Sex And The City: Carrie's 5 Best Pieces Of Advice (& Her 5 Worst)
And just like that, Carrie Bradshaw is back. The announcement of the Sex and the City revival teased the return of New York's favorite problematic columnist. Older, presumably wiser, and one friend short, Carrie will arrive on HBO Max sometime in 2022.
From the first episode of the original series, Carrie gave advice about everything, from love and sex to fashion and the city's hot-spots. Yet, and as audiences prepare for her return, they can't help but wonder: was Carrie's advice actually good? Did she provide valuable spot-on insights or cringy tone-deaf observations? The answer, much like Carrie herself, rests somewhere in the middle.
10 Worst: Money Problems And A Ring
At one point in season four, Carrie becomes very close to being evicted from her apartment. She is rejected for a loan at the bank, and her friends advise her not to take Big's money. Miranda and Samantha offer her a loan, but Carrie rejects them. However, she then gets irrationally angry at Charlotte for not offering her the money and goes over to her house to yell at her.
"You have made some mistakes, and when you were making those mistakes, I was sitting across from you at the coffee shop, nodding and listening and supporting you. I was not sitting at a Chinese restaurant, turning away when you should have been looking at me!" The worst part of the episode is that Charlotte, guilty and ashamed, gives Carrie her wedding ring so that the immature columnist can sell it and pay for her apartment.
9 Best: It's All About Your Friends
In early season five, Carrie fears that her friend's lives are changing too much and they're becoming old. For Charlotte's 36 birthday, she convinces everyone to tag along on Samantha and Richard's trip to Atlantic City. There, she tries everything to have fun with them, only to realize that sometimes you can't stop others from living their lives.
By the end, however, Carrie understands that friendship, like life, is ever-changing. The important thing is to keep it alive, not by doing everything together, but by being there for each other when it matters. "Friendships don't magically last 40 years. You have to invest in them." A+ advice, miss Bradshaw.
8 Worst: Careless And Aimless Is Not The Way To Go
Carrie is notorious for her seemingly carefree lifestyle. However, the show time and again proves how she does considerable harm to herself by living like that. Her lack of plans, ambitions, and tendency to focus on the moment is arguably at the center of most of her problems.
"Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens," she says, and while it sounds romantic, coming from her, its isn't. It's one thing to live in the moment, and another to only live in the moment. Carrie never plans ahead, never dreams of anything that doesn't have to do with men. That's not admirable and one should never do that.
7 Best: A Vogue Advice
Carrie finally makes it to Vogue in season four. She begins freelancing for them but encounters problems with her editor, Enid, who belittles her writing style, calling it too personal for the magazine. Carrie befriends another editor, Julian, who wants to start an affair with her, and even propositions her while in the accessories closet.
In the end, Carrie goes back to Enid, understanding that sometimes, the hardest road is actually the right one. "The best anyone of us can do is not quit. Play the hand we've been given and accessorize the outfit we've got." Life can get hard, and it can even seem unfair. However, one should always keep trying, making the best out of the situation. A positive outlook on life can make all the difference.
6 Worst: Carrie, The Dating Teacher
During the season three episode, "Frenemies," Carrie agrees to teach a dating class at the local annex. She doesn't seem particularly excited to do it, but the money's good, and the organizers consider her an expert. When she arrives at the class, clearly unprepared and even overconfident, she proves just how bad a teacher she is.
"The next time you step out in the morning with your shoes and your tote, and your traveling cappuccino, take a look around because I'm telling you, our little metropolis, it is stacked with men." Her vague advice leaves the many women in her class disappointed and angry. They paid for the class, after all. Carrie too understands her performance was pretty awful, and returns a second time, better prepared and actually wanting to help.
5 Best: Letting The Past Go
In the season five opener, Carrie begins to think about the past and "great loves." She realizes how quickly things are changing, and after a particularly bad day, she goes to a party as part of Fleet Week. She dances with the handsome sailor who invited her and has a short but meaningful conversation with him. "Maybe," she narrates, "you have to let go of who you were to become who you'll be."
Carrie is right. The past can be an anchor holding you back and preventing your growth. And just like she says, sometimes one has to let it all go and step into a new chapter in life. It might not be easy, but it sure is worth it.
4 Worst: Once A Cheater, Always A Cheater
Most fans might not remember that Carrie cheated on Mr. Big twice. The first time, long before she kissed Aidan in the second movie, happened in season two. While at a fancy Upper East Side party, a confrontational Carrie, mad that Big didn't say "I love you" after she said it first, begins acting out. She recognizes one of the waiters and spends most of the night with him. They kiss and she takes him to her apartment, but presumably, nothing happens.
In the morning, Big calls her and tells her he does love her, he just has a hard time saying it. She then brushes her infidelity aside. "I figured everything before I love you just doesn't count." Carrie's selfish behavior strikes again, and this time, there really is no excuse for it.
3 Best: Self-Love Guru
The final line of the show is delivered as one of Carrie's familiar voice-overs. As she walks down the streets of NYC, thinking about all the different kind of relationships there are, she arrives at one valuable conclusion: "The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself."
This is one of Carrie's most accurate and valuable pearls of wisdom (one she should definitely apply to herself more often, but that's a whole other story.) At her best, Carrie is a sharp and intuitive observant of human behavior, and this conclusion she arrives at, after years of exploring the city's dating life, is something fans should never forget.
2 Worst: Shoe Obsession
Carrie's finances are a mess. She prefers buying Vogue over food, constantly maxes out her credit card, and finds comfort in material things, especially shoes. Her collection is so big, that at one point she infamously realizes she's spent $40,000 on shoes. Yet that doesn't stop her from giving away all sorts of suggestions about how shoes are the ultimate solution for most problems.
"When one door closes, a shoebox opens," she proudly reveals via voice-over in one episode. No, Carrie, that's not how things work. And the fact she buys a new pair of shoes every time something falls apart in her life, not only reveals a lot about her deeper psychological issues but explains why she never has any money to spare.
1 Best: Don't Ever Settle
During the last episode of season five, Carrie attends the wedding of Bobby Fine and Bitsy von Muffling. Everyone believes Bobby is gay, so they consider the whole thing ridiculous. As Carrie begins a promising relationship with writer Jack Berger, she looks around the dance floor and ponders the situation of those around her. "Some people are settling down. Some people are settling. And some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies."
True to her complex self, some of Carrie's best advice don't even come in the form of one, but that doesn't make them any less true. People often settle for less, because they believe it's what they deserve, or maybe they're afraid of trying something new. Butterflies are all around, though, and if one keeps trying, one might be lucky enough to catch one.
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