Carrie Bradshaw is, arguably, one of the most distinguishable and discussed characters to come out of television in the past two decades. The star of the Sex and the City franchise, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, is widely noted for her lavish wardrobe, sex column, and ill-advised romance(s)…amongst other things.
Through HBO’s six seasons, two subsequent movies, and now a reboot, Carrie has elicited strong reactions from loyal viewers. Critics have written about their increasing disillusionment with the character; unpacked her questionable spending habits; and even used her as the poster child for “main character syndrome”. Elsewhere, fans defend her in subreddits and newsletters. Carrie is, without a doubt, an incredibly polarizing character.
‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 really needed Carrie Bradshaw to narrate more
No one knows this as much as Reva Lucia, the founder and writer of Carrie Bradshaw is the Worst. The site’s name precedes itself, but Lucia is more than a Bradshaw hater. In our conversation, it quickly became clear just how much the Los Angeles resident loves and truly knows SATC, its characters, and its iterations.
On her site, which she’s been running since Feb. 2019, Lucia recaps episodes with a slant: what has Carrie done now? Each post, dedicated to episodes and organized by seasons, summarizes stand-out moments in the show, interspersed with GIFs and Lucia’s trademark disdain for some of Carrie’s more dubious choices. Tags on the site literally read: “run for your life aidan” or “what are you even doing”. Needless to say, Lucia’s writing is hilarious, and her scholar-like knowledge of SATC will resonate with any fan, even those who love Carrie. And those who don’t will love it even more; the comments on each post make that abundantly clear.
Lucia and I sat down to talk all things Carrie Bradshaw (she sees her good side!), the reboot (she’s not sold just yet), and her relationship with the show.
Mashable: First off, what inspired you to start writing these episode recaps?
Reva Lucia: I was just watching reruns on HBO and I was thinking to myself, “Wow, Carrie Bradshaw is terrible. Why don’t I actually write about it? I should start a blog.” And I literally did that same day. I think I was bored; it was like a Sunday afternoon. So it just happened really randomly.
In your early posts, you write that Carrie becomes The Worst after Big becomes more prevalent in her life. Can you explain that a bit?
When they first start dating, it’s all about Big. She ditches her friends constantly. There was one episode where I think Miranda called her to get together; she’s like, “Well, because Big is busy, I’m free.” She’s always tying her entire availability into him. That relationship is so lopsided; they’re not even in the same boat or on the same page. And so she’s constantly obsessing about him, what what he does, and everything that means. Her entire world is Big and she projects that onto her friends. The first few episodes, when they’re all finding their footing, she seems completely normal. And then Big just unleashes this kind of obsession in her where she’ll do anything for him.
It’s kind of hard to watch sometimes, honestly. I’m not gonna lie, I saw some of myself in her. I was like, “Oh god, I definitely did that when I was in my mid-20s with certain people,” which I think also makes it hard to watch. Sometimes when I’m raging on that, I’m also yelling at my past self. Like, “Why did you do that? You’re such an idiot, he’s not into you.” I think Big was definitely the trigger of all that self absorption and for [Carrie] being a really self involved and selfish person. Her entire world just revolved around that relationship.
I think a lot of people can see a bit of themselves, or past selves, in Carrie’s bad behaviour.
Oh yeah, for sure.
Why do you think she’s such a polarizing character?
It’s funny because, when I watched it for the first time, I was in my early to mid-20s. I thought everyone wants to be a Carrie. She’s so cool and fashionable, and has this great job and lives in this great apartment. But then, as I started to watch it more, I was like, “Wow, she’s really selfish.” She turns all her friends’ problems into her own problems or always switches the conversation to herself. But then at the same time, she’s always down to have a fun time and she’s always doing things with her friends.
It seems like she brings the other three together, through her, and she does have some moments where she is a really good friend. There are a handful of episodes where I have to really stretch. For example, when Miranda finds out she’s pregnant with Steve and she doesn’t know what to do, Carrie is so supportive through the whole episode. I had to pivot to all the lies she told Aidan in parallel about her own experience with pregnancy.
I think it’s just it’s a very entertaining show. It’s very fun to watch the friendships, but you have this one central character who is just so selfish and really bad with money, which is why I rage-wrote about the episode where she basically forces Charlotte to buy her apartment for her. She can be a good friend, but she’s also terrible, but you just can’t not watch it, you know?
I like that you see her good qualities as well. I was about to ask if there are redeeming parts of her, for you.
Yes, there definitely are! Like the aforementioned episode with Miranda, then also her being very supportive of Charlotte during all of her struggles, like trying to get pregnant and when she has that devastating miscarriage. She’s also very supportive of Samantha when she’s going through that breakup with Richard, although she does make a couple of snide comments, when you want to say “Let’s dial it back to when you were with Big.” But when her friends are really, really down, she is there for them. So she does definitely have good qualities, they’re just not always initially present.
What did you think when And Just Like That… was announced? What are your thoughts about the reboot?
I was skeptical. I wasn’t sure why they needed to do it. The first movie was a stretch, but it was good. The second movie was fully unnecessary. Then I started recapping [AJLT] for the site. I’m a little more than halfway through, but it’s so unbearably bad. It’s really hard for me to force myself to write about it. The second season has since started, and I haven’t watched any of it because it’s just so terrible.
I don’t like the character assassination of Miranda that they’re doing. I understand she’s in a different place in her life, and she’s free to make her own decisions. But how she just goes back and just destroys her history with Steve, saying she was never happy, which is clearly not true, and things like that…I just think it was completely unnecessary.
And while Carrie does show some growth in the show and is not as terrible as she was in the original series, all she does is say, “Oh, you’re upset, I get it…but my husband died.” Also, she could have called 911. She watched him die. I know that was a huge thing online when the first episode dropped. People were like, why didn’t she call 911? She just sat there.
Yeah, the first season was really hard to watch. But I think the second season gets better…I’d be curious to hear what you have to say if you watch.
I’m sure I will eventually, but yeah, the first season was just unbearable.
What kind of growth do you think we see in Carrie in AJLT?
Well, [I saw it] when Big left Natasha a million dollars in his will and everyone was freaking out. It’s like, first of all, a million dollars is a drop in the bucket for him. But when Carrie and Natasha have that run-in at the coffee shop, and they sit down and really talk, I think that I saw a lot of growth in her there. She finally took responsibility for that affair. Also, I think that while she was a little bit taken aback by some of Miranda’s new challenges, like her alcoholism, she was definitely there for her.
I did see growth in Carrie. She is more self aware. I think they had to show that because, at this point, she’s in her mid-50s. You can’t be as vapid as you were in your 30s.
Do you have conflicting relationship with the original series? Or do you just love it?
I love it. I do think that all four women are flawed. But for me, it is definitely one of those comfort shows where I can just go watch it and I know what happens. I wouldn’t say I’m conflicted. Even though I’ve dedicated a lot of time to talking about how Carrie Bradshaw is terrible, I still love the show. I think Sarah Jessica Parker is an amazing actress. I couldn’t imagine anyone else as Carrie. The episodes that I skip are few and far between and that’s not because I feel conflicted. It’s just I feel like they are not good episodes.
Are there any characters that you particularly like? Who are your favorites?
I’ve always loved Steve. I guess that’s another reason why I was so upset [with AJLT], because they just kind of did this whole thing where Steve was a terrible husband and Miranda doesn’t love him anymore. He has all these faults, but I always love Steve.
I also love some of the real relationships you see without Carrie. There are a couple episodes where Miranda and Samantha kind of have their own story, or Miranda and Charlotte, or Charlotte and Samantha. Those are the relationships I really love to watch, because you don’t see as much of them. Out of the four women, I think that I like Samantha the best because she’s the least judgmental. She’s the most laidback. The other three are freaking out about things and she’ll just be like, “It’s not that big of a deal. It’ll be fine.” She’s sort of the calming effect, for the four of them.
I always loved Harry too. I’m not an Aidan fan, and obviously Big is terrible.
Do you have any thoughts on who Carrie should have ended up with in SATC?
It couldn’t have been Aidan, there’s no way it could have been Aidan. I didn’t want it to be Aleksandr Petrovsky. She had her string of casual relationships, too. I guess it had to have been Big. I just feel like it had to be Big, there is no other answer. There was a whole Big versus Aidan discussion when it was happening, but to me, there was no choice. I can’t imagine her ending up with anyone else, to be quite honest. It just took him a while to get his act together.
I love how you write about the fashion in the show, sometimes as much as the relationships, since it’s such a central concept.
Yeah, some of Carrie’s outfits are ridiculous. Some of them are amazing. Same with the other the other three. I think obviously Carrie’s the one that cares the most about fashion. I am not a fashionable person. I will say that. I don’t know anything about it, but there are some episodes where I’m like, “Why is she wearing that?” But then again, there are episodes where whatever she’s wearing looks amazing.
Sometimes the other three have their moments — Season 6 Miranda is absolutely stunning; what they did with her hair, accessories, her suits, and everything. I really enjoyed like the evolution of their fashion sense, it is a very big part of the show.
What kind of reactions [to your work] do you get from your readers and people online?
It’s mostly been very positive. A lot of people agree with me. A lot of people are excited. They find the blog because they also thought that she was the worst. Like, people literally Googled, like “Carrie Bradshaw was terrible” or “Carrie Bradshaw is the worst”, and they get to my site. I’ve had a few negative comments, but overwhelmingly, it’s been really supportive and positive, which has been really nice.
Final question: if you could give Carrie a piece of advice, what would it be?
Oh, my gosh. Don’t spend so much money on shoes. Then you won’t have to bully your friend into buying your apartment.
Honestly the money stuff is probably in the top three things that I’ve bitched about, because she just is so careless with money. Then when it comes back to bite her in the ass, she doesn’t take responsibility, like ever. So that would be my piece of advice: save and spend wisely, and don’t rely on other people to bail you out. And then, just don’t be so selfish. Easy, right?
The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
