Candace Bushnell is the creator of the Sex and the City column that existed in the New York Observe, which was soon turned into a book of essays of the same name.
In a recent interview in the New Yorker, Bushnell expressed her feelings on the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That which explores the lives of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York (Kristen Davis), and how they navigate their fifties.
“I don’t look at the TV show the way other people look at it…I don’t parse every little bit,” she explained, adding, “It’s a great show, it’s really funny. But there are fans who…it’s like, that show really guides them.”
Candace admits she was “startled” by some of the creative decisions made by And Just Like That creators Michael Patrick King, and Darren Star regarding her characters.
“I’m really startled by a lot of the decisions made in the reboot,” she said. “You know, it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past.”
Due to their stark changes, Bushnell can’t even relate to the characters she created.
“I mean, Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story, or any of my friends’ stories. But TV has its own logic.”
Bushnell has not had a problem being vocal about the franchise. She admitted to the New York Post that Sex and the City wasn’t feminist content.
“The reality is, finding a guy is maybe not your best economic choice in the long term,” Candace said. “Men can be very dangerous to women in a lot of different ways. We never talk about this, but that’s something that women need to think about: You can do a lot less…when you have to rely on a man.”
The former columnist admits that if she could do things differently, she would have made sure to tell fans how she differentiates the old show and story from the new.
“If I could do anything differently, I would have made sure we said to people in letters 10 feet tall: This is not Sex and the City,” she told Vogue earlier this month following the season finale. “If you’re looking for Sex and the City, you should watch the reruns. This is a new show for this moment and for the moment in these original characters’ lives.”