From Column to Cultural Phenomenon
Sex and the City did not begin as a TV show. It began as a column. Candace Bushnell wrote "Sex and the City" as a weekly feature for the New York Observer starting in 1994, a frank, gossip-forward dispatch from Manhattan's dating trenches that drew on her own social life among writers, models, and financiers. Those columns were collected into a book in 1996, and it was that book that landed on the desk of producer Darren Star, who adapted it for HBO.
The TV series that premiered in 1998 transformed everything. What had been arch, anonymous, and sometimes uncomfortable in Bushnell's original writing became warm, serialized, and deeply felt in the hands of showrunner Michael Patrick King and a cast led by Sarah Jessica Parker. The show ran for six seasons, ended in 2004, spawned two theatrical films, a prequel series on The CW, and a revival on Max that continues to this day. It also generated a modest wave of tie-in novels and international remakes. Few stories about friendship and ambition have traveled quite so far.
Every Version of Sex and the City
The source material, every screen adaptation, and the key tie-in fiction
Sex and the City Across Time
- 1994Bushnell's column launches in the New York Observer Hex and the city
- 1996Columns collected into a book by Candace Bushnell Hex and the city
- 1998HBO series premieres, created by Darren Star Sex and the City
- 2002Bushnell's Trading Up published Trading Up
- 2004TV series finale airs (Season 6 Part 2)
- 2008First theatrical film released Sex and the City
- 2008Lipstick Jungle, based on Bushnell's novel, premieres on NBC Lipstick Jungle
- 2008Cashmere Mafia, co-created by Bushnell, premieres on ABC Cashmere Mafia
- 2010Second theatrical film released Sex and the City 2
- 2013The Carrie Diaries prequel series premieres on The CW The Carrie Diaries
- 2013Bushnell's Carrie Diaries novel series collected The Carrie diaries
- 2022Revival series And Just Like That... premieres on Max And Just Like That…
If You Love the Friendship as Much as the Romance
Stories about women, ambition, and the city as a backdrop for life
If You Love the New York Glamour
Fashion, money, and Manhattan: stories that share the same zip code in spirit
If You Love the Candace Bushnell Universe
Works from or directly inspired by Bushnell's world of Manhattan social observation
The definitive version is still the original HBO run
Seasons one through six of the HBO series are the reason everything else in this guide exists. The writing is sharper than the films, the chemistry between the four leads is irreplaceable, and the show earns its emotional conclusions. The later seasons lean heavily on the real estate and wardrobe, but the core observation about how adult friendships function as chosen family holds up without reservation. Start here, finish here, return here.
The underrated one: The Carrie Diaries deserved more seasons
The Carrie Diaries never got a fair hearing because audiences came to it expecting something the show could not be at that age and budget. On its own terms it is a charming 1980s coming-of-age story, with AnnaSophia Robb doing genuine work in a role that could have been pure fan service. It was cancelled after two seasons. Both are worth watching, and the cancellation still stings.
The one to skip: Sex and the City 2
The second film sends the four women to Abu Dhabi and mostly just spends money. The jokes land badly, the central conflicts feel contrived, and the cultural observations have not aged well at all. It exists, it made money, and it is not required viewing for anyone who wants to remember the series well. The first film, for all its excesses, at least tries to be about something.