Liars and Saints

 Great writing is about memorable characters -- and though I understand the objections to "And Just Like That," I'd just encourage you to notice the funeral scene, and notice everything that is going on. Miranda may or may not have a drinking problem. We see her wandering into bars before they are open. At Big's funeral, Miranda actually has to pressure a young server to pop open the wine before the eulogies are delivered. Meanwhile, an older guest makes the event about her *own* life: "No one understands your suffering, Carrie, but I do. And *my* suffering was worse, because *my* husband died in the early days of the pandemic, before we had mastered even the Zoom shiva...." Stanford gets in a fight with an aging secretary about seating assignments; Stanford's bullishness is tacky, but, also, he surely *does* help Carrie by sitting next to her. People applaud Carrie's stoicism, but one lone skeptic asks: "Is that really a good thing?" A shr...

It's Tuesday! Some SATC trivia to brighten your afternoon. (1) Tutu. Carrie wasn't meant to wear a tutu in the opening credits. She was meant to wear a fairly conservative dress. But smart people had another idea. The showrunner(s) felt doubtful about the tutu idea. So the opening credits were shot in two ways: conservative, and with tutu. The climbing marimba slides down, and climbs again, and slides back down (just as Carrie is often tripping over herself). The bus that does the splashing happens to feature an image of Carrie in all her powerful-icon glory--so we have Carrie-at-her-best juxtaposed with mortified-Carrie (Carrie-splashed-with-muddy-water). Watching Carrie in the tutu, the showrunners understood that the weird costume was the way to go. For Carrie, eccentric clothing can be an expression of confidence. That tutu makes the interlude seem especially high-stakes. Wonderful. (And it seems to me that Patricia Field deserves major credit for what this show becam...