Before I get into my questions, what were your immediate thoughts on the show?
The first few episodes were kind of slow for me. I was confused about the structure. Then episodes five, six and seven, I got really into it. The lore of Carrie and Mr. Big is really relatable, and I love their story line. Even though I think he’s toxic.

What’s relatable about it?
Second-guessing if she should be in a relationship with him, or if she has the right to “have him to herself.” A lot of people think that way, especially within college hookup culture. But also I’m like, What are you doing?! She can be so dumb. [Laughs.] She, like, hates women. How old is Big?

At least ten or more years older than her. And she’s like, 32, I think.
She’s in her 30s?! I don’t know, this relationship is just not what I want for women. But she’s cool. She’s got great outfits. Great tits.

She really does. Are you experiencing it as a sort of time capsule that can teach you about a specific era? As something that feels close to your experience? Something totally fictional?
As I’m watching, I have no fucking clue if any of it is normal or not. As someone who lives in New York in this age group, is it authentic to your experience?

No, it does not feel like my life. But I’m curious how you’re taking it in.
I think it’s similar to how and why I’m watching Friends. It’s so of its time and everyone’s seen it and it’s something that everyone has been watching for decades. And it’s a part of pop culture. I just want to understand the pop-culture references. There’s a TikTok right now [laughs] … It’s an edit, clips set to music, about Carrie and Mr. Big’s lore. It’s so … beautiful? It’s like, “There Big was, on whatever street, wearing Armani on a Sunday,” and it’s set to “Take My Breath Away.” [She sings.]

So you’re watching it as a source document to better understand TikToks.
That sounds so horrible. [Laughs.] Not to understand TikToks but to relate to most people who have seen it. Like Friends, everyone has watched it and talks about it. Maybe not my generation but yours. I think I enjoy it as an artifact. It’s interesting to look back and try to understand why people liked it so much when it was coming out. A lot of my friends haven’t seen Sex and the City. I wonder what will happen now that it’s more available. But yes, I also wanted to understand the behind-the-scenes of that TikTok.

Do you predict it becoming more of a Gen-Z thing now that it’s on Netflix?
I think the first step is the fact that there is a viral TikTok. That’s so sad. I fear that nowadays that’s the warning sign that this is about to be something Gen Z fixates on for two or three months.

Do you know what happens at the end of Carrie and Big’s romance? Does the fancam go into the new series?
No!

So you have no clue what happens.
No. There’s a new series?

There’s a reboot.
With the same people?

Mostly, minus Samantha, because they feuded in real life.
Wow. I have a lot to get through. And the movies, too.

It’s really diminishing returns, quality-wise, from the end of this show to the movies to the new show.
Does it mess with timelines? I worry about that.

No. It’s all canon. It doesn’t “make sense” per se, but it doesn’t mess with timelines. Do you see the gender politics of the show as retrograde? Or do you feel like you can relate to them?
That’s a good question. I was kind of shocked by the outward misandry. It felt ahead of its time in that way. Now we’re in a place where man-hating humor like that, people are angry about it again. I was shocked it was happening as early as the ’90s and early 2000s, and then it was really acceptable for a while, and now it’s not anymore. That outward, straight-up humor about the different sexes — among my friends, we make jokes like that, but not as much in pop culture. I wonder how Gen Z will respond to that in general.

Will they be Gen Z about it? Like, “This is wrong!”
I think they’ll just be like, “This is outdated.”

What do you think about the show’s treatment of women?
That’s another thing I’m struggling with because I think that — maybe unintentionally — it’s not very feminist. It’s definitely misogynistic at times, and a lot of it is pretty stereotypical. And they mask it by making jokes about men, so it’s not so overt. I’m not upset about it, but maybe an average Gen-Z-er would be. Though when the women are talking to each other about sex, it does feel empowering. But then again, everything is about heterosexual sex, and examining the male mind. Was this show written by a man?

Does it feel like it was?
Sometimes.

The show’s creator is a man, though there were women on the staff.
It definitely does not pass the Bechdel Test. It fails. It’s like, can you engage in any other discourse? Like, what about politics?

What’s the most confusing thing that you’ve seen on the show so far?
I wrote down two things in my notes. First of all, their apartments are huge and too nice. There was one man’s apartment with a spiral staircase, and I was like, “That’s not real.” But in terms of the sex — what’s the brown-haired woman’s name? Charlotte? When the man keeps pushing her head down to give him a blowjob, that was sort of shocking to me. I wrote down, “The blowjob thing is so wack.” She isn’t mad that he’s pushing her head down; she’s just like, “I don’t like giving blowjobs.” I can’t believe she wasn’t like, “Stop fucking pushing my head down!” I was so bothered. I was like, He’s fucking forcing you! This seems like a crime. 

Also I wrote down: “I can’t decide if Big is hot or not.”

That’s sort of the quintessential Sex and the City experience. You’re in it. Do you find the show “cringe”?
I don’t think it’s cringe. Just more shocking. Miranda is weird as fuck. She’s always being weird. I’m like, Girl, keep it in the drafts. You don’t have to say all that. 

There’s a party line about Gen Z being more prudish, having less sex. Does that bear out to you watching this show? Like, “We’re not fucking as much as they were in the ’90s.”
Yeah. Completely. [Laughs.] I mean, it’s literally one, two men per episode.

Does the way they talk about sex feel like the way that your friends talk about sex?
Totally. With my close friends, we’re all really open about sex and have big group conversations about what’s normal and what’s weird. So the dynamic feels familiar. Except they roast each other so much on the show. I’m always like, Damn! 

Are you a Charlotte, a Carrie, a Samantha, or a Miranda?
I think my personality is like Samantha. But not in practice. I’m not sleeping with Realtors in their apartments that they’re showing potential buyers. But I like her vibe. She’s a leader for her group of friends in a way that I think I am to my group of friends. People come to talk to me about sex and relationships because of my mother, shout out my mom, and my sisters, shout out my sisters. People think I’m wise, but it’s really just because of the women in my life.

Aw, that’s nice. Which man from the show would you want to date, if you had to?
Hmm … God, they’re all so horrible in their own way. Maybe Skipper??

Not Skipper! Not this.
Maybe I don’t want to date him. But we could hang out.

Skipper is low-key an incel.
No! I think he’s just weird.

Who would you least want to date?
The blowjob guy. And then the guy that Carrie sees for an episode who really wants to marry her and brings her to his housewarming. And that guy who was filming all of the sex with models that he had to make an art exhibition. I guess, like, go off Samantha for wanting to do that, but I would not want to do that.

Talk about a crime!
Was he not getting their consent?!

I don’t think so.
Oh, then yeah. Definitely not him.

Are you watching it while you’re on your phone? You can be honest.
No, I was giving it my full attention. I’m gonna get roasted for this, but I was watching it with my boyfriend, and we were both not on our phones.

What does he think?
He liked it. I haven’t told him that I’ve moved on to watching it without him.

What do you think of the clubbing and the restaurants and the way they all go out? Does that feel dated?
I don’t think it’s dated, but it’s not realistic for people of their means. There’s a whole episode about Carrie being poor. Also, that sounds so fucking miserable — going to a restaurant that’s also a club and you sit at a table the whole time. Nobody ever dances on the show. They’re all just like, sitting at a table. Do people actually do that in New York?

People do. One of the bigger criticisms of the show is that it’s really not diverse racially and its representation of gay people is narrow and stereotypical. Is that something you noticed this early?
Oh, yeah. There are only white people and the gay stereotypes are wild. In contrast, though, the episode about threesomes was very casual. That was interesting — the way they depict gay men but are casual about having a threesome.

For sure. It gets worse. There’s a later episode where Carrie is hit on by Alanis Morissette and freaks out about bisexuality. But then Samantha does have a lesbian relationship.
Wow. Thanks for the spoiler!

Sorry. Did the episode where the 20-something guy has no toilet paper resonate with you?
Yes. It reminded me of a frat house. They go hard on the no toilet paper.

Yes, that’s Union Square — in 1901, as they were building the subway. More amazing photos here.

It will allegedly stop raining later tomorrow morning for a while. This afternoon-evening’s Today in Tabs notes a rare Condé shut out at the National Magazine Awards last night; I hadn’t noticed, I was just happy that Insider won for this completely unreal video about how we use dogs to control and attack prisoners, right here in the U.S. Teach it in the schools! Play it at jury duty!

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