Like most 20-something women, Sex and the City is somewhat sacred to me. When I first began watching, I was impressed by the main character Carrie Bradshaw: her career as a New York City sex columnist, her band of best friends, her free spirit, her love for love and, of course, her shoe collection all seemed so glamorous.
As the story developed, I realized that Carrie’s fashionable lifestyle (which would likely not be feasible for a real-life newspaper columnist living in Manhattan) is the only aspect that separates her from ordinary women looking for love. When push comes to shove, as it so often does for Miss. Bradshaw, it seems she’s really a dime a dozen.
Despite her good intentions, Carrie is not the character I should idolize. Mr. Big, the man Carrie eventually marries (spoiler alert!), proves much more level headed than his female counterpart, who acts impulsively on her emotions.
Big is portrayed as an arrogant, middle-aged divorcee with a job on Wall Street—“major tycoon, major dreamboat, majorly out of (Carrie’s) league.”
He travels.
In season two, Carrie and Big are dating exclusively—until he suddenly reveals to her that he is moving to Paris for work for six months. Carrie, who doesn’t leave Manhattan save for a daytrip to Connecticut or for weeklong trip to Los Angeles (she even skipped the Caribbean vacation Big planned for them), is shocked. She can’t imagine leaving the country for months on end. But, Big insists on putting his career before his relationship.
He knows what he wants.
Eventually, Big returns from Paris—with his new fiancé Natasha, an American socialite who happened to be in Paris for her job at Ralph Lauren. Natasha is much younger than Carrie, and while she and Big attempt to remain on good terms, there is nothing she can do to stop the wedding.
Carrie then starts dating Aidan, an all-American custom furniture designer, but it doesn’t take more than a few months before Carrie and Big begin their messy and stressful affair. While Carrie is torn between her two lovers, Big is ready to pick up the phone and end his marriage with Natasha at a moment’s notice.
Both characters are at fault in this situation, and they know it. But Big, who realizes that he’s not as emotionally connected to Natasha as he is to Carrie, is able to make a decision whereas (Carrie) remains confused and conflicted.
Big intends to tell Natasha himself, but upon coming home early (and unexpectedly) from her stay in the Hamptons, Natasha finds a half-dressed Carrie fleeing the apartment. Natasha resents herself for denying that there was an affair all along, and trips down the stairs breaking a tooth.
He doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him.
After Big and Natasha divorce following the affair, and Carrie desperately attempts to apologize to her, claiming that she never meant for any of it to happen. Natasha responds with a cold, “I’m sorry about it all. I’m sorry that he moved to Paris and fell in love with me…Now, not only have your ruined my marriage, you’ve ruined my lunch.”
Carrie and Big are finally married in the first Sex and the City movie, and his real name—John James Preston—is revealed. But, the happy ending doesn’t last long. In the second movie, Carrie and her three best friends are on vacation in Abu Dhabi, where at a street market she runs into her ex Aidan.
Aidan happens to be traveling around the Middle East at this time, buying Persian rungs to sell with his custom furniture. It’s such a strange coincidence, that the two of them plan to have dinner together than evening to catch-up
Against the better judgment of her friends, Carrie meets Aidan that night and he reveals that he is married with several young children. The two appear happy for each other, but what starts out as a polite walk home ends with a goodnight kiss.
Although they are angered when they hear the news, Carrie’s friends suggest she waits until morning to tell her husband—that is, if she decides to tell him at all.
Big is angry and very disappointed with Carrie; he cuts the phone call short and neglects to pick his wife up from the airport, contrary to his promise before she left.
Mrs. Preston is sitting alone in their apartment when Big returns late that evening. He hands her a jewelry box that contains a black diamond engagement ring, and she questions the motive behind this lavish gift. Big says that the ring is supposed to serve as a reminder that she is married, and that he chose a black diamond because she is “not like anyone else.”