CarlD2, on 28 December 2009 - 05:52 PM, said:
This man shows up, passed off as perfection, and quickly tells Carrie what she can and can't do. I just didn't buy it, and the whole thing was very condescending towards Carrie. I didn't think SJP and John Corbett had enough chemistry and I thought the story was too focused on telling us instead of showing us. The whole thing seemed to amount to pathetic Carrie can't allow herself to be happy, when I thought many people, not just Carrie, would have issues with this idea of happiness.
Who told her what to do? Aidan?! Aidan was very caring and truly loved her. But they were from very different worlds and had different aspirations. Carrie could never abandon the rush and chaos of the City and leave it to live a peaceful and serene life somewhere in the country. Even if it's for 3 or 7 weeks a year.
I have to tell you that I disagree strongly: they
had chemistry, he loved her and she loved him dearly too. Their relationship had an arc, everything that happened, all the beats were realistic and had lots of heart. Remember the letter she wrote to him? It was visible on the screen only for a few moments, but someone froze the screen and retyped it — that sentence
Just know that I'm thinking about you, and I miss you, and I'm still sleeping on your shoulder when I close my eyes at night....

You may say it's sappy, sleazy, cheap, sugary... But it's not. Then that
You broke my heart! scream, she running away terrified... So many moments... The decision not to marry... Her final encounter with him...
I never saw it as Carrie not allowing herself to be happy. Where did you see that? What made you think so? I never ever heard anyone say something even remotely resembling that statement.
CarlD2, on 28 December 2009 - 05:52 PM, said:
The last few seasons. I didn't think they had the same spark as the first few years. I felt like the women as they were by that point were friends only because the script said so, not because of a believable connection. By that time Charlotte had someone she was much closer to than the girls (the Mario Cantone character), she had a husband she loved, a child or children on the way. Most of what she had spent time with the other women for seemed of the past. Yet she still sat around and listened to Samantha joke about her labia.
I think Carrie became so forced over the last few years that she didn't have a believable connection with much of anyone.
The problem with the last two seasons was that guy Jack Berger and Aleksandr Petrovsky. Jack was just terrible, terrible. She would never feel the "zsa zsa zsu" or whatever

let alone fall in love with him! He was just selfish, darkish, nasty at times and just plain — a bad match.
Aleksandr Petrovsky and him signified a shift in the tone in that the series wanted to be "artsy", full of art bullocks and what not. It was full of sugar and it didn't suit the show. She falling for an older, mundane, rich Russian artist, then going away to Paris, "the city of love", blah, blah. Suddenly she lost her "edge" and became this art-loving, sophisticated serene counterpart of an artist. That was just
bad. She
was sophisticated in her own, more "urban" way.
But even in all that, it had good stuff.
What I always loved, and you all may laugh and roll your eyes, were the narrations, voice-overs and questions. Questions were great, un-pretentious (yes) and dealt with many of life's dilemmas. So there.
Charlotte did love Cantone's character, but you can't really compare him to the girls. Her friendship with Samantha, and you'll recall they had their feuds and disagreements, transcends the signature Samantha sex talk. If it's a picture of real life, then that was just a part of what these women discussed over dinner or lunch.
This post has been edited by Sylph: 29 December 2009 - 08:27 AM