Sex and the City Complete Series Dvd Review
Sex & the City: Complete Collection
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What a bizarre phenomenon Sex and the City was. (The past tense is used hither with a feeling of great promise.) Outset on HBO in 1998, the series' setting tells us everything nosotros need to know about it: late 1990s New York. In other words, right smack dab in the middle of New York'due south Giuliani era, a fourth dimension when the streets were cleaned up and made condom for immature women to leave their apartments dressed exactly every bit they pleased. Now that Times Square'southward pornographic smorgasbord had been transmogrified into a family unit-friendly Walt Disney spectacle, ladies of means were unaware of the irony that freed them to utilize their vaginas in means that the fear of rape had previously prevented. Also, this was earlier 9/xi, when New York became a TARGET and a focal indicate in America's newfound suspicion of Muslims (a suspicion that was slow to pitter-patter its way into the world of Sex and the City, showing upwardly in the second feature picture in an extremely uncomfortable form). The first three-and-a-half seasons of the serial were about young women in a wonderland vision of pre-ix/11 New York, an extraordinarily decadent fourth dimension and identify that enabled the frivolous, dream-like lifestyles of these four amoral characters and rewarded viewers with that particularly insidious form of self-hate that only indulgence by proxy can produce. But the show did capture a certain reality - these characters lived fantasy lives that were not wholly untenable during that time. When I moved to New York in 2000, I experienced some of the intoxication that Carrie Bradshaw often feels in the evidence, and it wasn't just because I was a kid from the suburbs living in the Large City - information technology was considering it was a fourth dimension of great wealth, conviction, and indulgence. The technology nail had enormous influence on New York'due south economy, and everyone seemed to be riding high in spite of the fact that the bubble was nearly to burst. And so I can't fault the show'southward first few seasons as far as their embrace and glorification of that period, because that is what the times were well-nigh: spending shitloads of money on utterly needless things and going wild in the streets with frenzied carelessness. What is odd, nevertheless, is the consistency of the show's tone over the next two-and-a-half seasons, or the series' post-9/11 catamenia. Carrie and her iii compatriots hardly acknowledge the events of that engagement (there are one or ii fleeting references). Couple 9/11 itself with the economical problems that were already developing, and there was no way of escaping the fact that the 1990s were unmistakably over. Only Sex activity and the City never best-selling this. The show continued to showcase lavish behavior at its most indiscreet, heedless of the demands of money, or the fear that gripped New York for years afterwards the day of the attacks. In this way, Sex and the Metropolis morphed from a fantasy rooted in reality to a delusional daydream, and this willful denial on the part of the show's creators and characters built into a crazed explosion of whorish decadence by the fourth dimension the series reached the big screen. By this betoken, the characters themselves had been abased and replaced by caricatures of flamboyant drag queens on holiday. So the show began as a social portrait of a particular moment, but when that moment passed, it never adjusted, leaving its characters looking deluded and immensely trivial. But I was never the show's target audience, which will lend any review I write a sure prejudicial cast, at least in the eyes of its most devoted fans. Still, notwithstanding the somewhat philosophical objections above, I enjoyed much of the series. The prove'due south forcefulness was in its ability to create odd situations, to acquit off a sure witty flair, and to keep fifty-fifty a 30-ish married hetero male person interested plenty to stop off all half dozen seasons. The movies, however, are, as I suggested above, another story. They are nothing less than grotesque self-parody, abandoning the series' character-based approach to storytelling, and veering unwaveringly into the high camp we associate with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Myra Breckenridge. In the first film nosotros encounter Chris Noth'due south Mr. Big behave in an incredible out-of-grapheme manner when he gets momentary cold feet. This kind of central character inconsistency is a trademark of both films, which fling all plausibility out the window in favor of hyper-lush accoutrement, exotic settings, and bodily fluid jokes. I felt strongly most including another voice in this review, given that my ain fairly strident stance represents a male viewpoint and because the bear witness has such a devoted post-obit. So I decided to interview the member of that following to whom I happen to be married. He: I understand that you are a fan of Sex and the City. When did you starting watching information technology? She: I started watching information technology sometime in 2001. The first episode I saw was the one where Carrie goes to Los Angeles. Afterward I saw that episode I rented the first season and started watching it from the start. He: Okay, a quick Wikipedia search tells me that the LA episodes were in 2000. It was the third season. Those were skilful episodes. She: Yep. I watched them on DVD at my friend Madeline'south house in LA. He: Perfect. You probably idea you were going to see McConaughey at Starbucks. Hoping. She: Aye, that dreamboat. He: So what appealed to yous about the show? And what kept you lot watching all half dozen seasons? She: I was single at the time, so initially it was funny because the girls on the show were having a lot of the aforementioned dating problems my friends and I were having. I watched the outset iii seasons with my roommate at the fourth dimension, Becca, and we both identified with the "bad engagement" thing the show did so well at the start. As the show progressed, so did the characters, and it became less about being single and more near their relationships with each other and the men in their lives. He: So you lot could notice parallels in your own life and the lives of your friends, and so you identified with some of this stuff. She: Sure, like you would identify with any one-act. It is only funny when there is some truth to it. He: Merely women answer differently to Sex and the City than men practise. I e'er idea the prove was pretty funny, and enjoyed it when it succeeded in the storytelling section. I found the principal characters quite grating, however, and often had a hard fourth dimension empathizing with them and their "struggles." Did you like the characters? She: When we watched the whole show together all at once, I definitely grew more than irritated with the characters than I did when I only saw a few episodes at a time. When I first started watching, we were renting discs, one by ane. I call back there were iv episodes per disc, so information technology forced usa to take a break and watch information technology over a longer flow of time. The second time around it definitely got difficult to picket Samantha take sex over and over and over again. Information technology is different watching a grapheme exercise that over a span of six years vs. a few weeks. But yeah, I liked the characters. Carrie was abrasive at times, merely her flaws created much of the plot. She was as well the easiest to place with in a sense considering she was the least exaggerated character on the show, and then she had that working in her favor even when I was frustrated by her. He: Sure. What did you make of the male characters on the prove? Were they as realistic as the females? Were they treated the same? She: The show definitely gave the women the ability. The exaggerated male characters more often than not came off equally kind of sad and idiotic. They never really got into what the men on the testify were thinking, and then you lot never really empathized with them. He: I was put off by the grotesque indulgence of the female characters, which contradicted all of their moaning about how tricky men were. I mean, perhaps a shallow woman who gets all excited virtually $900 shoes and has to have them doesn't deserve her Mr. Wonderful. I too thought it was bizarre that when Carrie and her friends are together, their mouths are like these dislocated flapping gab-holes, but then when Carrie sits down at her computer, she'due south total of this sudden wisdom, like some spoiled white Oprah. She: I don't think the testify was meant to be realistic. The behavior and lifestyles of the characters were an exaggerated fantasy. The point was that every girl loves her shoes and has splurged at ane time or some other when she shouldn't have. I recollect 1 of the reasons the show was then popular is that it was the first time a television show really sided with the women's indicate of view. In a lot of ways I recollect that Sexual practice and the City did for women what Playboy did for men in the 1950s. It allowed us not to experience guilty for wanting $900 shoes, hating infant showers, and resenting married friends. Playboy did the same thing for men who did not want to have a family. Both things idealized a lifestyle that had previously been seen equally deplorable or taboo. He: I think those points are actually skillful. Allow's move on to the movies. Did you feel they were a off-white continuation of the serial? She: Sure. I know the second one got terrible reviews merely i thought they both stayed true to the series. I call up the trouble with the movies is that the actresses had gotten so old. It was depressing seeing them human action the same manner as they did ten years ago He: Yes, and the characters didn't mature. She: Exactly right. The characters did not evolve. He: I had a problem with Large's beliefs in the first 1. His momentary "cold feet" set the whole plot in motion, but it was so different him. She: Agreed, I thought that part was out of character as well. I wished they had thought of a different way to get to the same point. I idea most it afterward and information technology was really important that the audience empathise with him so they could forgive him afterwards. He: What almost the 2nd movie? It seems like it was fabricated only for gay men. She: The whole show was made for gay men, by gay men. Me: Do y'all hope there will be another movie? She: I don't really care. The series seems kind of done to me. I'm not sure what else they could practice with it without abandoning the whole thought of the testify. He: Maybe they could wait 20 years and do 1 where they are all grandmothers and get trapped inside a posh manor with a murderer for a weekend. She: Yep, perhaps y'all don't know whether or not Large did it, simply Carrie is accusing him. He: Yes, peradventure Big could kill Steve. Yelling, "Shut up, yous whiner!" while bludgeoning him. She: Right. And Charlotte could be trying to calm everyone down. He: With tea and cakes. I think if at that place's another Sex and the Urban center movie, all iv leads should have to show their vaginas. You lot know, to "close the loop." She: Gross. He: The whole show is about vaginae and you never see one. It's a cop out. She: Information technology was on Goggle box, Casey. Tv. The DVD Sex and the City: The Complete Collection arrives in a sturdy, well-designed box. The outer board case has a wrap-around style with a magnetic flap closure. The interior of the box has a book-like design, with each "page" being of heavy carte stock, housing two discs each, which are pulled out with thumb and forefinger from the open edge of the "page." Removal and replacement of the discs is slightly cumbersome, and necessitates ane touching the underside of discs in the procedure. Information technology'due south far from an optimum state of affairs, although an alternate design method utilizing popular-out trays would have required packaging with much larger overall book. In that location are a full of 20 discs in the ready, which include all 94 episodes of the series, plus the ii feature films. There is likewise a new bonus disc featuring a ninety-minute writers' roundtable discussion. Missing is the bonus disc from the 2-disc DVD edition of the starting time pic. Image and Sound At that place are no surprises here. The total-frame serial looks very good and surprisingly motion-picture show-similar at times. Colors are vivid and blacks are deep. There is generally very negligible prove of compression; the enhanced 1.85:i image for the films is even better, given their recent release. The evidence'southward stereo soundtrack is clear and assuming. Bonus Content All of the extras are here from the previous releases, plus the new writers' roundtable. There is plenty of bonus content here for fans of the show, although merely the roundtable will be new to owners of the previous box set. Final Thoughts A landmark in numerous means, Sex activity and the City established a formidable cultural legacy, one that has been somewhat undermined by the feature films, especially the second one. But the series itself was and is entertaining, hilarious, and pregnant. Those who already own this fabric in some form can safely skip this release; for neophytes, it's recommended. 
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