I heart Big

Dave and I have spent the past several months catching him up on Sex and the City, that is to say we started at the very beginning and have been slowly working our way through the entire series, in order. Last night we watched the very last episode. It's very interesting to get a man's perspective on the show. Here are a few of Dave's observations/thoughts:

• Why don't we ever see the girls' parents*
• Why are the girls' only other friends who we see on the show gay men
• Why don't we ever meet the boyfriends' friends
• He agrees with the "men are like cabs" theory**

I had a conversation with one of my girlfriends yesterday that got me to thinking about my own reactions to the show. Though I have seen each episode about 100 times, I find that I never become bored. I think I've finally figured out why: each time I watch a given portion of the show, I have a slightly different response to it based on what is going on in my life at the time. When I was in Hong Kong I watched the show obsessively because I was homesick and any glimpse of the city was like a soothing cup of herbal tea. When I went through a bad break up I watched the beginning of season five. From fall of '04-spring of '05 I was comforted by Charlotte's conversion to Judaism. This most recent go around, I found myself relating to Carrie's feelings when she moves to Paris for Petrovsky and he doesn't spend enough time with her (though my own version of these feelings have mostly subsided).

Yes, I know, it's just a TV show. But to me, it's so much more. It's friends, it's laughs, it's home.

* The show's producer Michael Patrick King addresses this in one of the "commentary" segments that he provides for selected episodes (yes, I have watched them all). He says that the show is supposed to be about the girls, that they are the focus, parents need not appear.

** "Men are like cabs. They drive around dating women and picking them up, but their light isn’t on. When they want to get married, they turn their light on. And the next woman they pick up, they marry."