Movies Coming Soon: Sex and the City

The ladies of HBO’s signature, sex-obsessed sitcom “Sex and the City” are back, and coming soon to an out-of-town mall theater near you; somewhere these characters would usually never go.

After years of rumors about a reunion that sometimes seemed to rival that of the Beatles, all of the original players are back on board to show us the proper ways to live and to love in the only city that matters. The movie picks up right where the series left us: Mr. Big rescued Carrie from the clutches of a vain French prince and yanked her back to New York City, where she belongs. Career-minded Miranda settled down with ever-patient Steve in their townhouse in Brooklyn, of all places. Super-WASP Charlotte is still trying to start a family with hubby Harry “Who-sits-on-the-white-sofa-naked” Goldenblatt; and sex-obsessed Samantha found true love, against her will, with a white-hot actor half her age. And they all lived happily ever after. Or maybe not.

If these last four years without original episodes of “Sex and the City” have left you with an empty feeling inside, or if you’ve forgotten some of the more salient details of the ladies’ love lives, there’s an easy way to catch up.  HBO’s Web site for the series is one of many sites (but arguably the best) that offers a complete plot synopsis for all 94 episodes. On HBO’s site you can get background information on each character and the actor who plays them (Click on the picture of the actor to get the character’s story, click on the actor’s name for their bio.) There’s also a guide to where the girls shopped, drank, ate and found romance.  Short of finding single, available men waiting to take you out on a date, what more could you ask for?

Sarah Jessica Parker, who got her start in television on the 80’s sitcom “Square Pegs,” play’s Carrie, and is also one of the film’s producers.  She’s had an interesting ascendancy to stardom, including playing “Annie” on Broadway and a lot of second-banana roles in other people’s star vehicles.  “Sex and the City” was her first real chance to start as the romantic lead. People.com has a brief life-in-pictures bio of Parker. 

If each of the four main characters of “Sex and the City” represent four aspects of the modern female psyche Carrie (love), Miranda (career), Samantha (sex), and Charlotte (romance), then Candace Bushnell, the writer who’s material this show was based on, must be pretty well versed in all four.  Bushnell, a leggy blonde, whose weekly column in The New York Observer was the jumping-off point for the series, might be considered an urban sexual anthropologist.  “Lipstick Jungle,” one of her four subsequent novels, all mined from the same vein, has also been adapted for television.

Admit it. You’ve thought about it and discussed it with your pals. And they’ve had the same thoughts about you too. Are you more of a Samantha (sexual predator) or a Charlotte (damsel in a dress)?  Or, do you find yourself putting your career before your love life, like Miranda?  To find out which character you most resemble, and to put the issue to, bed once and for all, take this brief quiz.