Forget Paris
The other night I finally finished watching the last season of Sex and the City (thanks, Netflix). Not that I've ever been a big fan of this show, ok, I enjoy watching it, but my feelings on it are mixed to say the least, but the last two episodes were some of the worst television I've seen and it's supposed to be HBO, not TV!
After building their success on the show by basically cementing four stereotypes/caricatures of four women they decide that in the last episode it is time to let all characters grow in a completely different direction, sometimes opposite to what they have been the entire show. It's supposed to show us how they all evolved and stuff and so we can find closure real quick in the last couple of hours. It all turns out to be mushy mush, reminiscent only of the worst uninspired mediocre Hollywood endings and nothing more. Whatever. But the real coup, the tip of the ice berg for me was all that Paris sh*t. As a European I am so so sick of America's blind infatuation with whatever they believe Paris is, or of the handy melting of every single European stereotype with the French nationality. If I see Paris as an instant promise of unending romance in one more American movie I am going to p.u.k.e.
Let me explain. So our heroine, Carrie, falls for Aleskandr Petrovsky (played by Mikhail Baryshnikov), who is Russian of course, and also an artist and also he takes her to Paris to live in a fancy hotel with a view of the Eiffel tower! This alone is supposed to make every American female viewer reach orgasm, because, ohmygod how romantic is that?!! So she is just in seventh heaven, what with the sleigh rides and the poetry readings and the diamonds "the Russian" - as she calls him - showers her with. I mean who doesn't go for fairy tales at 17, uh, 37? But anyway, once she arrives in Paris she is obviously completely enamoured with all this, well, European stuff. Only then the Russian starts forgetting about her and we arrive at Part II of the American Paris/Europe fantasy: Turns out, Europe is weird and so are the Europeans and also their dogs that are allowed in the store and poop on the street and nobody picks it up and they all speak Foreign and are like, totally arrogant and they smoke! It's like... Europe is nice and all but it's not really real, like, it's nice to visit, but not to live, to live it's just way too... European, you know? And so then Carrie breaks up with Baryshnikow and her American cowboy (the New York kind) comes and rescues her and relief washes over her face, because he speaks English and is so down to earth and you can just feel all the hamburgers and big cars that lie in their happy happy American future together. Free from all the European dog poop. And the smoke. Ewww!
Am I exaggerating? You bet. As if I wasn't tired already of Carrie's supposed "search for real, over-the-top, breathtaking, inconvenient love", now they suggest this love would naturally, so obviously have to be found, where else? - in Paris of course! In the arms of a brooding Russian artist! She spends 6 seasons sleeping with guys she picks based on criteria like a) he is cute or b) he makes me feel cute, and then she is always so surprised they are not real-love-material! How dare they! There was nothing behind all that cuteness! Weird!
Well, it made for a mostly entertaining show, so I shouldn't complain. But please, let's not try to make some deep and significant statement about real love (in Paris!) at the end of a show that was about... sex and the city. And really nothing more.
Posted at 12:33 PM on June 16, 2005
lol. i can sympathise. Being English i find movies/tv in America always potrays the baddies being English, and then like in Independance day the British are standing around waiting for the Americans to save us. But more annoyingly, London is alway portrayed as being smog filled cobbled streets, and is like something out of victorian times - i guess that fits in with peoples olde worlde image of ye merry old England :) lol.
Extremadamente interesante tu blog, después de llevar varios años leyéndote, no puedo por menos que realizar mi primer comentario afirmando lo desastrosos que son los estereotipos.
hola daniel,
varios anos? si no te importa, me puedes decir como encontraste la pagina? no tengo mucha gente hispanohablante leyendo mi site.
I must agree with your assessment. Horrible finale.
Das war total witzig und doch so wahr! Mich würde mal interessieren, was Du zu all den Sound-of-Music-Sterotypes über Österreich denkst. Denn hier rennen ja alle singend in Dirndln herum, nicht wahr ... ;)
Si, casi desde que empezaste. Me encantó leer sobre cómo conociste a tu marido o sobre tu adaptación a los EEUU y sobre todo sobre tu hija.
Respecto a encontrar la página, simplemente busqué en Google Dinka Keglevic y el resto fue fácil.
Un saludo
Bueno, Daniel. Cuanto tiempo hace? 7 anos? Que es lo que te hizo salir de la anonimidad? Mi excepcional analisis del alma americana? De verdad no se que decir, me siento sorprendida por el pasado. Como ya sabes todo de mi vida, te toca a ti ahora. Mandame un email, a ver como te ha ido todo... si quieres, claro.
Ditto what Patty said.