{"id":47758,"date":"2022-01-20T13:20:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T13:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=47758"},"modified":"2022-01-20T19:49:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T19:49:30","slug":"reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David
David Eigenberg and Cynthia Nixon as Steve and Miranda in And Just Like That<\/i> (Photo: Craig Blankenhorn \/ HBO Max)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spoilers ahead for Episode 8 of <\/em>And Just Like That\u2026<\/p>\n

Well, the moment we\u2019ve all been dreading has arrived. On this week\u2019s episode of And Just Like That<\/em><\/a>, Miranda<\/a> (Cynthia Nixon) finally tells her loving, partially deaf husband Steve (David Eigenberg) that she\u2019s been having an affair with non-binary stand-up comedian Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez<\/a>) and wants a divorce.<\/p>\n

No one is happy about this development. I mean, except for Miranda and Che, I guess. But even that seems highly questionable. I mean, does anyone really believe that Miranda\u2019s mid-life crisis rebound relationship with a perpetually stoned comedian is headed for a happy ending? From Miranda\u2019s slightly manic spiel about living in a romantic comedy as she spontaneously heads off to surprise Che in Cleveland at the end of the episode, to Che\u2019s assertion that they cannot offer Miranda anything \u201ctraditional\u201d (read: monogamy is not an option), to the way showrunner Michael Patrick King loves<\/em> to humiliate these characters, everything about this storyline makes me pretty confident that our girl is in for a profound disappointment. (Sidebar: Did Miranda just, like, peace out leaving Steve to break the news of their impending divorce to their son<\/a>?)<\/p>\n

But the most devastating part of the Miranda and Steve and Che love triangle is unquestionably poor Steve\u2019s post-mortem on their 21-year relationship. \u201cYou and me, we\u2019ve been together for a long time, and it\u2019s always been like this,\u201d he tells her. \u201cYou don\u2019t think that I\u2019m enough, then I\u2019m kind of enough, and then I\u2019m not enough again? And I\u2019m always there, you know, hangin\u2019 in there for us.\u201d Ouch.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Eigenberg and Cynthia Nixon as Steve and Miranda in And Just Like That<\/i> (Photo: Craig Blankenhorn \/ HBO Max)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve has been a fan favorite almost from the moment the character was introduced in Season 2, and he and Miranda quickly became arguably the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City<\/em><\/a>. While fans debated whether Carrie should end up with Mr. Big or Aidan<\/a>, no one really ever questioned the fact that Miranda and Steve were meant to be. He was just so adorable and sweet and seemed to provide the balance that a Type-A alpha female like Miranda needed in her life.<\/p>\n

But given Steve\u2019s take on their relationship, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of Sex and the City<\/em>\u2019s great love stories.<\/p>\n

From the start, their relationship was contentious. They met in Season 2, when Carrie stood Miranda up at the bar where Steve was slinging drinks. The two traded verbal barbs before hitting it off; Miranda took Steve home for what she thought was going to be a one-night-stand. Except that for some reason, Steve was really into this ridiculously hostile lawyer lady. Miranda, meanwhile, seemed poised to repeat the pattern she\u2019d played out in Season 1 with Skipper (Ben Weber): driving away a sweet, goofy guy who adored her with her withering disdain. But she decided to give Steve a chance, and they dated for a while, until their vastly differing socioeconomic statuses\u2014he was a bartender from Queens; she was a wealthy corporate lawyer\u2014came between them.<\/p>\n

And this, as Sex and the City <\/em>lore goes, is where their romance was originally supposed to end. But Steve proved so popular with the show\u2019s audience that MPK and co. brought him back at the end of the season, when he and Miranda start sleeping together semi-casually. From a television-making perspective, this was a no-brainer. You\u2019ve got a charismatic pair of actors with chemistry? The fans want to see more of them together? Of course, you bring Steve back! Plus, the Miranda-Steve pairing grounded what was often an over-the-top show in a fairly recognizable reality. They provided a contrast to the impossibly glamorous lives of the other characters, while their own personalities and background contrasted in interesting ways.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia
Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg as Miranda and Steve in Sex and the City<\/i> (Photo: courtesy of HBO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But did they make sense as a couple? This seemed to be the thrust of their storyline in the first half of Season 3. As they got more and more serious\u2014they got back together officially, Steve moved into Miranda\u2019s apartment\u2014their differences became more and more apparent. Miranda was ambitious; Steve was happy just tending bar. Miranda was a work-a-holic; Steve just wanted her to hang out and watch cartoons on the weekends. When Steve started pressuring Miranda to have a baby when she clearly didn\u2019t want to be a parent, it became clear that however much they loved each other, they couldn\u2019t reconcile the fact that they wanted different things.<\/p>\n

Maybe Steve and Miranda\u2019s story should have ended here. Their relationship seemed to have run its course and they ended things on a mature, reasonably amicable note. It was sad, but satisfying. But serialized television, like life, rarely wraps up so neatly. The show continued<\/a> to bring Steve back into Miranda\u2019s life in ways that did mostly<\/em> make sense for two people who had mutual friends as well as a romantic history. They remained friends and would occasionally sleep together. Then she got pregnant and kept the baby for some reason, and so they had to co-parent until some combination of single mom stress and parent pheromones (I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not a scientist!) and fan-service led Miranda to the conclusion that she was in love with Steve, and they got married.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia
Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg filming a scene in the first Sex and the City<\/i> movie (Photo: Arnaldo Magnani\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking back on Miranda and Steve\u2019s history on Sex and the City<\/em>, I realize that my beef is not with the fact that the show kept bringing them back together, but rather that it kept trying to sell us on their happily-ever-after. By its final season, the show had devolved from a gimlet-eyed satire of the dating rituals of Manhattan\u2019s elite to a full-on romantic comedy. As such, it had no choice but pair off its heroines with the men of their dreams. Which would have been fine if MPK and co. didn\u2019t continue to exhume the series in two cringe-worthy movies and once again in And Just Like That<\/em>. As almost every character on Sex and the City <\/em>would have probably told you in 1999, happily-ever-after isn\u2019t a thing. And it only works in stories if they actually come to an end. The franchise kept throwing crises at Miranda and Steve while also insisting that they remain together, a status quo that increasingly defied credibility.<\/p>\n

The reason people are having such a hard time<\/a> with Miranda\u2019s storyline in And Just Like That<\/em> is because they love these characters\u2014they love Miranda and Steve together. They want to believe in their happily-ever-after. But the truth is, if you want more of the story, you have to accept that things continue to change, and not always for the better.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia
Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg as Miranda and Steve in And Just Like That<\/i> (Photo: Craig Blankenhorn \/ HBO Max)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is certainly not a stretch to believe that Miranda would find herself unhappily married to Steve and living reluctantly in Brooklyn. As Steve himself points out, the character we\u2019ve known all these years has always been a little ambivalent about him. In fact, she was ambivalent about pretty much every major decision she made in the original series\u2014from getting into a relationship with a bartender, to having a baby, to moving to Brooklyn\u2014that got her to the place she is now. So many of those decisions were semi-coerced or based in fear: fear of being alone, fear of becoming too cynical, fear of never being a parent, probably even internalized homophobia. At almost every major turning point in the character\u2019s six-season journey, Miranda went against<\/em> her nature, choosing the surprisingly more conventional path. When you really think about it, of all the characters on Sex and the City<\/em>, she\u2019s the one who bowed most to society\u2019s expectations of women. It makes total sense\u2014especially when you consider the year and a half, give or take, that she presumably has spent isolating in her home with Steve and Brady, reevaluating her life like so many of us\u2014that Miranda would begin to realize how dissatisfied she is with the life she\u2019s made.<\/p>\n

And so, here we are, with two more episodes of And Just Like That <\/em>to go and Miranda ready to blow up her life. I\u2019m not particularly into it. None of us are. But I think I get it. I think, despite how it makes us feel, it is, after all, an earned development for the character. But I also think that, once again, Miranda is making a rash decision based on fear: fear of getting older, fear of boredom, fear of the slow, inevitable march toward the grave. I find it hard to believe that this decision is going to work out any better than any of the others she\u2019s made over the past two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":47759,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16,3925],"yoast_head":"\nReconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-20T19:49:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/david-eigenberg-cynthia-nixon-e1642683160291.jpg?fit=1280%2C720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/\",\"name\":\"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-20T13:20:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-20T19:49:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Grazia USA\",\"description\":\"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019","description":"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019","og_description":"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.","og_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/","og_site_name":"Grazia USA","article_modified_time":"2022-01-20T19:49:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/david-eigenberg-cynthia-nixon-e1642683160291.jpg?fit=1280%2C720","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/","name":"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-01-20T13:20:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-20T19:49:30+00:00","description":"Miranda and Steve have always been the most rooted-for couple on Sex and the City. But given certain developments on And Just Like That, maybe it\u2019s worth reconsidering what we thought was one of the show\u2019s great love stories.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/reconsidering-miranda-steve-sex-and-the-city\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reconsidering Miranda and Steve\u2019s Relationship on \u2018Sex and the City\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/","name":"Grazia USA","description":"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Grazia USA","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/47758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}