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Sex and the Widow

 So sue me: I really enjoyed the most recent Carrie Bradshaw Saga. I'm talking about "Sex and the Widow."


This is an hour about "comparing and despairing."

Couples see other couples, in public, and dramatic, hyperbolic thoughts pop up. Chic Law Professor flirts with her husband at the Union Square Market; these two are surely "healthier" than Miranda and Steve, who can't make a shopping list without fighting.

Charlotte is mortified to spot an "audience" during her fight with her insufferable mansplaining husband; later, that audience has its own fight, and Charlotte is the witness.

My favorite moment: Miranda designs a sexual encounter with Steve, and she seems to be aiming at self-sabotage. As the encounter goes off the rails, we can read Miranda's thoughts: This was better with Che. I love Che. (And I enjoyed the specific problems with the Steve encounter: the proximity of Brady, the smelly takeout food, the unwashed hands, the dryness, the counter clutter, the arrival of a work-related text).

The writer is smart enough to point out to us, later, that Che may be as terrible as Steve, in Che's own special ways (and it's interesting to see "smart" Miranda misreading many, many signs).

As a post-script, how fun to chart the varied ways in which men can be awful! An auctioneer misinterprets a lunch date with relationship-columnist Carrie: "It's a date with the sex writer!" The auctioneer is corrected, but he chooses to overlook the correction. Charlotte's spouse Harry--who can't remember the name "Zadie Smith"--invites himself to a tennis game, then offers unsolicited advice for one full hour. A witness to Carrie's public humiliation seems to want to help--but, in fact he is signaling to a waiter, because his glass needs to be re-filled.

When the show recalls that it's not an after-school special, and instead points its spotlight at little scenes of miscommunication and ambient rage.....That's when I am happiest.
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