As Promised Earlier....

So, I did say more of Sex and the city later... and as a beard always keeps his word, here we are... now some of you out there are big fans of the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, and what I'd like to know is .. why? Why can otherwise intelligent, discerning women not see what a dreadful programme it is??? I mean, far from being this wonderful, liberating treatise on the empowerment of women, it seems to me to be merely a crassly commercial paean to commercialism and consumerism, full of the worst kind of cynical product placement.. and can someone please explain why we are supposed to find the characters attractive?? I mean, Kim Catrall has had her moments (Two Golden Balls springs to mind...) but SJP??? She has that craggy prune like skin usually only seen in Australians of a certain age... now looks aren't everything, hear you cry.. and I agree.. but the SITC girls al seem shallow, grasping bitches.. if this is what women are supposed to aspire to being, I think I'll turn gay.... and what of this preoccupation with the search for Mr Big in his suit and with his good salary.. surely an unrealistic aim, considering what most rich attractive guys in this country are like... I was unfortunately accused of liking SITC yesterday, a comment which almost resulted in a semi-well-known editor and poet taking a tumble from the Wrekin.... but I digress.... he apologised, realising himself that he was confusing it with Ally McBeal, a truly empowering show, of which I am unashamedly a fan.. despite the dancing babbies and huge tongues, Ally is firmly rooted in realism.... where the SITC girls are all well off, successful and just need to find the perfect man to gain eteernal happiness, the lesson being that if you're a wealthy columnist you'll do it easily, Ally shows us a different side to success.. that money isn't everything.. not fro nothing was the original tagline Single, Successful and Falling Apart... Ally gets many chances for happiness, all ruined by her SITC-like insistence on waiting for the perfect man, who unfortunately is an idealised version of her childhood sweetheart who is now marrieed to someone else, and isn't the guy Ally wants him to be anyway.. she flits from relationship to relationship, and we the viewer can see, as outsiders, that she could be perfectly happy with the Dr, or the Plumber, or even the man who wants to fly... but as they are not ur-Billy, she can't.... her own search for an artificial happiness is what keeps her from happiness.. and who says the yanks don't do irony! No happy endings for Miss McBeal.. none of her affairs are enriching or trouble free... plus, despite the main cast being lawyers, the characters, unlike those in SITC, are recognisable.. and they are not even all well off... Elaine the receptionist is probably one of the most important characters in the show.. the least well paid, the lowest on the social ladder, she has dreams and happiness... having decided to aim for the stars yet be contented with her lot... she gains pleasure from the simple things in life... such as gossip, easy sex, and her face bra... Its a truly empowering program.. without being too obvious it allows us to see ourselves, and helps us avoid making the same mistakes of Miss McBeal and her friends... its genuinely funny, moving and poignant, reaching genuine depths... and I think Emmeline Pankhurst would have loved its portrayal of a woman in a responsible job but who is still a woman, struggling not against men's arrogance but her own feelings as a woman, struggling to be what she has been conned into believing she should be... despite realising that it is a con.. the opposite in fact to the SITc girls, who have fallen for the con hook line and sinker, and are now seeking to perpetuate it to a new generation.. is SITC really a male supremacist ploy to undermine years of womens lib?? Who knows.. but please please please, stop the endless repeats of SITC and lets have some more Ally...and until we can all be The Biscuit, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!