by Lindsay Totty

From Sex and the City, created by Darren Star
Nominated by Susan Ticker

What was it about Carrie Bradshaw that so captured our attention? A huge segment of TV-watchers hung on each of Sex and the City's 94 episodes as if their own lives were playing out on HBO — or maybe it was the lives they wondered why they weren't living.

 

I caught the show in reruns during a time in my life when I desperately needed distracting. I admit I watched the show secretly hoping to hate its shallow focus on everything hip. I came to understand was that it wasn't about the over-the-top fashions, the in-your-face female sexuality, or the perpetual pursuit of cool.

It was, with Carrie at the epicenter, about humanity. And in spite of the lifestyle — whether we secretly lusted for it or openly disdained it — this humanity is what eventually endeared Carrie (and her Manolos!) to the world.