“Sex and the City” was a groundbreaking, sometimes controversial, and hugely popular HBO show that debuted in 1998 and aired its last episode six seasons later.
Now, a few movies and a spin-off series later, the original “Sex and the City” is having its Netflix debut — and its debuting for an entirely new generation.
Many other shows, like “Friends” and “Suits” — have found a whole new audience in Gen Z with their Netflix runs. But will Carrie Bradshaw and her cohort of single friends get the same warm welcome?
The Show talked to Amanda Kehrberg, a Ph.D. student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication who studies digital culture, about her own relationship to the show.
Full conversation
AMANDA KEHRBERG: I came to it a little later. I was in my 20s, and I was, I think it was probably studying film and TV, you know, in my master's program, while I was watching it. So I learned it both from a personal perspective and from just like, a cultural like, what this meant to the medium perspective.
And so I think, like, people really forget we wouldn't have Walter White if we didn't have Carrie Bradshaw, absolutely, like, such a foundational show for, like, the golden age of television, for prestige TV, and for complicated protagonists, like people that you rooted for, even though they were super, super messy.
And that's the thing I think about Carrie Bradshaw, and like, particularly, seeing that in a woman protagonist on TV was so important, such a huge step forward. So, like, even when you look back at her now and you cringe and you say, Oh, she's got so many flaws, like, but yeah, that was kind of the point. Yes, exciting. Yeah, yeah. She was a real person. She was someone that could be both aspirational and relatable at the same time.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So what do you think that show meant to, you know, the generation that it was from, like this, late-90s, early 2000s kind of run that it had?
KEHRBERG: I think that we were coming into an era so defined by the rapid pace of technological change and how that kind of connected with cultural change and what it meant for women stepping into these these cities with, you know, new career aspirations, and what that had to do with new romance aspirations and kind of figuring out how we were all going to reconnect and connect with each other in new ways.
And part of, I think that change had to do with much more of a focus on self identification and self actualization. And I, honestly, I looked this up, but I would say that "Sex and the City" is the foundational program of like the BuzzFeed. Which character are you?
Quizzes like, I know astrology came first, but I want to say, before you were a Cancer, you were a Carrie, yeah, 100% like Charlotte, yeah. Like it was just, it was so much a part, I think, of like how we began to define ourselves more and more by our connection to media, and how incorporated that was into our daily lives, and how helpful it was to have these kinds of fictional characters that you felt reflected you, but in a way that was like also powerful and exciting.
GILGER: So, now it is being released on Netflix more than 20 years later, and to a potentially, you know, entirely new audience, potentially an entirely younger audience, right? Gen Z. What do you think Gen Z might make of "Sex in the City"?
KEHRBERG: I think, I think they will be very happy with the progress we've made. But I hope that they will take it in the spirit in which it came out that it is, you know, it's so funny, because, like, I think Marilyn Monroe, people tend to think of her as this, you know, voluptuous sexual figure, and, like, absolutely yes, but like, what I love about Marilyn Monroe is, in her movies, she is like a gal's gal. She's a best friend, she's, like, amazing I love, just like the women's friendships of her films.
And I think that's the thing to kind of remember about this. Like they're all these messy people having messy romantic lives, but they're there for each other, like, so as an example, like, look at it as a celebration of authentic, messy women's friendship. Like, they're there. They're eating chicken out of the trash. They are breaking up people's marriages.
And, yeah, that's not the best thing. Like, we don't necessarily say, like, this should be your moral role model, but, but there is something really sweet about the way that at the end of every episode, they still come together and support each other and have brunch. Yeah, and have brunch. And I think if there's one thing Gen Z certainly understands as well as our generation did, it's brunch.
GILGER: I mean, it's an interesting moment for it to land on Netflix, because there have been a lot of other shows of my generation, of our generation, right, that have really found a new audience with Gen Z. Tell us a little bit about those. Like, do you think "Sex and the City" will be received in the same way?
KEHRBERG: No, I don't think quite. I think there's gonna be a lot more discourse around "Sex and the City," like there was some certainly around "Friends," which found a massive new audience in its Netflix run. Recently, this week, we've also seen "White Collar" drop on Netflix at the same time, which they're hoping will have kind of like a "Suits"-style run.
But yeah, I think what it speaks to is the way that we watch television, and especially the way that Gen Z consumes content is very different. And so I think the shows that kind of break out when they get to their Netflix run are really well adapted to that. So when we see Suits or I would say "White Collar" makes sense to break out too, you have shows that went on TV at a time when you'd get one episode a week, you would have to wait for the next one, and there would be commercial breaks.
So like, they're not exactly things that you have to pay really, really close attention to to follow. They're not like the prestige TV that we get these days, where you get like, limited series or a short season, and you better know what is happening. You're gonna watch every one you're gonna talk to everyone about it. Yeah. Yeah.
These are the kinds of shows that, like Gen Z, love to just have something familiar they don't have to constantly look at. You can put the subtitles on. You can message your friends at the same time. You can play games. You can scroll through Instagram, and you'll still know what's going on. And I think that "Sex and the City" has a very relatable pattern to each episode, and so I think that you don't have to pay as close of attention.
And I think it being on Netflix too, like the way that we watch HBO NOW Max, that platform teaches you how to watch TV very differently than Netflix does, like Netflix knows you are doing other things, like you might be hanging out with people, you might be looking at your phone, and they'll show up and be like, Hey, are you still watching? But like, I just, I just wanted to check on you. Like, HBO is not gonna check that you're still watching. HBO is like, you better be watching.
GILGER: It's a very different way of consuming it. But I want to say, like, like, sexual politics have changed a lot. Racial politics have changed a lot since the city was on, and I think the creators of that show have tried to remedy some of that in the new version, right? The sequel version, yeah. But, but also, how do you think this is going to play with Gen Z? Like, is it going to be cringey for them?
KEHRBERG: I think it'll be a little cringy for them. I think that there's a lot of it that will probably feel sort of in a you know, way, like, well, this isn't really passing the Bechdel Test. And it's like, no, it's not. It's like, it's very, very focused on romantic relationships as, like, such a significant part of your life, and like, starting your life and defining who you are and defining who you are in relation to that romantic relationship.
But I think that's something that Gen Z has gotten more away from. But just like, the way that they meet people too is radically different, like they're not swiping on, you know, Hinge.
GILGER: Meeting people out at a bar. So, I mean, it brings up this broader question, right? Of like, looking at art, you know, through its as, like a time capsule, and like, what it means to look at it through a new lens when it's removed from that kind of cultural context. Yeah, and it can be a little cringy, but can we still love it and appreciate it for what it was?
KEHRBERG: I think we still can, but we have to recognize that, like, each new generation is gonna have the same experience of it, because we experienced it in our own, you know, time capsule as well, like and so sometimes we're looking back on things with the nostalgia, the feeling that we had when we first consumed it, they're not gonna have that, so they'll have a different take on it. But I think that's OK.
I think that that's something we all have to deal with perpetually with digital technology, because you digitalize anything, it can stay forever. It can go on any device. So like, that's sort of one of those main characteristics, this decontextualization. It's greasy. It slips and slides to a new context. So, like you're not always going to be able to do like a preface of hey, but this is the actual time.
So I think what we should remember when we try to lovingly look back at TV like "Sex and the City," is that we will, we will be the "Sex and the City." Our social media from within 20 years prior. We'll also slide into new contexts and be looked at by new generations, fair enough. All right, we will be looked at with love as well.
