A series that's as much about one as the other, the wonderfully funny, touching and utterly genuine Sex and the City dares to portray real adults in a thoroughly realistic environment. Filmed in and around the streets of Manhattan, the show brings New York life--and specifically singles life--alive as no other has done before. Like its HBO stablemate The Sopranos, this is TV for grown-ups: frank and non-patronising, dizzyingly well written and devastatingly accurate in its characterisations. Sarah Jessica Parker plays Carrie Bradshaw, Manhattan's "sexual anthropologist" whose weekly newspaper column gives the series its title. Kristen Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon are her acerbic, cynical, thirtysomething singleton pals: gossip, sex, men, shoes, shopping, sex, designer clothes, fashion and sex dominate their affluent yet incomprehensibly empty lifestyles as they move from swanky restaurant opening to night club to art exhibition in the relentless pursuit of fulfilment and validation. Conspicuously, the men in their lives--from "toxic bachelors" to "modelisers" and beyond--fail to provide either, leaving the women to pick up the pieces after each shattered relationship. Adapted from Candace Bushnell's bestseller, in the first season Carrie embarks on her long and tortuous liaison with "Mr Big" and watches wryly as her pals seek solace with various members of the male sex, electric appliances and even, disastrously yet briefly, celibacy. On the DVD: Fortunately, 12 outstanding episodes are their own selling point here, since the presentation of these two discs leaves something to be desired. Although Region 2 encoded, inexcusably the broadcast format is American NTSC not PAL, so if you don't have a reasonably modern TV you'll have trouble playing the discs in the first place; there's a tiny promo feature and teaser trailers, plus cast biographies and synopses that pop up at the beginning of every episode. The interface lacks a "Play All" facility, forcing you to skip back and forth from the main menu after each episode. Add to that some pretty nasty packaging and this set won't win any prizes for presentation. But the shows themselves are a constant delight: anyone who's ever dated or been dumped should own this set. --Mark Walker
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