Customer Reviews

Sex and the City: The Sixth Season, Part 2

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I live in London, and the DVD for season 6 came out, in its complete form, months before this DVD was released in the States. But I just had to see the alternate endings and deleted scenes. I thought I was being so smart. Nope, I was completely duped by HBO. Those alternate endings are paltry one minute variations on the final coffee shop scene. HBO- tell me something, what do the words "alternate endings" mean to you?! And only one deleted scene per season? Are they kidding? That's it? I spent how much for this?! And I could have had season 6, altogether on one disc. If only I had known. Don't let yourself get taken in by HBO. If you can find another way to get these episodes, go for it.

Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE sex and the city -- I lived for this show and it's my pleasure to buy the dvd's and watch them whenever my little heart desires. However, when they break up the season on two separate box sets and promise "three alternate endings" and "never before seen footage" i'm thinking great, hours of enjoyment and when can i pre-order? However, what is really on the dvd is only THREE (yes 3) minutes of alternate endings and only one deleted scene from each of the six seasons. The bonus features are not worth the 33.00 you have to shell out to complete/start your collection. What a JOKE! save your money, get a DVR and record them from TIVO!

I love almost every episode. I took advantage of Amazon's bundling of Seasons 1-6.5, and they are funny every time I watch them.

HOWEVER...the way HBO makes DVDs is HORRIBLE. There is no "Play All" option, for example, forcing you back to the main menu to go to the next show. And each show is considered a chapter - so if you skip to the next chapter you will go to the next show. Finally...the DVDs were mastered very poorly. On my Sony XBR 36", some of the images are grainy, a couple of shots had portions blurred. HBO needs to take a lesson from Fox and how it produced "The Simpsons" DVD series. For the price HBO charges for its shows (not to mention the delays in releasing them), I would expect much better production quality.

I own the other SATC collections, so I'm not about to leave my collection unfinished. Particularly with the BEST episode of the entire series ever (beating My Motherboard, Myself from season 4, which, believe me, was no small feat in the excellent series), in American Girl in Paris Part Deux. That episode alone makes this a worthwhile purchase.

The Series wrapped up with many nice surprises. Charlotte's new passion was not only fitting, but really suited the 'new' Charlotte. Miranda's acceptance of the consequences of her new life were masterfully played by Cynthia Nixon. Catrall...Dear LORD how talented is this woman? Her protrayal of Samantha in the most serious stages of her illness was classic Samantha, but with a vulnerability never seen in this character. (Particularly the Samantha/Smith relationship and it's very natural development.) And, of course, SJP wraps up the chapter of Carries life in a very acceptable fashion.

The series' end was handled wonderfully and respectably for all involved (no miracle pregnancy for charlotte, no Carrie's Wedding). This is fine television at it's best, and any series fan will have to own this, just on principle alone.

That being said, I agree with the earlier review who said HBO isn't real 'user friendly' when it comes to programming their DVD's. I'd like to be able to watch one episode after another, but ya gotta keep running back and forth between menus. And, as I said in this episode's predecessor review...Why only half a season? What???? But, now that you have both parts, it makes it a whole. A pricey whole in relation to the other, full-season-in-one-package wholes, but at least complete.

Now, one gripe I have moreso with this portion of the series was Mikhail Barishnikov's character. I could never warm up to him, and aside from providing some kinda father figure 'thing', I couldn't see why in the world Carrie would have ever been attracted to him, much less moved to Paris with him! That was the only part I found slightly 'off' in an otherwise perfect season.

But, the best twenty minutes of writing happen in the last section of the last episode, and I cannot fathom how any fan of this series or these characters doesn't require at least 5 hankies to make it through. It's a wonderful end to a wonderful series.

Although I loved season six, everything about it really, including how it ended with all the characters the DVD set is ridiculous for touting the "alternate" endings as a great extra and incentive to pay extra money! It was a joke....the each are like one minute long and provide no plausible alternative ending...just suggestions of what may have happened. Very very silly. But worth having because I loved the series.....they should have put more thought into this and played out the entire alternate ending from beginning to end...I don't think they really shot three endings just these cheesey scenes to throw everyone off.....

The commentary by C.K. Ogi prompted me to submit my first review. C.K. expressed a lack of credibility in Carrie's being attracted to Mikhail Barishnikov's character. According to C.K., it just didn't make sense. I think this is precisely the point. Love and our attraction to certain people seldom "makes sense". In fact it seems to me that the most obvious meant for each other couples are frequently the most unhappy. Simply put, you need some kind of challenge in the relationship. If both partners like the same cuisine, the same movies, the same art, etc., their lives are quickly going to become incredibly boring. On the other hand look at the more realistic relationships on the show. Miranda and Steve: a corporate lawyer and a bar owner. Samantha and Smith: a high powered publicist and a struggling young actor. Charlotte and Harry: a Jackie Onassis style beauty down to her bone marrow but who was willing to change religions for the man she loved and an unattractive but financially well off short bald Jew.

I believe that for most of us, if we look back on the high points in our lives the events going on at the time were new, challenging, even scary sometimes. But then we realize that these events were so fulfilling, so eye opening, that we find ourselves planning the same events for other friends or future partners. Every place that I travelled to in my life that I found to be an unforgettable experience, I eventually ended up returning to that place with a less adventurous friend.

If there was one thing I found rather hard to believe in the Paris episodes of Sex and the City, it was how quickly Carrie gave up on the city. What did she expect? It was her first trip to a foreign country, she didn't speak the language, she didn't know the culture. Of course it's' going to be scary and daunting and yes, depressing. I still remember my first two weeks in Paris. I was completely alone and unlike the Hollywood takes of "April in Paris", the sun literally did not come out once in two weeks. But I didn't just stay longer. I caught a train and went to Lyon and then to Nice. Although the weather still sucked, I was lucky enough to be in the area during the Cannes film festival and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. I found wonderful shopping, and wonderful museums, and wonderful restaurants where I could spend a whole afternoon. Then on to St. Tropez to some of the most beautiful coast line I've ever seen.

Back to the series. In the end all of the characters were willing to make gut wrenching changes in their lives except for Carrie. Unless you count her decision to move to Paris but that never went anywhere. I think that says a lot about her character. If the series was about nothing else, it was about that urban creature that we find in every generation. The person who goes from being a poverty stricken twenty some year old to achieving some significant measure of success by their thirties except for one gaping hole. They are essentially alone. New York wasn't dead as Lexi Featherstone said in the Splat! episode; it had just become inhabited by a new generation that she was no longer a part of. In retrospect I think the series was about this transition that so many of us urban dwellers make. If you're lucky it can go as smoothly as Charlotte's and Miranda's and Samantha's but there will always be a Carrie that it doesn't go so well for. By the way in case you're thinking that Carrie achieved salvation in the end with Big, you're making a very big assumption. Given Big's history there is no reason to think that he has really fundamentally changed.

Thank You,

Steve K.

As, I do not have HBO,I rushed to get this 3 disc DVD the first day it came out. I then sat all day and watched all three discs. The last 2 episodes were the best of the the 8 episodes and I admit I cried at the last scenes.Plus the shots of Paris are just beautiful. The shot where Carrie is running and the Eiffel Tower shimmering in the backround is just breathtaking. Plus the music choices in the last episode are great, the final song combined with the scene gave me gooseumps. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end a fabulous series and I'm very happy with the end results. The only thing that would have made this DVD better was if they had included more extras, such as more cut scenes and more bloopers. Plus I would have loved some commentary with the four girls on the last episode. The different endings were not what I expected and weren't even considered as endings, they were just something to throw off the press. But still a must for all Sex fans. A great end to a series- "well, that's just fabulous".

Ok, so, you spent all that money buying seasons 1-5 and then season 6 was split in two. Here's something to make you happier...
HBO Video is releasing Sex and the City: The Complete Series on November 1st. The mammoth twenty-disc box set will include all ninety-four episodes from the six seasons that the show aired. As for bonus materials, all the extras from the previous season sets will be included. An additional disc of new bonus features has been created for this release and will contain a trivia game, guest appearance highlights, as well as various guides to fashion, restaurants and dating advice. The "super-premium" set will be packaged as a decorative velvety photo album coffee table book. Retail will be hernia-inducing $299.95

If you, like me, were waiting to view the alternate endings that the producers filmed, beware! The DVD does show three alternates, but they are the same scene (in the coffee shop) with one or two lines (by Sarah Jessica) altered in each. Each scene is no more than a minute long. I was bummed! The other "extras" are the retrospective that aired the night the series ended and a writer's panel which is mildly interesting.

I own the other 5 1/2 seasons on DVD so I was obligated to pick up thed second half of the sixth season to round out my collection. I still think, as others before me have said on the first half's product page as well, putting out 8 episodes in one DVD set was really cheesy of HBO, but they are one of the few production companies that is still throwing out their shows are higher prices than everyone else.

Anyway - just wanted to note there are three "alternate endings" for the finale, but they are each about one minute, they are on the 3rd disc which is solely special features, and excist apart from any part of the episode, so you are left to imagine how they would have affected the rest of the storyline, or how these new endings would have come to fruition. Just something to consider is this is a deciding factor for someone intersting in purchasing the second half of the season.