The reexamination of Carrie’s character is nothing new. A blog titled “Carrie Bradshaw Is the Worst” that started in 2019 has been posting a detailed breakdown of Carrie’s questionable behavior from practically every episode. As the show’s original audience grows up and rewatches the series, taking a closer look at the revered characters is natural. Traits that once seemed like quirks suddenly take on new meaning.

Carrie’s missteps and flaws all boil down to her inability to show up for her friends when they need her (when Miranda hurts her neck after getting out of the shower, Carrie sends Aidan, who finds Miranda naked on the bathroom floor). Whether she’s skipping out on dinner plans with the girls to hang out with Big or dismissing their relationship issues to talk about her own, she often doesn’t provide the same level of support and empathy as the other women on the show.

I had always thought (or hoped) there was a little bit of Carrie in me. She was a successful writer in New York City with an impossibly expensive wardrobe, a singular style, good friends and a lot of spunk. From afar, her life sounded like a dream.

But once I started watching the show, I didn’t want to identify with her at all. Were my complaints to my friends that whiny? Did I dominate group conversations like that? Was my writing that trite?

But maybe Carrie being a bad friend, making bad decisions and choosing the wrong guys is the whole point. Maybe it’s easy to dislike Carrie because she represents the parts of ourselves that we don’t like. Maybe Carrie is there to teach us to take a step back and recognize our own flaws.

Maybe Carrie isn’t so bad after all.

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(Kaitlyn Huamani is a 2024 intern for the Entertainment and Arts section at the Los Angeles Times.)

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