Kill James Bond! - S4E30.5: Sex and the City

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

This is a preview of a bonus episode! Check out the whole thing, along with our huge backlog, on our Patreon! We're joined once again by best friend of the show Mattie Lubchansky to discuss 2008's Sex and the City. Taking place two years after the show finished, Big finally pops the question to Carrie, but will her overzealous wedding preparations scare him off? Samantha and Miranda deal with their own marital issues, and Charlotte is honestly just vibing the whole time Check out No Gods No Mayors here, or wherever fine Podcasts are sold! And buy Mattie's new book Simplicity here, or at any reputable bookstore! ----- FREE PALESTINE Hey, Devon here. In our home, we talk a lot about how insane everything feels, and agonise constantly over what can be done to best help the Palestinians trapped in Gaza facing the full brunt of genocidal violence. My partner Rebecca has put together a list of four fundraisers you can contribute to- all of them are at work on the ground doing what they can. -Palestinian Communist Youth Union, which is doing a food and water effort, and is part of the official communist party of Palestine https://www.gofundme.com/f/to-preserve-whats-left-of-humanity-global-solidarity -Water is Life, a water distribution project in North Gaza affiliated with an Indigenous American organization and the Freedom Flotilla https://www.waterislifegaza.org/ -Vegetable Distribution Fund, which secured and delivers fresh veg, affiliated with Freedom Flotilla also https://www.instagram.com/linking/fundraiser?fundraiser_id=1102739514947848 -Thamra, which distributes herb and veg seedlings, repairs and maintains water infrastructure, and distributes food made with replanted veg patches https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thamra-cultivating-resilience-in-gaza ----- WEB DESIGN ALERT Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ ----- Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com , as well as on our Bluesky and X.com the everything app account

Lawrence of Mylavia. Hello and welcome to another episode of Kill James Bond. I am November Kelly. I am joined as always by my friends Abigail Thorne and Devon. Hello. Calbunga. And not, as always, by my co-maier for this episode. Friend of the show, guest of the show, author of simplicity,

available wherever good comic books are sold, Matthew Lipschansky. Hello, Lawrence of Myllabia versus coughing, baby. This is all I can think about right now. I'm so sorry, the drops are all over the place. It's fine. Yeah. I was just saying I'm pleased to fulfill my role as Sex and the City Psycho Pump for your podcast. Yes, I zagged.

They expected me to zig and pick Triple X, but absolutely not. I zagged and we were doing Sex in the City. Hell yeah. A movie I watched shortly after we recorded our Halloween episode the year before last about Sex and the City too. and it's been burning a hole in my mind ever since. Yeah. It's okay.

It's not bad. I liked this one. It's good. Well, it's way less racist than the second one. It only has one moment of racism. It manages to pull off being very racist. Not entirely non-racist. Yeah.

It's less racist. Less racist. Let's concede that. It's got one really racist moment that also ties into one of my other grand theories of the show. We can get into it later. I have so many grand things. I have many, many grand theories of the show and movies. This is why I knew we had to get a sex in the city expert.

A sex expert. A sexist. A ambassador from sex in the city. From the city. From the city. New York City. It's kind of like a character in that. I have lived in Manhattan.

So, in fact, at the end of the movie, there's that restaurant where Charlotte spots big. I used to live one block away from there. I know exactly what one. It's like the city is a place. It's like a... It's like the city is a place in the movie. We begin with some shots of New York City, and my note just says, oh my God, is that the city from Megalopolis?

Which, it is, but not in any of the same fun and entertaining ways. It is. This one, you know, Sex and the City, too, just drops you off in there with no context at all. This one gives you, I would say, maybe too much context. Nobody was watching Sex in the City, too, without knowing. who these characters were. Sexness, the movie? Three people watched.

Yeah, we did, yeah. And so Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker, who is our kind of like viewpoint character protagonist, narrator of episodes, briefs us on the concept of sometimes four women are friends. Yeah, she says, year after year, 20-something women come to New York looking for two things,

labels and love and my notes say that's not a lot of women I thought New York City was bigger than that this is to me some of the thing where it's like okay I know they're doing this like intro thing because this is like three years after the show ends

and there was like delays getting the movie made post the show ending because Kim control was like fuck you pay me she was right because she was correct because she's the only good thing on the thing yes which one is she? Samantha this love that's Samantha

hell yeah she's the only good one and she's the only one and she's the only member of the cast that's in one of the Star Trek movies. So she plays a Vulcan and it rocks. No, but, but you know, so they're given the context because there's been the three or four years since the show ended. But right off the jump here

is the thing that drives me insane about this movie, which is the fact that it treats sex in the city, the television show, as a sort of mythological text. Like, it's like, oh, and now because of us, New York City is full of groups of four women who are friends. Four white women who are friends,

wandering around and going out tops, trying to get the clubs together. Previously, four women could never be friends. Yeah. It was three, five. Every show has like groups of four women. There are four women everywhere for those with eyes to see, right? And they're all much younger than the like actual four sex in the city stars.

And you'd think this might be a kind of nice like baton passing moment, right? No, no, no. Talons pledged on that fucking baton. No, no. No, no. Those people are fucking extras. Shut the fuck up! You're not going to line.

Get out of the shot. Make way for Carrie Bradshaw in a fucking stupid outfit. Yeah, that will continue. Carrie Bradshaw is never getting a fucking fit off. I hate to say it. There's this moment where some of these 20-something kids walk past her and one of the goes, hot dress, and I'm like, is she being sarcastic? They're like owning her behind her back.

Yeah, Carrie Bradshaw is unc. She is chopped. She's washed. Yeah. She is washed. But so we see the actual four of them who have like not been very successful at love, Carrie says, but have been successful at labels. Just kind of ogling men on the street, but men can be gay now, for instance, because of how modern New York is. And so the guy that they're like, damn, his heart goes and kisses his boyfriend.

And it's like very modern. Yeah, it's somewhat modern, I'd say. There's a real moment of, I don't know what emotion crosses over their faces. It's not outright disgust, but it's certainly mixed in that. Well, it's a show made by a gay man and it shows in a lot of ways. And a gay man would never be disgusted by game. But it is like a weirdly homophobic show, but it treats, it treats gay men as a sort of like exotic figure. And the way that they're all just like striving to be hags the whole length of the show.

Yeah, but you know, it's it's hard to overstate as someone who is a little older than all three of you. how as someone who was like a full adult out of college and stuff in 2008, how fully insanely homophobic the world was at the time for adults. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it is, this is like the most progressive you're going to get at the time, which is insane to consider,

but it's true. Yeah, I guess it's like an on-screen gay kiss in the first five minutes. Like, you know. It's not nothing. No one is like, everyone's like,

oh, yeah, whatever. So Carrie tells us exactly what happened to each of the four sex and the city women over the course of the show. So Carrie's deal is that she is together in a unmarried relationship. She is living in sin

with Mr. Big. I hate this fucking guy and his fucking smirk. I will destroy Mr. Bing. I Peloton slumbereth not. Mr. Big who is not yet dead. Mr. Alive, they called him.

They've been dating for 10 years as well. That's a big thing. On and off. Many, many, The series finale of the original show, which I've also watched recently, is when she dumps, and I'm not joking, Mikhail Beriznikov for Mr. Big. Awesome. Michael Bergenikov is playing an artist named Alexander Petrovsky. He was like a Russian artist.

But it is Mikhail Bergenikov, who is, I think, pretty good on the show. So they have to rescue each of them from their happy ending in order to kick the movie along. So, like, Samantha, the one who loves sex is in Los Angeles with her movie stuff. our boyfriend. Yeah, shagging. Except, yeah, except now she's kind of unfulfilled. She's working as his agent. She is his PR woman.

It's how they started dating. And she like, she like made him famous in the show. Smith. Yeah. Charlotte whose deal is that she like always had like fertility problems and adopted a kid is now like living with her husband and daughter.

She sucks. She hate her boo. Charlotte fucking is the worst one. Charlotte's the sleeper worst one. The rest one. She is. She is. ...have such on-the-face bad shit going on that you forget that Charlotte would have been at January 6th, 100%. Absolutely, she was there. Without a doubt.

All of these women and their husbands voted for Trump every time. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, Steve did not vote for Trump. Steve didn't know at all. Steve did vote from Trump. That's true. Steve forgot to vote. Charlotte is now living in Florida.

That's actually... She is now, yeah. Now she is, absolutely. Yeah, and then there's also Miranda, who is the lawyer, and she's been exiled to Brooklyn, if you can imagine such a thing. Back when living in Brooklyn was hope and seeth. As opposed to like, that meant that you were hanging out with the coolest to hottest transsexuals in the world. Well, that also wasn't true even of, like going to, I mean, when she moved to the Brooklyn in the show, again, let me, context alert him. sorry, I'll stop doing this in a moment.

But like, but like it was like literally people would not go to the outer boroughs. They would refuse to do it until like 2012. They just wouldn't go. We see a scene of that later on. But so Miranda is living with her husband

and her kids and she's like she's the professional one. She's a lawyer, right? She's sort of like juggling the demands of career and family, etc., etc., etc., right? Yes. So Carrie and Big are going to move in together and their house shopping.

And they find this absolutely ludicrous penthouse and they talk about who's going to buy it and Big's like, I'll get it you don't need to pay for any of it. It's fine. I'll just get it. Yeah. So they're like apartment shopping and they come across this dog shit apartment that's

probably like unimaginably expensive no, because it's in Manhattan and it's like got square footage. And they're like no, this is dog shit, I can't do it. And the person who's shown in the apartment's like, well, we do have the penthouse for sale as well. And they go up there and

It's beautiful and whatever. And Carrie's having her like, I'm Carrie Bradshaw's Exx in the city moment. She's like spinning in the sunlight. And you could see Mr. Big being like, I'm going to have to buy this fucking apartment. You know what's fully fucking insane about this scene? Is that they have a real estate agent.

And Mr. Big is canonically, his job is real estate guy. He owns a lot of real estate. When he's introduced on the show, he is like Donald Trump coded in like 1998. Why does he have a real estate agent showing? apartments. Why does he just go, here's an apartment I own already. It's bizarre. Bizarre. But also, so Carrie's like, how come

this fabulous apartments on the market? And they say, oh, there was a very nasty divorce, which kind of makes Carrie a little bit nervous. The girls also go to an auction of some jewels, which are being sold off as the result of a very nasty divorce. So like... In fact, I don't think it was even a divorce. I think it was worse than that. I think this is the peril, right, that they establishes. If you are a beautiful woman in New York, you're Mr. Big. And you don't get married, not only do you get kicked out on the street because he owns the apartment, but you have to, like, publicly and humiliatingly auction all of your jewelry because you don't

have like an alimony, you don't have a divorce settlement. Incidentally, Carrie says, this is the type of event that can bring all types of New York women together and all of them are rich, all of them are white, and none of them is above a size too. So I... Great. That's all the types of women, yes. Yeah, all the women. Why do you think I live in Queens? All the women.

Not allowed there. In groups of four. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. Which they invented. Pretty good. So Carrie's a little bit nervous about this.

And so she's having this chat with Biggs. She's like, oh, I want to contribute to the new players. He's like, no, you don't need you. I'll just get it. And she's like, well, you know, if we're not married and move in together, you could kick me out on the street. And he's like, okay, do you want to get married then? And so they have this. I like this.

It is exactly as hard. Oh, okay. I'm going to, sorry, I'll let you say what you liked about. It's very grown up. It's very, adults, very matter of fact. They're just like, well, yeah, you know, we could get married if you, if you want to. Do you want to? Do you? Yeah, sure.

I kind of want to get married to you. Why not? I'm like, let's do it. So they just, they just decide to. It's fine to be an old childless couple that just kind of decides to get married. I'm great. I'm sure it's fine, but I'm a real lover. So what I, and this is Carrie motherfucking Bradshaw that you are talking about as well.

Like, if there's anyone who is going to be open to a massive, like, public engagement, it is her. Yeah. And is she ever? Biggs, kind of role in this is like, what if we just did something like, purely for the sake of like, you aren't right, it's fine, we'll go to City Hall, it'll be quiet, and we'll just, like, get it done, tick the box, and it doesn't, because it doesn't matter, because we're together. I do know that, like, this is sort of a difference in kind of modernity or something between 2008 and now, but like, I don't know, you can't be in a room with two trans women five minutes

without them marrying each other, but like, it takes this at six, seasons and 10 fucking years to even consider the question. I mean, to be clear, Dev, I would want to have this very grown-up conversation and then I want the big public proposal. Carrie Bradshaw. They should agree. And he's not a public person. It should be them leaving that conversation engaged.

They should be like, okay, we're both open to it. And then like just let's forget about this. And then I'll fucking surprise with it at some point. Exactly. But for him very much like that, I just want you. And if getting married to you is what it takes to. continue to have you in my little box in my house, then fine, 100% whatever, whatever you want. I'm really, yeah, the marriage I can take or leave, I'm really excited to move into our

big apartment so that I can exercise on a Peloton all day. I can watch old movies. The third in the relationship, the Peloton rubbing its hands together. I hate, I hate Biggs fucking, like, old movies shit. I hate him so much. Here's the thing about Mr. Baker, because this is, as someone who's been watching a lot of the old episodes, it is, it is insane. how not charming he is

and the show is always like and look at this charming guy she can't stay away from and then he's like hi a kid and then he quotes like Butch Cassidy at her and it's like fucking who cares

who cares about this man he does nothing charming throughout the course of this time I watched on the YouTube the scene where he dies and he doesn't even have any lines in it which is nuts and then they found out he was

he had some allegations hanging on him Mr. North so to say RIP Bozo yeah that's right Is he dead for real? If you die in sex in the city, do you die in real life? Yeah, they killed him with that peloton.

That's why it looks so visceral. They actually don't mention this, but they actually, those bodies that you see on the show are sort of like avatars and they're back in the tank. If you die in sex in the city, you die in real life. Because your body is confused and things that it does. Look, you know of a drill. If you want to hear the rest of this episode about sex in the city, you're going to have to head on over to our Patreon.

Patreon.com slash kill James Bond. all one word and sign up today for as it looks five pounds a month five pounds to get the whole backlog there's like a hundred of them probably i haven't actually counted but there's like a hundred of them probably maybe more for five pounds it's a pretty good deal