What are we watching?

I must admit that I am not a "Sex and the City" fan. This obviously has an impact on my opinion, but I am speaking with some authority because my fiance received this DVD collection as a gift and I sat through the episodes with a fairly open mind.

I've seen the show before on several occaisons with mixed feelings. The appeal is of course the sexual themes and ideas, running concurrent through the different storylines but one concern that repeatedly arose was if I was actually getting anything out of the experience. What value did "Sex and the City" provide that was worth my time, and even more so, spending money to purchase the series on DVD?

I would be remiss if I didn't say that I felt that this particular show is nothing more than glorified pornography. The characters are defined well, but very shallow human beings with little real direction or substance. "Samantha", played by Kim Cattrall, comes off as nothing more than a witty nymphomaniac who repeatedly manages to infuse the entire group with her lack of regard for her own body, as well as her persistence to degrade herself whenever possible.

The main character, played by Sarah Jessica Parker is a columnist who writes about sex for a living. Each episode features the subject of her column as it relates to her three friends. Each episode begins with a slightly interesting premise but slowly collapses into total disaster. By the end of the show, Parker's character, "Carrie", manages to justify her complete lack of integrity as a lesson learned in the art of dating. The true irony is that she is featured in one episode as presenting a seminar to single women on dating and discovers that she herself remains an amateur, despite her belief in her own success. Over the course of the show, her success consists of two long term relationships, one with a married man and then another with a genuinely good man, whom she cheats on with her ex-boyfriend, the forementioned, married man.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this product to anyone. It contains interesting characters, clever storylines and a rather blunt approach to sexuality. At the same time, it possesses no faith in the notion of marriage or any kind of long term relationship because none of the characters are capable of anything of the sort. "Carrie" always paints herself as the sympathetic character in spite of the fact that she consistently makes bad decisions and puts herself in the situations that she spends the majority of the episodes lamenting. With divorce rates higher than ever, this television series presents nothing to the viewer but an outlet for sexual frustration, nothing more. Its dismal outlook on relationships and sexuality degrade the very things that make human relationships so sacred. The only positive thing that I can say is that rumor has it that the show is ending after this season. Certainly a guilty pleasure, but do not waste your money on such nonsense if you wish the television networks to stop producing it.