By the time that Sex and the City came to an end in , the entire TV-watching population had already considered if they were a Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, or Charlotte β regardless if they had ever seen the show or not. With Girls β that other HBO series about four female characters living in New York β ending on April 16, the Girls series finale is bringing me back to when Sex and the City ended, but also to the inevitable comparisons that have persisted and desisted between these two shows over the years.
Even before Lena Dunham's TV series premiered, it was being compared to its predecessor Sex and the City , something that Dunham embraced by having Shoshanna assess which Sex and the City characters Jessa and she were in the very first episode. But as the years have passed, people have been less inclined to state which Girls character they are like they had previously done with Sex and the City. And it turns out, the reasons for that are more complicated than you'd think.
When Sex and the City was on the air β and in the years after β which character you thought you identified with was almost as telling as which character you named. For example, if you said you were Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, I'd probably assume you were a bit self-centered β not just because that was a trait of Carrie's, but because you picked the lead of the show. As a Carrie person myself, I say this with no judgement.
If you said you were Cynthia Nixon's Miranda Hobbes, I'd probably assume you had a superiority complex β yet again, not just because that was a trait of Miranda's, but because you chose the less obvious character. However, regardless of which character you named or the fact that there were only four women to choose from once you included Kristin Davis' Charlotte York and Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones, debating which character you and your friends were provided hours of entertainment and thoughtful insight.
At first, I thought this might be exclusively because the Girls characters are often considered "unlikable" β even for people who like the show. After all, the characters being unlikable is nothing new and certainly isn't a surprise to the people who create the show.
