As 2021 winds to a miserable conclusion — a couple highlights: a new Covid variant, Supreme Court hearings over a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse — we found our thoughts turning inexorably back to a simpler time (in the sense that we were, personally, ten years old). After a long day of catching up on the latest soul-crushing news and trying to find toddler-sized N95 masks, we craved the sweet escape of Cosmopolitans and Manolo Blahnik strappy sandals. And rather than wait for the upcoming, Samantha-free series “And Just Like That…”, we decided to indulge in a rewatch — and a journey back in time.
The year: 1998. The show: “Sex and the City,” HBO’s hottest new sex-com. The reviews: decidedly mixed. When the escapades of Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, Samantha Jones, and Charlotte York debuted that year, it wasn’t foreordained that it would become a juggernaut that would revitalize HBO and profoundly influence the way a …