When Sex & the City wrapped in 2004, fans were split on Carrie Bradshaw ending up with Mr. Big, the two-timing boyfriend she dated on-and-off for six seasons. Now, Darren Star, the creator of the legendary HBO series, has weighed in with his opinion on their marriage.
In an interview in a new Amazon Kindle Single, Star opened up about his disappointment with the series' ending.
“I think the show ultimately betrayed what it was about, which was that women don't ultimately find happiness from marriage,” Star said. “Not that they can't. But the show initially was going off-script from the romantic comedies that had come before it. That's what had made women so attached.”
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Many fans agree. Carrie vomited in the kitchen sink when she discovered an engagement ring in her ex-boyfriend Aidan’s pocket. She accepted his proposal in season 4, but subsequently broke off the plans when she realized she simply didn’t want to be married. Big even told Carrie in the episode “Just Say Yes” that she’s not the “marrying kind.”
So what changed between seasons 4 and 6? Star allowed the input of other writers and directors to take Carrie’s life in a different direction than he originally intended.
“For me, in a way — and I didn’t [write] those last episodes — if you're empowering other people to write and produce your show, you can't...say certain things,” he explained.
More than a decade later, Star is still unsatisfied with the ending.
“At the end, it became a conventional romantic comedy,” he said.
That said, it should be noted that public relations maven Samantha Jones was the one character who remained unhitched.