Sex and the City is one of the best TV shows of the 2000s, but even the real Carrie Bradshaw admits the show’s ending was wrong. Created by Darren Star and based on Candace Bushnell’s newspaper column of the same name, Sex and the City is a romantic comedy drama TV series that aired on HBO from 1998 to 2004 for six seasons.
Set in New York City, Sex and the City follows Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), a columnist for the fictional newspaper The New York Star. The show also follows Carrie’s best friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), as they all navigate adulthood, dating, relationships, and friendships the best they can.
Despite its flaws, Sex and the City was a huge success, and it’s now regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time. However, Sex and the City had a divisive ending that was only made worse by the movies, and even Bushnell herself agrees that the show should have ended differently.
Sex & the City’s Creator Knows Big & Carrie Wouldn’t Have Ended Up Together In Real Life
The main point of interest throughout Sex and the City is the love lives of the main characters, as they have different ideas of love, romance, and relationships. The main couple is that of Carrie and Mr. Big (Christ Noth), who meet in the first episode and, throughout six seasons, have an on-again-off-again relationship.
As entertaining (and many times frustrating) as watching the relationship between Carrie and Mr. Big was, the truth is that they are a toxic couple and would have been a lot better separated. Even Bushnell herself admitted in an interview with The Guardian that, in real life, Carrie and Big wouldn’t have ended up together.
There are so many moments throughout Sex and the City where it’s clear that Carrie and Big aren’t good together and for each other, so it’s hard to single out an exact moment that proved they should have broken up for good.
The ending of Sex and the City fits the show’s rom-com style and ultimately gives Carrie a happy ending, even if it became clearer in the movies that, while she deserved a happy ending, it shouldn’t have been with Big.
Why Sex & the City Had To End With Big & Carrie Getting Back Together
In that same interview, Bushnell mentions that, by the time Sex and the City ended, it had become so big that the audience was fully invested in the relationship between Carrie and Big. Bushnell added that viewers related to Carrie’s history with Big, so having them get back together for good was an ending for the audience.
Had Carrie and Big not ended up together in Sex and the City, there would have surely been a lot of backlash. It would have been understandable given that the show had just spent six seasons building that relationship, with its many ups and downs, but it would have been a more powerful ending to have Carrie on her own.
What made the ending of Sex and the City even more problematic was the movies, especially the first one, in which Big canceled their wedding just moments before the ceremony began. Unfortunately, the sequel series, And Just Like That, only made Carrie and Big’s story worse, but it’s a relief knowing that even the real Carrie knows they shouldn’t have ended up together.
Source: The Guardian.
- Release Date
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1998 – 2004-00-00
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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Darren Star
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Kim Cattrall
Samantha Jones
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Sarah Jessica Parker
Carrie Bradshaw
