big or dismissing their relationship issues

so she can to

talk about her own, she often doesnt provide the same level of support and empathy as the other women on the show.

Before I dove into the nitty -gritty details of each episode,

I had always thought (or hoped) there was a little bit of Carrie in me. She was a

big city successful

writer in

New York City

with an impossibly expensive wardrobe, a singular

fashion

style, good friends and a lot of spunk. From afar, her life sounded like a dream.

But once I started watching

the show

, I didnt want to identify with her at all. Were my

moments of complaining complaints

to my friends that whiny? Did I dominate group conversations like that? Was my writing that trite?

But maybe Carrie being a bad friend, making bad decisions and choosing the wrong guys

,

is the whole point. Maybe its easy to dislike Carrie because she represents the parts of ourselves that we dont like. Maybe Carrie is there to teach us to take a step back and recognize our own flaws.

And just like that,

Maybe Carrie isnt so bad after all.