Warning: this story contains spoilers.

As the fall season is in full swing, so is “rot-in-bed-binging Netflix shows” season. It marks a critical time in every college girl’s life. This season comes around every year when the weather gets cold and assignments pile up. However, this year is different because women of all ages don’t have to ask the age-old question: “What show should I watch this fall?” They already know that “Sex and The City” will give them all they need and more. 

The ‘90s rom-com series aired in 1998, back when the parents of this generation were in college. The show focuses on Carrie Bradshaw, a fabulous, cigarette-smoking, shoe-addicted, toxic-man-loving writer living in New York. She writes a weekly column titled “Sex and the City” using the lives of her and her friends, Miranda Hobbes, Samantha Jones and Charlotte York as inspiration. 

Based on The New York Observer’s column titled “Sex and the City,” written by Candace Bushnell, the show has remained relatively ageless. Even world-famous rapper Megan thee Stallion has been watching it.

Year after year, the series finds new ways to stay relevant. This year it has taken over TikTok, with new trends emerging constantly. These videos typically make fun of the differences between Carrie and her best friends. 

While the main protagonist in the series is Carrie, it also focuses on the lives and loves of Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. Each woman has a different personality, and therefore, a different approach to life and love. Miranda is an ice-cold lawyer, Samantha is a promiscuous publicist and Charlotte is a hopeless romantic working as an art gallerist. The series highlights their differences from the very first episode, making the TikTok memes almost too easy.

Fans participate in the new trends under the hashtag #bigismovingtoparis, like this video reaching 1.4 million views. The joke is that each woman represents a completely different viewpoint while Carrie is mostly focused on her toxic relationship with Mr. Big– her on-again, off-again boyfriend throughout the series. Every video under the trend showcases the vastly different opinions of each woman while making fun of Carrie for only being worried about Mr. Big. 

Another recent trend on TikTok also pokes fun at Carrie’s fixation on Mr. Big, but this one recognizes its relatability. This video by popular TikTok creator @halleykate received almost 900,000 views and emphasized how she relates to Carrie because she’s “never gotten over anything ever.” 

While Carrie’s relatability is the main focus of some TikTok trends, many watchers gravitate toward the series because of the friendship between the four Manhattan women. This friendship hooks viewers and keeps them coming back every fall.

UT student Stephanie Shaw said she started watching “Sex and the City” while doing the UTNY program. This program allows UT students to spend a semester living, working and learning in New York. Stephanie went this past spring and met three girls who became her close friends. They decided that watching “Sex and the City” while being in the city was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Stephanie watched the series and found the vulnerability of the characters similar to her own experience with female friendship.

“Those women have been friends for so long that there’s nothing off the table for them to say to each other or tell each other,” Stephanie said, “I relate to that a lot with every friend that I’ve had. I would literally tell her the most embarrassing thing in the world, (and) she’d still be my best friend.”

Stephanie is referencing the lack of filters among the friend group in the show. From hearing about each other’s wild sex lives, to actually catching each other in the act, the show leaves little to the imagination when it comes to the romantic escapades of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. Samantha, with her think-like-a-man attitude, gets into particularly outlandish sexual antics. 

“Anything Samantha, you automatically know you need to be wearing headphones,” Stephanie said. “Don’t have her on your screen, like on the subway, because someone’s gonna think you’re watching porn.”

While the vulgarity may be off-putting for some, the show still finds its way into the hearts of women across multiple generations. Lina Ogden, a woman from Groveton, Texas, watched the show while in college when it first aired.

Like Stephanie, Lina said she believes the show represents true female companionship, which is why she’s been a fan all these years. 

“It’s like no matter how many guys (the group of women) go through, they always have each other to lean on,” Lina said. “I think that’s why women bond over (the show), because that’s something no one else can understand; always having each other to turn to no matter (what) the situation is.”

Lina also praised the setting of the series– New York City. The glamorous city that never sleeps plays a huge part in the show’s appeal. 

This “chic New York lifestyle,” as Stephanie called it, glamorizes the characters in a way that makes one like the show more. From summer in the Hamptons to Carrie prancing around in $400 shoes at the hottest clubs, viewers can’t help but become entranced by the girls’ glamorous antics. 

While the four women all share this lifestyle, their differences remain prevalent, which Stephanie says adds to the appeal of the series. 

“I really loved watching the four of them be ridiculous and having fun, and going through just relationship after relationship in their own individual ways,” Stephanie said. “All four of them are so different from each other. I had four whole storylines to follow and people to care about that are totally different.”

While the show may be vulgar and a tad old, college girls of all generations have found comfort in it. Not just because of the city aesthetic or the incredible outfits the cast wears, but because of the bond shared by the four women. 

It’s no surprise that strong, feminine friendship is the magnet that keeps pulling viewers back to this beloved series. After all, as Carrie famously said, “They say nothing lasts forever, dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style.”