Among the many guests that Kristin Davis has had on her podcast since kicking off Are You A Charlotte?, Michael Patrick King was the second (after Sarah Wynter) to join her for a conversation (not to mention the person who suggested the title of the podcast), appearing on episodes four and five, titled “The King of Sex and the City” and “Return of the King,” respectively. With so much to discuss and unpack, many different topics came up, including the evolution of Charlotte York from an “undercooked,” “composite” sort of character to a fully-formed, multi-dimensional being that went far beyond the rigidity she displayed in seasons one and two.
And while still adhering to a certain archetype (the “virginal,” prudish sort) in season three, it was clear that she had started coming into her own, no longer a “meek little lamb.” For example, standing up for herself in an episode such as “All or Nothing” (the tenth episode in season three), telling Trey’s (Kyle MacLachlan) mother, Bunny (Frances Sternhagen), that she’s “worth a million,” not “just” $500,000 in the prenup agreement she’s being asked to sign before marrying Trey. This episode in particular does come up between King and Davis as a prime example of Charlotte’s evolution (“We just kept growing her”).
But more than just talking about Charlotte’s gradual yet palpable transformation, King discusses what the entirety of the show was always about—its “thesis,” if you will. Which he tells Davis was immediately evident in the third episode of the series, “Bay of Married Pigs.” This idea that not only do these four friends always end up coming back to each other at the end of every disappointment in a romance (or potential romance), but that each of them are constantly subjected to various “being single-specific” humiliations. Because, yes, despite New York being known (especially now) as a single person’s “paradise” (or purgatory/hell, depending on how you look at it), eventually, the goal for most people who move there is still to find themselves in a relationship and “settle down” (however “quirky” that might look by NYC standards).
When asked directly by Davis in the second episode that King is featured on what the standout themes for him are, he replied that the most “evergreen” one is: “Am I enough? Am I enough alone?” Adding that Sex and the City is all about “the anarchy of saying single people are enough, being single is enough.” And how, even in the present, “that is still not done.” With King adding that, if anything, the pendulum is swinging back toward more antiquated views of “how a person should be.” More to the point, how they should be in a (heteronormative) relationship.
That theory certainly holds weight thanks to the presence of a certain Orange Creature in the office of the presidency, touting his bullshit about good old-fashioned “American values” (while having absolutely no values himself other than power and money) and sidling up to the Christian voting bloc. And yes, his vice president wielding the term “childless cat lady” as an insult (rather than the compliment it is) also speaks to how far back in time this administration would like to take things. That is, to a time when a single woman “of a certain age” was made to feel “ashamed” of that status, as opposed to proud. Wearing it as a badge of honor, and further proof that she’s done things her way, without compromising for the sake of being able to say she’s “attached.”
So it is that King reiterates to Davis, “The idea that ‘I might not be enough if I don’t have someone in my life’ is the evergreen wound and gift of the series.” Of course, it’s not as though King and co. totally backed up that sentiment by actually having any of the characters end up alone (unless one counts Samantha, though she wasn’t immune to her own participation in a long-term relationship with series favorite Smith Jerrod [Jason Lewis]).
But, of course, Sex and the City frequently posits that you’re not really alone if you have core platonic friendships (even if some of those friends end up in relationships themselves). Thus, when Davis chimes in that the concept of a “chosen family” is another major motif of the series, it brings up the correlation that having a chosen family is something that helps mitigate the enduring “sting” of being single. The “humiliation” of it, as it were. Because at least if you have good friends that are always there at a moment’s notice when you call on them (even if they’re “boo’d up”—however ephemerally), you’ll never be trapped at a social function by yourself.
And there are many social functions like that throughout Sex and the City, particularly season one (see also: the wedding reception scene of “The Turtle and the Hare”). Functions where, if one of the women of the quartet were there by themselves, it would be unbearable. But, as is the case in “Bay of Married Pigs,” Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) brings Charlotte, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) along to a party that turns out to be filled solely with married couples. And King comments again on how all the DNA of the show was contained within this episode, this storyline, referring to it again when he tells Davis, “It was kind of daring to cast married people as cartoon villains, compared to the ‘lecherous single ladies’ as the cartoon villains.” It was in this way that, as King puts it, “We got to show the pain caused… If you were not married, you were a loser or a whore” (even in “forward-thinking” NYC). Samantha being the character most frequently painted in that latter light. Except that rather than being ashamed of it, she whole-heartedly embraces it (this, too, being another groundbreaking aspect of the series).
At the end of “Bay of Married Pigs,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” plays in the background, in this instance an overt rallying cry from single women (like Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte) everywhere. Demanding to be treated with the same decency that is still generally more reserved for married women, or those who have been in a long-term relationship that might as well be described as “common-law marriage.” While the song continues to play, Carrie’s voiceover concludes, “Sure, it’d be great to have that one special person to walk home with. But sometimes, there’s nothing better than meeting your single girlfriends for a night at the movies.” Which is exactly what she does in the final scene. Establishing very clearly for the first time in the show that the “humiliation” of being single is far outweighed by the unbridled freedom of it.
