Faith of My Fathers blog

The flick picture show

Sex and the City Essentials:
Romance rounds out a set of "best of" discs from Sex
and the City. We’ve had Lust, Mr. Big, and
Breakups; now we have three episodes on the theme of
"romance." The episode choices are rather odd here, though,
making this a poor choice as a sampler of Sex and the City
episodes for new viewers… and for longtime fans, the Essentials
discs offer too limited a selection to substitute for full season
sets.

Let’s take a look at the three
30-minute episodes included here:

Baby, Talk Is Cheap: Season
4, episode 6. The main story thread here is Carrie’s obsession with
Aidan, now that she’s decided that she wants him back in her life. I
found this part of the story to be not particularly interesting; it
really requires that the viewer have a fuller context for the story
to appreciate it, and that’s lacking here. The other sub-plots
involving Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha are better, but only
Miranda’s encounter with "Marathon Man" has real sparkle.

Hop, Skip and a Week: Season
6, episode 6. It’s a passable episode, but one that seems more
concerned with moving the dramatic story threads forward rather than
telling an effective comic story. Charlotte’s experiences with the
"synagogue singles scene" are by far the best part of the
episode, but the thread involving Carrie and her would-be boyfriend
on a "break" just feels too heavy.

An American Girl in Paris (Part
Deux): Season 6, episode 20. Whose bright idea was it to put the
final episode of the entire series on a three-episode sampler? Just
the second part of a two-part series finale, at that! Regardless of
how good the episode might be, or how beloved of fans, it’s just an
exceptionally poor choice for a disc that seems largely aimed at new
fans.