DVD Review:
Sex and the City (Season 3)
Written by: Kage
Alan
Film Rating:
A-
DVD Special Features: D
A friend of mine, Andrew, was very excited when the first season of
"Sex and
the City" was being released on DVD. I'd never heard
of it before, but the
way he spoke about it made me curious enough to buy the first set. It
was,
in a word, fabulous! It still is. One of my
other friends refuses to watch
the show because he feels it's about a bunch of whiney women bitching
about
how evil men are and then having them portrayed that way in the
episodes.
Well, some men are evil and the stereotypes exist for a reason. Fortunately,
"Sex and the City" explores as many stereotypes about women
as it does men,
only from their point of view. That alone makes it unique
in my mind.
I had very high expectations for this season. By rights, it
should have
outgrown its infant first season and
"we-have-to-give-it-our-all-to-survive-second-season"
expectations and come
into its own for this season. Fortunately, it does just
that. Carrie (Sarah
Jessica Parker, "L.A. Story"), Samantha (Kim Cattrall,
"Split Second"),
Charlotte (Kristin Davis, "Sour Grapes") and Miranda
(Cynthia Nixon, "Little
Darlings") all go through their own personal hells,
embarrassments, triumphs
and tragedies. This season tended to be a bit more dramatic
than the
previous ones, but it is, as always, surrounded by some hysterical
moments
while revealing truths that many of us can relate to.
Carrie still hasn't gotten over Mr. Big (Chris Noth, "The Glass
House") and
his engagement, which soon turns into a marriage. She does,
however, find a
fantastic new boyfriend, Aidan (John Corbett,
"Serendipity"), who offers her
everything that Big didn't. It soon becomes apparent that
Big isn't happy in
his marriage and would still prefer to be in Carrie's company. Do
you see
trouble brewing? Samantha starts to worry about life's
little mysteries,
like menopause, and does her best to keep a high compliment of men on
hand to give her pleasure. There's the guy who likes his
women in a swing, the one
on Viagra, the one whose member was used to create the mold for a
dildo and
the one who's just barely legal and shares her same name.
Charlotte, meanwhile, is tired of meeting all the wrong men and tries
to get
her married friends to set her up with single bachelors they know. It
backfires, but moments later she meets Trey (Kyle MacLachlan,
"Twin Peaks"), a rich surgeon with a heart of gold who might
just be "the one". Instead of everything being
like a fairytale, she proposes to him instead of Vic versa, he says
"alrighty", and they're off to the altar. Things
are never that easy, though, and difficulties arise. Miranda
is still the high-strung one
in the group. It's a bitch of a character flaw and tends to
ruin her
relationship with Steve (David Eigenberg, "The Mothman
Prophesies") and all
the ones that follow. Steve isn't without his fair share of
flaws either, so
it's not entirely her fault.
It may not happen again, but the season ended on a very positive note
instead
of a huge heavy dramatic one. All the girls had personal
demons to try and
shed and a downer at the end on top of it all would simply have been
too
much. We needed to have that little sigh of relief that
hopefully the worst
has come to pass. It probably hasn't, but at least we can
look towards
Season 4 with some optimism when it gets released. I don't
have HBO, so I'll
be waiting for the next box set so I can watch it all in a period of
three
days. Fun fun fun!
HBO has delivered this season in the same impossible-to-close plastic
casing
that the previous two have come in. The program may be
fabulous, but the
packaging isn't. Furthermore, the full screen transfer
tends to have some
grain showing in darker scenes and the colors in the brighter scenes
don't
look nearly as good as they should. The audio quality isn't
bad, so that's
at least something they've done right. Now, one would think
that, being the
third season, HBO would include some decent extras. One
would be wrong. The only extra is an audio commentary by
one of the writers on four of the episodes. Without having
anybody else to play off of, his comments are
hardly insightful and would have been better if they were combined
into one
instead of spread out over 4. Other than that, no
interviews, no featurettes,
no nothing.
Andrew and I have been talking for over a year now about which
character we
might mirror in the show. He claims he's...well, not the
one I'd say anyway.
Maybe we have a little bit of them all in us, but if I had half as
many
tricks as he does "Sex and the City" is an extremely
insightful and very
blunt sort of show. I've enjoyed the journey it's taken me
on and appreciate
what it's pointing out to us. And let's face it. It's
hysterical!
Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been
featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies,
been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com
COMMENTS
Date/Time of Posting: Jul
31 2002 / 14:45:24
IP Address: 205.188.209.176
name = tiffany
where = wtiff7399@aol.com
Subject = season4
comments = i wanted to know when sex and the city season 4 comes out
on dvd?
Date/Time of Posting: Aug 13 2002 /
07:13:11
IP Address: 64.146.72.125
name = Edith St. Pierre
where = esp@cirex.net
Subject = Sex and the City: Season 4
comments = When is the DVD for Sex and the City: Season 4 expected to
be available? Can we pre-reserve ahead? Big thanks in advance.
Date/Time of Posting: Sep 27 2002 / 10:00:33
IP Address: 199.212.215.11
name = Nadine
where = npilote@justice.gc.ca
replyemail = Season 4
comments = When is the DVD for Sex and the City: Season 4 expected to
be available?
Date/Time of Posting: Oct 24 2002 / 19:13:15
IP Address: 199.243.156.46
where = sandyslim@hotmail.com
comments = when is sex in the city season 4 is coming on dvd? can't
hardly wait!!!
Date/Time of Posting: Dec 10 2002 / 21:38:22
IP Address: 68.67.37.15
name = Rachel
where = raverdin@yahoo.com
replyemail = sex and the city: season 4
comments = does anyone know when season 4 will be on dvd????
Date/Time of Posting: Dec 16 2002 / 11:59:04
IP Address: 141.161.119.108
name = Meghan
where = leprechaun123@aol.com
comments = will someone post when the 4th season comes out on dvd and
email me so i can buy it ASAP
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