Sex and the City: Season 1 (2 Discs)

It would have been nice if other reviewers had remembered that they were rating this DVD release, not the TV show itself. As such, HBO has received ratings for this DVD release that are ridiculously high and quite simply not justified. Congratulations on telling HBO that their viewers are suckers who will pay anything for their favourite shows in any substandard format.

The video quality is so grainy and poor that it looks like it was downloaded from the Internet (at a low resolution). This makes me pause to wonder what the show would actually look like downloaded from the Internet - TV static, perhaps? - but I digress.

You are paying full price for 50% of the number of episodes you would get in a season of Friends, for example. So if you are missing any of the seasons of Friends, go out and buy that instead. With Friends, you'll get twice as many episodes of an equally great show, but with episodes of a professional-looking and -sounding quality, and real - actually fun - extras.

Which reminds me: the extras for the Sex and the City are woefully inadequate. A few minutes of Sarah Jessica Parker speaking generally about the show and some other, even more lame and equally short craptacular feature are the "extras".

The packaging itself is cheap plastic, perhaps an HBO-patented package called Craptic (TM) that will rip, dent and mangle with normal handling.

And now, for those Sex and the City diehards who weren't gouged enough paying for substandard season sets, they now face the release of the complete set with a number of extras included. A slap in the face, really, although it appears that I am the exception in that I don't believe I should have to pay twice for the bare minimum of what I should have gotten the first time.

All in all, with the low quality, low number of episodes per season and lacking features, HBO should have been selling these out of the back of a van in the back of an alley somewhere.

I have actually refused to buy any seasons of this show after the first. I refuse to pay a premium price for substandard fare, so I borrowed them from a friend who had already been gouged instead.

Happy Viewing!


The beginning.   July 4, 2004
Elle-P (Chicago IL)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

The first season was just ok, it had more of an unfocused feel to it. The show also had more of a grainier texture to it. The first season really doesn't deal with relationships that much, it focuses mostly on random dating, which makes it hard to get a reading on these women aside from their generic label (the sexually adventurous one, the cynic, the uptight one). Only SJ Parkers character is explored deeper, even though her character is mostly negative, self-absorbed, neurotic and prone to relationship sabotage. As for people who critize SJP looks, she isn't supposed to be a model she's supposed to be a normal woman who is comfortable with her looks, a woman normal women can relate to. Overall an ok season. EP


PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL DRIVEL!   July 1, 2004
2 out of 19 found this review helpful

(...)This reveals exactly why the terrorists hate our country. Shallow, materialistic, decadent, pseudo-intellectual drivel. I remember hearing one sentence of the show (before throwing the tv out the window) where the main character said "I finally realized" followed by some pseudo-existential "witticism" with a straight(dumb)face. The only positive aspect of this show is to teach kids to stay in school.


Fresh and fabulous   June 28, 2004
Betsy (us)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I got into this series when it was almost over and can recommend it. Yes, it's explicit at times so beware of that, but it's fresh and fun and most importantly absolutely fabulous. The characters are all played wonderfully by this cast and the stories have you chatting later about it with your friends saying things like "GEEZ, I'd never put up with that" etc. Depending on your favorite character as a woman it's easy to find yourself in one of the cast.

LOVE THIS SERIES!


Fantastic Portrayals!   June 27, 2004
eduardo (Massapequa, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Kudos to "Sex and the City" for its portrayal of the emptiness of those young women patrolling NYC in search of pleasure and pleasure alone. The brilliant portrayals of shallow, superficial nympho-phonies might never be equalled again. The only drawback, of course, is Sarah Jessica Parker acting, dressing, and sashaying around as if she was pretty and/or sexy..which, as Executive Producer of the show, is understandable, but which is negated by her long face, heavy make-up, that ugly mole, all of which adds up to nothing but a mediocre woman at the most.
The other actresses are far prettier and probably more talented; perhaps that's why they're eventually relegated to minor roles so that the Executive Producer can be more present on the show; golly, who knows?
Well, if you're ever in NYC, look me up and l'll take you on a tour of the singles scene and introduce you to more interesting women, not the shallow ones of this show.