Every Man on Sex and the City Sucks, Actually

Part Two: a deep dive on worst ones and final thoughts on the series

And we’re back for Part Two! Now that I’ve wrapped the series, I wouldn’t say Sex and The City is a forever fave – I think I’m a little past the point where it can feel wholly aspirational, as my brain is fully developed – but I see why it endures. These are not women who’ve ever engaged with the idea of decentering men, but despite that, the real romance at the center of the show is among the four women. (The second most important is between me and Carrie’s collection of Fendi baguettes bags.) Carrie is genuinely complex, even though the other three are a bit more caricaturish, and stylish, messy girls with birdbrain tendencies will always be drawn to New York, so I suspect they’ll always love Carrie. But overall, I’d say the show works best when viewed as a cautionary tale, since if there’s anything Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are gonna do, it’s get themselves into some damn mess.

For this second installment, I’m finishing up ranking the worst men in the series then wrapping up with some stray thoughts on the show. As a refresher, we’re ranking the worst boyfriends, flings, and boo things the girls rack up during seasons 4-6. One 🤮 represents your run of the mill fuckboy. Getting mixed up with him is about as traumatizing as hooking up with a secret conservative – you know, the kind of guy who conspicuously leaves his political beliefs blank on the apps in hopes of matching with hot leftists. This is bad, but ultimately manageable (and unfortunately commonplace.) Three 🤮 is a demon who should probably be on some kind of registry somewhere, if only the government cared about women’s rights. We’ve established before that the misdeeds of Mr. Big, Carrie’s great love the series’ big bad, are so plentiful and egregious that he exists beyond this scale, and, once again, we’ll get there when we get there.

Part one here.

The Rankings

SAMANTHA

Richard Wright: 🤮

Both of Samantha’s big loves show up in the show’s final seasons, but only one, the hotel magnate Richard, makes this list. The other, Smith, is a himbo who’s pretty much obsessed with Sam, so of course he has my full approval. Richard, on the other hand, is smarmy with a wandering eye. It’s a bit of wonder they end up together at all: they first connect at a business meeting where he’s dismissive, condescending, and sexist. What a charmer! He’s able to win over Samantha with his “alpha energy” that mirrors her own (and she’s able to win the business from his company, which is really what’s important). But he screws things up by cheating on her in the end. He’s gross, but at the end of the day, his behavior is quite mild for the show. A sexist who cheats because he can? Where’s the drama???

Charlotte

Harry Goldenblatt: 🤮🤮

I’m prepared for pushback here, but someone has to say it: Harry’s kinda gross. Again, compared to some of the toxic bachelors we encounter he’s not so bad, but because Charlotte eventually marries him, he requires closer scrutiny. The two meet while he’s handling her divorce from her first husband Trey, which works out in her favor. When they triumph over Trey’s overbearing mother in arbitration, Harry confesses his feelings. She’s put off at first, but ultimately gets swept up and they sleep together, entering a relationship that quickly stalls when Harry reveals he has to marry a Jewish woman to honor a promise to his dead mother. Fair enough, I suppose, but then why pursue a WASP queen you know is obsessed with marriage and monogamy when you know you can’t offer her either of those things? What is the reason…quickly!