Four women. New York City. Complicated dating lives. Strong friendships. Open discussion of taboo subjects. It didn't surprise anyone when HBO's new series, "Girls," garnered comparisons to HBO's other quartet-of-women-driven sitcom, "Sex and the City."
The two shows have distinct differences, of course. The women of "Girls" are in their 20s, they're poor, they don't yet have careers, they live in Brooklyn and they have quite a bit of decidedly unsexy sex. "Sex and the City" depicts a group of women in their far-more-polished 30s -- they're unapologetically wealthy, they have covetable jobs, they exist almost-solely in Manhattan and the sex they have somehow always looks good -- even when it's awful. "SATC" is more like a cool aunt than a sister to "Girls," but the show's creator and star, Lena Dunham, doesn't deny the relationship: "This show couldn't exist without 'Sex and the City', both for what it opened up for women on television and because these characters were raised on 'Sex and the City'," she told Reuters.
The Daily even put together this handy dandy infographic, comparing the women of "Sex and the City" to the women of "Girls."
Perhaps it's not so surprising, then, that the buzz about "Girls" -- and as Gawker pointed out, there's been a lot -- has sounded so familiar. Although the "Sex and the City" franchise hasn't necessarily aged well (and those two feature films didn't help), it generated a significant amount of press when it was first on the air. Looking back at the initial coverage of the series, we realized that some of the praise -- and criticism -- SATC received could easily be mistaken for what's been said in the last two months about "Girls." So we rounded up some of the most quotable hype around each show and created a little quiz. You tell us: "Sex and the City" or "Girls"?
QUIZ: Are These Quotes About "Sex and the City" Or "Girls"?
(Scroll down for attribution of each quote.)
Are These Quotes About "Girls" Or "Sex And The City"?
Slide 1: Caryn James, New York Times, 1999
Slide 3: Emily Nussbaum, New York Magazine, 2012
Slide 5: Kara Warner, MTV's "Hollywood Crush" Blog, 2012
Slide 7: Caryn James, New York Times, 1999
Slide 9: Leah Beckmann, Gawker, 2012
Slide 11:John Tierney, New York Times, 1999
Slide 13: John Tierney, New York Times, 1999
Slide 15: Leah Beckmann, Gawker, 2012
Slide 17: Jason Bailey, Flavorwire, 2012
Slide 19: Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe, 1998
Slide 21: The Toronto Star, 1998, "The Best Chickcom Since Ally McBeal"
Slide 23: Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 2012