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I use this as a lead-in to show that Sex and the City is different, in that I have seen numerous episodes, and in that there has been a Chapter Two (the same is true in both regards for The X-Files and yes, I do plan to get to I Want to Believe in 2011.) I have some definite opinions about Sex and the City 2 but one thing I can’t speak to, that seems to speak to a large number of people, is the movie’s (and series’) portrayal of life-long friendship among women.

I am, as you may have guessed after 18 months of this column, not a woman, but I also don’t have much long-term experience with friendship. At least, not Friendship as it is often presented in popular culture (If books, music, movies, and plays have completely fucked me up in regards to the idea of romantic love, they also haven’t done much to help me sort out the notion of friendship.) I have a small number of people I have known for many years, and thanks to social media like Facebook, I have “friended” a fair number of people from my past that I never thought I would encounter again (and may not, outside of the virtual world), but can I ever really say what they mean to me, or what I mean to them? Not really. It’s nice to engage in condoned covert surveillance, and to occasionally make a wry comment that elicits some response, but I don’t pretend that there is much beyond that. What is friendship?

I don’t know if Sex and the City has the answers (or that it ever has claimed to.) I have heard it referred to as a “fairy tale”, and I now wonder if it might be more for the idea that Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha have remained friends for 25 years than for its fashion, status, and money-centric view of New York City life. Regardless, there is a big difference between the TV show and movies and between the first movie and the second one.

The TV show, in being sitcom length - about 25 minutes - could let individual plots zoom in and dash out on a weekly basis, while allowing the larger picture to ebb and flow over a 13 part season. The movies, each clocking in at about two hours and 20 minutes sans credits (a running time of five episodes combined or a third of a season) both strive for event status, to justify a big ticket price and a ladies’ night out, but approach this in decidedly different ways.

The first movie combined enough plot for an entire season while precariously seesawing between raw emotion (Carrie’s despair after being stood up at the altar; Miranda’s shock and anger at learning of her husband’s affair) and, um, low-brow humor (Charlotte shitting her pants in Mexico, Samantha’s dog humping everything in sight). It also wrapped up everything nice and neat (even introducing Jennifer Hudson as an assistant for Carrie and then marrying her off at the end). It delivered everything a fan of the show could ask for (to my eyes) - just more so - and was met with decent reviews and a rousing $152 million domestic total ($262 million foreign) against a $65 million budget.

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