New Candace Bushnell series Lipstick Jungle has not been a ratings hit, despite containing many of the same ingredients as the writer's earlier project Sex and the City, and shows pitched at a similar demographic, like Desperate Housewives.
So... did any Dollymix readers see it? Yes, I'm talking to you. This article calls it 'Hen Party TV' and has some great quotes from Professors who've obviously watched every episode of Sex and the City. More than once. Why were there never any teachers like that when I was at school?
Professor Christine Geraghty, a lecturer in film and television studies at the University of Glasgow says: "There's an infantilising of women in these programmes - they fall off their high heels or are still obsessed with handbags in their thirties. And there's an acceptance of a completely feminine persona, while many women do not see themselves as pink and fluffy. If you go back to the 1930s screwball comedies, the women never stopped talking and they never gave into the men - they had that femininity and glamour but without the infantilisation."
Interesting. I do think the Sex and the City movie was triumphantly about friendship (out on DVD now, incidentally) but in the TV show there was definitely a fair amount of 'giving in' and looking to men to take the lead - particularly with Carrie who can be really child-like (and childish) at times.
So why did Lipstick Jungle fail where SATC succeeded? Our friends over on TVScoop have a theory. But what's yours?
