two syllables: 1) cop- and 2) out.

i'm referring, of course, to the last episode of sex and the city.

i'll preface these remarks by saying that the rest of the show's characters progressed and finished very satisfactorily. miranda, for instance, bathing her stroke-afflicted mother-in-law? very nice--far from the woman who panicked at having to move to brooklyn. (brooklyn? the horror!)

but the fact is, the ending for carrie infuriated me. the writers cut short the arc of her character, and even deprived her of a sort of feminist heroism they had halfway contrived for her. not only did she end up with the man who broke her heart countless times, and left the man she moved halfway across the world for, just because they had a disagreement, but the reason she moved back to new york was for that dirty heart-breaker, and not for her friends. i could stand things not working out with petrovsky and her moving back to the city if she had done it for the right reasons--realizing her life was with the women she loved in the city she loved. but instead she had one fight with her boyfriend and runs away towards the convenience of an old flame and a familiar life. cheesy, at best; pitiful at worst.

my perspective on the mr. big situation (whose name turns out to be john--another cop-out) is that a person who screws you over once will screw you over a hundred thousand times. so he showed up out of the blue again and told her he loves her--again. easily said and easily done. so he flew out to paris to find her. for a multimillionaire, also equally done. but where's the evidence that anything's different? carrie had a slight, culture-shock-induced setback, and she ran away, right into the arms of another heartbreak. and that's the real tragedy: she didn't progress as a character beyond the juvenile fantasy of "true love" with big. instead, she fled from the risk and the opportunity for growth presented by a major life-change, and retreated to the safety of the past. how disappointing. this was supposed to be the show that debunked all the myths of how women live, love, and think. but if this last episode represents the truth, i feel sorry for all the women i know (and love). if they're still clinging to those tired ideas about the one man out there who a girl is destined to be with, no matter how much he stomps on her heart, they need to get their heads examined. for my money, you learn from your experiences and you make choices that affirm you as a person, not ones that set you up for future failure born of past failures. carrie was supposed to be this modern woman who was breaking the conventions and taking no prisoners. instead, she just fell into the same old tired pattern of a woman beholden to the life she's led and the men leading her. for shame.

but here's to the women i know, who wear less ridiculous outfits, spend less ridiculous sums on shoes and drinks and cabs, live real lives, work real jobs, and make real choices in this life. any fantasy they live is their own, and god bless them for it. i just hope they turn out to be mirandas, samanthas or charlottes, and not the tired retread that is carrie bradshaw.

find another show on sunday night with me,
TR