New York City is widely lauded as another main character of the original Sex and the City (SATC) series and in the latest season And Just Like That (AJLT), technology has risen to a similar status. In this article explore what this increased role of technology maybe communicating to longstanding fans.
The inclusion of new technologies in AJLT has been a conduit to deliver the popular show which ended in 2004 (followed by two movies, the last released in 2010) into the zeitgeist. Charlotte York-Goldenblatt is seen sporting Apple earpods as she walks her French bulldog and frolics around the city, and Mr Big, Harry Goldenblatt, Miranda Hobbs and Anthony Marentino all opt for a version of the iPhone 12. Other products include Mr Big’s Peloton Bike+, which was apparently the sports toy to die for during the pandemic.
However, Carrie herself is still behind her fictional peers. In SATC, and I say this with love, she is a luddite, going the first few seasons without a cell phone at all. When she does eventually does cave, she gets a small, pink, jewel-encrusted Motorola (welded together by Motorola and Swarovski). Back when she is handed a smartphone by Samantha Jones in the first SATC film, she took a cursory glance at the screen and then unashamedly declared “I don’t know how to work this”.
In AJLT, Carrie seems to have forced herself to evolve, slightly. She has now upgraded to an iPhone 7 and a Blackberry Key2 (released in 2017 and 2018, respectively). Fans have speculated that her need for the second device arose from a lack of comfort with her colourfully decorated iPhone (which, mysteriously, has a sticker over the camera flash). She possibly uses the iPhone for her social media, while using the sturdy BlackBerry for more practical tasks like communicating. Unlike Mr Big and his Peloton, it is fair to assume that she is still using shopping as her cardio and not buying much online.
This brings me to a piece of equipment that could be said to be a character all its own – Carrie’s computer. She begins with an Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3, upgrades to an iBook G3 after its predecessor all but disintegrates beneath her fingers, and of late is using a 2013 MaBook Pro. As a writer, Carrie’s life is so inextricably entwined with her job, her laptop is clearly the most important thing she owns (even with all the fabulous clothes hanging in her walk-in closet). There is an entire episode dedicated to when the aforementioned Powerbook breaks (entitled ‘My Motherboard, My Self’). In the same episode, Miranda’s mother dies and the show’s core four women attend her funeral. The parallel and significance of the two events to the two different women is obvious. Throughout it all, after bad breakups, deaths or financial troubles, Carrie is always seen returning to her spot at the window, typing into the keyboard of her Mac.
Interestingly Apple does not pay for product placement. However, it has been reported that although they will not pay, the tech giant is more than happy to hand out an endless number of computers, iPads, and iPhones to productions. Hewlett Packard on the other hand, seemed to see an opportunity and paid for their products to appear in Sex and the City 2. Samantha and other characters switched over, but Carrie did not.
I can’t help but wonder, what was being communicated to us as the audience through Carrie’s tech-averse stance? One suggestion is that it implies Carrie’s deep connection to the craft of writing, the actual words she was typing out, and not so much the medium on which she did it. In line with the modernisation of the show, she has moved to a new gig - podcasting. Even though the genesis of podcasts can be traced to back to the 1980s when they were known as audioblogs, podcasts have never been more popular than today. It makes sense that Carrie has chosen this medium to reach her audience, or potentially a new audience altogether. Unfortunately, at first, our heroine is a bit behind in this department, too. Carrie receives some constructive feedback from her new boss and co-host, Che Diaz,
that she needs to contribute more openly (more raunchily?) to the podcast, in order to be more in alignment with the candour of the 2021 listener. It is no coincidence that Carrie’s dinosaur of a Mac sits in stark contrast to Che’s MacBook Air M1. At the time of writing, it seems Carrie has risen to the challenge and spread the word of how she had a friend extract her contraceptive device.
Even though Miranda questions: “we can’t just stay who we were, right?”, Carrie has remained largely the same in her approach to technology. With so many other changes in the show, this true to form behaviour is greatly appreciated by all the Carrie-stans out there. She seems to have decided who she wants to be and dug her heels in – literally. In the episode where she is asked what her physical goals are after a hip operation she adamantly says, “just to get back into heels”. Despite societal pressure to want to run a marathon or lose 10 kilos or adapt to modern technology, like using a smart phone or god forbid- understanding blockchain, Carrie remains resolute. She only changes what is absolutely necessary to advance her craft. This thrifty evolution, which I hereby name Bradshaw-Darwinism gives the audience a refreshing opportunity to shrug off the responsibility to keep up with tech trends around us. She shows us you only need the bare minimum of machinery and knowledge that allows you to do your job. On the psychological front, Bradshaw-Darwinism communicates “I like myself the way I am” and that is something great to see on TV.
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