\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThis is it \u2014\u00a0Carrie Bradshaw is hanging up her Manolos this week as And Just Like That\u2026 <\/em>draws to a close.<\/p>\n \n\tThe revival of the wildly popular series, which saw Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis return to the streets of Manhattan, became a divisive show. Some fans resorted to hate-watching, hoping any glimpse of Sex and the City <\/em>magic might be re-conjured before it was too late.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd while Kim Cattrall declined to return for Michael Patrick King\u2019s three-season HBO reboot, there\u2019s no denying these women defined a television genre and guided a generation of women through sex, love and friendship in the chicest way possible.<\/p>\n \n\tParker\u00a0dazzled as stylish sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw, Nixon as the cynical and straight-talking lawyer Miranda Hobbes.\u00a0Davis began as a glamorous art curator, Charlotte York, before becoming a Park Avenue princess, and Cattrall was perfectly provocative as the sex-positive publicist Samantha Jones.<\/p>\n \n\tYou name it: anal sex, STIs, marriage, divorce, babies, abortion, cheating, swinging; they covered it all. By its season six finale in 2004, Sex and the City<\/em>\u00a0had garnered over 10 million viewers per episode, making it HBO\u2019s second-most-watched show at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tIn honor of these women \u2014 who we laughed, cried and sipped Cosmopolitans alongside \u2014\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>presents a definitive list of the show\u2019s best episodes across all six seasons. Honorable mentions include a multitude of Carrie\u2019s flings, namely fellow therapy-goer Seth (a gorgeous Jon Bon Jovi) and high school sweetheart Jeremy (David Duchovny), but a conventionally attractive man guest starring cannot and should not guarantee a spot on the all-timer list. Justin Theroux\u2019s premature ejaculation problem in \u201cShortcomings\u201d also nearly made it, as did \u201cHop, Skip, and a Week,\u201d where we get what might be the most romantic scene in the entirety of Sex and the City<\/em>: when Charlotte and Harry tearfully rekindle at a Jewish singles mixer.<\/p>\n \n\tReader, restraint was exercised.\u00a0What remains below is pure television gold.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s in this episode that we come to understand Big and Carrie\u2019s dynamic for exactly what it is\u2026 with the help of Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. The women are talking about Big\u2019s engagement to the twenty-something-year-old Natasha, who is tall, brunette and, in their words, \u201cplain.\u201d They make a direct comparison to the 1973 film The Way We Were<\/em>, and Carrie decides she is exactly like the over-complicated Katie (also, she notes, a fellow curly-haired girl). She is too much for Big, a man in need of a simple partner. It all culminates in a rather oddly-choreographed scene where Carrie reaches out to touch a confused Big\u2019s face, quoting the movie: \u201cYour girl is lovely, Hubbell.\u201d Famously, he doesn\u2019t get it. But something in Carrie has healed, and the world\u2019s complex women are validated.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tIn true Miranda and Steve fashion, the pair get engaged over $3 beers while getting lunch. But it\u2019s Sex and the City<\/em> we\u2019re talking about, so the focal point of the episode is Carrie getting the ick from Aleksandr Petrovsky. Once again, the show goes above and beyond in its dedication to depicting all of the dark corners of the female experience, and that includes suddenly feeling a bit grossed out by your hot, Russian boyfriend. Obviously, she forgives him when he gifts her a stunning Oscar de la Renta gown for the opera. When Samantha gets checked ahead of her planned breast augmentation, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. What happens in the last 10 minutes of \u201cThe Ick Factor\u201d is excellent writing: Samantha, calm and composed, breaks the news to Carrie on the way to Miranda\u2019s wedding. But Miranda demands they talk about it at the reception, forfeiting her \u201cperfect\u201d day if it means being able to support her friends: \u201cYou are my people and we\u2019ll talk about it now. Start at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tThis episode makes the list for the sheer masterful craft in writing that we\u2019re privy to when Carrie\u2019s on her way to her first date with Big. We\u2019re four episodes in with these women and this cab ride paints them exactly as they are, for us \u2014 the audience \u2014 to gobble up and digest. Charlotte, a romantic, is shocked by her new boyfriend\u2019s request that they have anal sex. Carrie collects the girls on the way, much to Charlotte\u2019s chagrin. Miranda, forever the realist, is pragmatic: \u201cIf he goes up your butt, will he respect you more or respect you less? That\u2019s the issue.\u201d Samantha chimes in, in true party girl fashion: \u201cThis is a physical expression that the body was designed to experience \u2014\u00a0and P.S., it\u2019s fabulous.\u201d In one simple scene, we know these women like friends. Charlotte responds: \u201cWhat are you talking about? I went to Smith!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tStep right up, step right up as Carrie works her way through the twisted men of New York. It\u2019s an apt analogy for the complete lottery that is the modern dating pool, and taps into all of our biggest fears about putting yourself out there: who is this person, really<\/em>? Thankfully, Ben (a showstopper of a heartthrob, played by Ian Kahn) surprises Carrie, whose previous run-ins with the city\u2019s clowns have turned her into a hyper-paranoid freak, too. There\u2019s so much more to this episode that makes it indicative of the brilliant, semi-debauched television Sex and the City <\/em>offered up so effortlessly: Charlotte dates a man called Mr. Pussy, known for his talents in the cunnilingus department. Samantha, meanwhile, wants fat from her butt injected into her face.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tCarrie falls, spectacularly, on the runway for a charity fashion show. When an actual model follows up behind and awkwardly steps over her \u2014\u00a0\u201cshe\u2019s fashion roadkill!\u201d \u2014 we see Carrie at her very lowest. But she picks herself up and holds her head high at the end of the catwalk. The Venn diagram of Charlotte and Samantha overlaps wonderfully when Charlotte, who has been told by the doctor that her vagina is \u201cdepressed,\u201d works up the courage to get a good look at her vulva in a mirror. Simultaneously, Samantha has nude photographs of herself taken to hang around her apartment. But best of all is Miranda, completely dumbfounded by a man at the gym who calls her sexy \u2014 Cynthia Nixon is so charming when she\u2019s wielding Miranda\u2019s intelligence to feel confident.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tCarrie comes to see her affair with Big is nothing but secret sex in seedy hotel rooms, and it all comes to blows when Natasha walks in on her at their apartment. She chases Carrie out, and after tripping down some stairs and chipping her tooth, Bridget Moynahan brilliantly improvises trying to lock Carrie out of the cab on the way to the hospital. Finally, Carrie is confronted with her humility \u2014\u00a0or lack thereof, and we see some semblance of remorse. This is after she\u2019s had a blunt telling off from Miranda, of course (those two are at their best when sparring). Elsewhere, we meet wedding planner Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) for the first time. Samantha meets the male version of herself, but is spooked when he asks if she\u2019s had an HIV test. Here, the show \u2014\u00a0set in New York at the turn of the millennium and written by openly gay men \u2014\u00a0offers up our only glimpse into how stigma and fear around the disease still loomed large.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tEnter, Aleksandr Petrovsky. Mikhail Baryshnikov makes his debut as \u201cthe Russian,\u201d cold, artistic and sultry. But it\u2019s Kristin Davis who shines in \u201cOne.\u201d Charlotte proudly declares she\u2019s three weeks pregnant after a long time of trying with Harry, but later miscarriages. She sits emotionless on her sofa, and Carrie runs to be with her friend, though is unable to provide her solace. While this is happening, Miranda is facing up to her feelings for Steve (aided by a giant \u201cI Love You\u201d cookie given to her by an out-of-this-world handsome Dr. Robert Leeds), and Samantha is experimenting with a \u201cfull bush,\u201d per Smith\u2019s preference. Unable to drag herself to Brady\u2019s first birthday party, Charlotte finds inspiration in the story of Elizabeth Taylor, and pulls herself out of the haze to put on a Taylor-esque pink dress and march to Miranda\u2019s house. She tearfully, bravely, joins in the celebration. Steve tells Miranda: \u201cYou\u2019re<\/em> the one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cShe shoe-shamed me.\u201d Carrie Bradshaw, defender of childless women everywhere, earns her right to splurge when she puts up a fight against a friend. Kyra (Tatum O\u2019Neal) refuses to pay for a pair of Carrie\u2019s Manolo Blahniks that go missing when Kyra requests guests remove their footwear for a party. Carrie tells her they cost $485, and Kyra says she shouldn\u2019t have to fund Carrie\u2019s lavish lifestyle. Carrie tries to reason, asking her to recall when she wore Manolos too, but Kyra responds: \u201cWell duh, that was before I had a real life.\u201d Viewers rightly argue that Carrie be allowed to live her life however she likes \u2014\u00a0whether she has children or not \u2014\u00a0and Kyra should not be shaming her for it. Kyra eventually coughs up with a new pair of Manolos in an episode dissecting money, agency and motherhood.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tReleased after 9\/11, \u201cI Heart NY\u201d swiftly became a poignant tribute to the people of New York. Viewers often joke about the city being the show\u2019s \u201cfifth character,\u201d (I recall this even being poked fun at in a Brooklyn 99 <\/em>episode), but it\u2019s true and never more apparent than in this episode. Carrie poetically voice-overs about the crisp, fall air swooping into the city and is devastated to find out that Big is leaving for Napa. Big is <\/em>New York, so this bombshell blows her head off, but it also gives us a tiny bit of insight into Big\u2019s childhood when the two dance to old records together while packing up his apartment (anything to humanize the man, please). Richard begins to chip away at Samantha\u2019s defenses, and Miranda and Steve bring baby Brady into the world. Our gals are growing up!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tHow did Sex and the City <\/em>know that 20 years on, insecure men would still be finding the most cowardly methods possible to dump women? The infamous post-it, which Berger uses to break up with Carrie, captured singlehood hell in all its glory. She rightly decides that break-ups are far too easy for men, though women are always expected to have gone through some kind of personal development in the wake of an unsuccessful relationship. At the same time, Miranda is serving up major relatability by freaking out over fitting back into her skinny jeans. The women celebrate at the opening of a hot new club, Bed, where Carrie can\u2019t help but confront Berger\u2019s friends. We cringe because we are <\/em>her, deep down.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tAidan returns and he\u2019s totally rocking the short hair. Carrie attends the opening of his and Steve\u2019s new bar, Scout, and decides she wants to revive their relationship. But John Corbett\u2019s performance is one for the ages: reserved, resentful, reflective. His heartache bubbles under the surface for the episode\u2019s duration (\u201cYou BROKE my HEART\u201d is the next episode). Miranda tells the girls that she thinks a ghost is haunting her apartment \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a little on-the-nose, but there\u2019s something about the metaphor, perhaps Nixon\u2019s frightful tiptoeing, that gives the unfinished business between her and Steve (and Carrie and Aidan) a real, gnawing sadness to it. Charlotte goes shopping for beds with the MacDougals, and Frances Sternhagen is, as always, utterly enchanting as Trey\u2019s mother Bunny. \u201cThis is diviiiiine,\u201d she tells Trey; Sternhage and Davis settle into a fantastic season-long stand-off.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tBill Kelley, come home, the kids miss you. This episode was the best of Sex and the City<\/em>: Carrie is in total First Lady mode \u2014 outfits and all \u2014 as she continues to follow \u201cthe Politician\u201d (a wonderful John Slattery) on his campaign trail. He remains one of the only men she dates across the series to rival Big in power and NYC prominence. Miranda is dealing with the fall-out of Steve adorably asking her to \u201cgo steady\u201d and Samantha is coming to terms with seeing a very, very short man. There\u2019s something oddly elegant about the intersection of sex and politics in Carrie\u2019s world, a subject so ripe for juicy material. But as soon as the show dips its toes into fetishes, her prudish nature takes control and she dumps Bill for asking her to urinate on him in the shower. You\u2019re a sex columnist, Carrie! Still, it\u2019s in this episode we get the fabulous Samantha Jones line: \u201cI don\u2019t believe in the Republican party or the Democratic party. I just believe in parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tCarrie is reeling from her first Big break-up \u2014\u00a0literally \u2014\u00a0but we\u2019ll still not forgive her for fumbling one of the most eligible men on the entire show. Mark Devine plays the perfectly shy and ridiculously handsome \u201cnew Yankee,\u201d Joe, at a baseball game Miranda drags them to. The four of them sat on those bleachers is an iconic scene: our cynical redhead is screaming at the umpire while the other three drink, wallow and talk about balls. Somehow, Carrie gets Joe\u2019s number and takes him to the Dolce & Gabbana party where we see her in a fabulous (one of her best) blue dress, and, reportedly, her beloved \u201cCarrie\u201d necklace for the first time. It\u2019s the perfect SATC <\/em>episode: fun, fashionable, flirty \u2014\u00a0and surprisingly affecting. Darren Starr & Co bring it home in the final act, when after weeks of fearing the worst, Carrie\u2019s vision quite literally blurs as Big strides up to her while out with Joe. It\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve met since they called it quits, and there\u2019s no hiding from that familiar, gut-sick sting of running into your ex. Heartbreak, eh?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tDevastating performances from Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall anchor this episode. Carrie and Aidan begin to brawl with a candidness we\u2019ve never seen before, but everyone\u2019s problems are dwarfed when Miranda rings from Philadelphia to say her mother had a heart attack and died. Amidst sheer panic \u2014\u00a0Samantha worries she\u2019s \u201clost\u201d her orgasm and Carrie frets about her broken laptop \u2014\u00a0Miranda is reckoning with never seeing her mother again, aptly depicted when she tussles with a bra shop assistant: \u201cI think I know what\u2019s best for me!\u201d Samantha, despondent and seemingly incapable of showing any second-hand grief for her friend, comes to learn she has her own issues with mortality to confront. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she mouths to Miranda when they lock eyes at the funeral. \u201cThank you,\u201d Miranda responds. They\u2019ve always silently understood one another.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tIt wouldn\u2019t be a complete SATC<\/em> highlights list without the finale. Smith continues to prove why he is undoubtedly one of the show\u2019s best men by supporting Samantha through the ups and downs of chemo. She tells him he\u2019s meant more to her than any man she\u2019s ever been with. After being let down by a couple who decide to keep their baby, Harry takes a call from the adoption agency and tells Charlotte there\u2019s a little girl in China in need of some parents: \u201cThat\u2019s our baby!\u201d she cries. Elsewhere, Miranda shows up for Steve in the biggest way yet by giving his sick mother a place to stay and be cared for. Carrie isn\u2019t coping in Paris and things worsen exponentially when Petrovsky mistakenly (?) slaps her. Luckily, Big comes to the rescue and this years-long situationship comes to a satisfying close (not before Big jogs around a Parisian hotel looking for a Russian to punch). It\u2019s a fairytale ending for our shoe-obsessed writer.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is it \u2014\u00a0Carrie Bradshaw is hanging up her Manolos this week as And Just Like That\u2026 draws to a close. The revival of the wildly popular series, which saw Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis return to the streets of Manhattan, became a divisive show. Some fans resorted to hate-watching, hoping any<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1485,2065,9259,4113],"class_list":{"0":"post-15732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-episodes","10":"tag-ranked","11":"tag-sex"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\u201cEx and the City\u201d (Season Two, Episode 18)<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe Ick Factor\u201d (Season Six, Episode 14)<\/h2>\n
\u201cValley of the Twenty-Something Guys\u201d (Season One, Episode Four)<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe Freak Show\u201d (Season Two, Episode Three)<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe Real Me\u201d (Season Four, Episode Two)<\/h2>\n
\u201cRunning with Scissors\u201d (Season Three, Episode 11)<\/h2>\n
\u201cOne\u201d (Season Six, Episode 12)<\/h2>\n
\u201cA Woman\u2019s Right to Shoes\u201d (Season Six, Episode Nine)<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Heart NY\u201d (Season Four, Episode 18)<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe Post-it Always Sticks Twice\u201d (Season Six, Episode Seven)<\/h2>\n
\u201cGhost Town\u201d (Season Four, Episode Five)<\/h2>\n
\u201cPolitically Erect\u201d (Season Three, Episode Two)<\/h2>\n
\u201cTake Me Out to the Ball Game\u201d (Season Two, Episode One)<\/h2>\n
\u201cMy Motherboard, My Self\u201d (Season Four, Episode Eight)<\/h2>\n
\u201cAn American Girl in Paris: Part Deux\u201d (Season Six, Episode 20)<\/h2>\n