As the Sun rises over the New York City skyline, viewers are transported to an early 2000s world in which fashion, luxury lifestyles and chain-smoking are considered the pinnacle of high-end culture. Gossiping about early-hour rendezvous in NYC consumes the lives of four hard-working single women — and viewers. The cult classic, “Sex and the City” is now on Netflix and the easily accessible nature of the monumental show is changing lives int both Fremont and the wider teenage community.
The show follows the dramatic and intimate personal lives of four very different friends — Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) — as they navigate maturity in both their romantic and platonic relationships. However, this brings up controversy, as the explicit material covered in the show isn’t necessarily appropriate for the teenage audience that is viewing the show. It has always been a polarizing show, sparking debates about feminism and the portrayal of women in the media. Now that it has been reintroduced through Netflix, “Sex and the City” has received a new wave of attention and criticism.
On the other hand, the iconic characters and influential fashion allow a look into, from a pop-culture standpoint, an iconic era of New York history. However, the exploration of the complexities of modern relationships is easily translatable to the modern landscape observed by many high school students, as the complex issues of sexuality, independence and love that are visualized through each of the characters’ lives, are still applicable today.
Many high schoolers find “Sex and the City” to be very relatable, “The Carrie Diaries”, is even more applicable to the lives of high school students. The Carrie Diaries tells the story of Carrie, the narrator of “Sex and the City,” with one of her beloved four friends when she was a teenager. Traveling every day from Connecticut to New York for her internship, Carrie fell in love with fashion, magazines and most importantly, the Big City. Now older and wiser, Carrie shines in “Sex and the City,” thriving in her role as a popular writer, detailing her and her friends’ relationship in her newspaper column.
The most important and applicable part of the show, however, is the idea of friendship. Through every up, down, triumph, and failure, the four friends stay by each other’s sides, proving that they’ll always have each other’s backs. This cultural cornerstone has many flaws, but its strengths and influential nature prove that it will always be one of the best television shows on the air.
