Bizarrely, this episode centred around Carrie getting hip surgery as she learns about a undiagnosed congenital condition which can be fixed with a little surgery and some physiotherapy. How simple and convenient is that? It’s not a great set up to the episode, in that we have a rich white lady getting surgery on her hip, in a hospital that looks like a hotel but while the realism of how Carrie can afford her lavish lifestyle has always been somewhat glossed over and ignored, would it really have been so bad to stick her in a normal hospital? Anyway, that’s really beside the point. Carrie’s goal is to rehabilitate herself back in to high heels and a handsome physiotherapist is going to help her get there.
As mildly interesting as that may be, this episode belongs to Miranda and really starts to pick at the scab of whatever it is she is hiding from. This series is putting too much focus on old age, when these women really aren’t in their old age at all, they are in their prime but all the seem to be doing is talking about how old they’re getting, and how different the world is now. All but Miranda, who instead is making huge changes to her life. She admits that she is drinking more post-pandemic and assures Carrie that if she didn’t think had it under control she would do something about it. However, upon receiving a self help book for quitting drinking, that she assumes has been sent to her by a judgy Charlotte, she seems hellbent on proving that she doesn’t have a problem. That is until the incident in Carries kitchen.
While Carrie is semi-comatose in bed, Miranda welcomes in Che who has popped by to see Carrie. Miranda and Che have fantastic chemistry and a few episodes prior, we saw her curiosity getting piqued at the after party and the sense of something potentially happening between them at some point. Her timing was a little screwy though. Poor Carrie, who was forced to pee into a bottle while listening to Miranda orgasm loudly in the other room is not an ideal situation.
Carrie, understandably pissed off confronts Miranda and suggests that maybe she does have drinking problem. To which Miranda exclaims that she is incredibly unhappy with her whole life. In this admission, she exposes the root to all her problems, the reason why she has been behaving so erratically. She feels totally trapped in her life, she tried to mix it up by quitting her job but her home life is routined, boring, miserable. The sad fact that she tells Che, post orgasm, that that was the single greatest feeling she has ever had in her whole life, makes you wonder if this woman, in her mid fifties, has never been fully sexually satisfied. Or is it that having sex with Che, felt more right to her than having sex with Steve? Che tells her to DM her if she wants to hook up again, but Miranda, in her tequila haze, seems so happy with what she has done. She shows no remorse or fear, she just seems so happy. Is this the end for Steve and Miranda and the beginning of something new for her?
Charlotte continues to be the most irritating woman on earth as she find out her daughter, who no longer identifies as a girl, has changed her name at school to “Rock’. Charlotte learns about this from her cliquey little mum group and is unreasonably annoyed that she didn’t know about it. It is baffling how difficult she is finding it to wrap her head around what is going on here. As a fifty-something woman, living in one of the most diverse cities in the world, who is immersed in the arts world, you would think she would be less ‘stick up the ass’ about this. But she isn’t. She is being petty and stuck up and it feels unnatural and wrong. One can only hope that she goes through a similar transformative period as Miranda, because if anyone needs a shake up, it’s Charlotte. Otherwise she might just explode all over her spreadsheets.
What this show is doing so well, is continuing the stories of three immaculate women with loads of money living in gorgeous homes in one of the most exciting cities in the world. What this show isn’t doing well, is revitalising these women. It feels like its been written by someone in their thirties who thinks they know what being in their fifties is like. That they all only ever talk about how old they are, how to be politically correct ‘these days’ and the various struggles they have with being in their fifties. Whereas, realistically, women in their fifties are just as vivacious as women in their forties. Have they been locked in a time capsule for the last ten years and only just emerged into a whole new world as frail old women? No! They are three women who have lived their lives in New York City, who have been surrounded by culture and interesting/different people. Women who are embracing ageing, who are still as prolific and active as ever, so why this constant reminder that they’re in their fifties?
Regardless of this, the show continues to be wholly enjoyable and it is great being back in this world. Especially for Miranda, who’s journey is really getting started.
