All of Sex and the City’s most annoying characters, ranked

Flawed is an understatement

4 weeks ago | UPDATED 2 weeks ago

Sex and the City is finally on (US not UK, sob) Netflix and it’s brought back to the forefront of our minds just how insufferable a good handful of the characters are. From Carrie slut-shaming Samantha to Richard saying “it’s just sex” while he cheated on her, there’s some seriously abominable behaviour which needs unpacking as we stream the show for the 87654th time.

So, in honour of the Sex and the City resurgence, here are the show’s top five absolute worst characters, ranked from just plain dreadful to genuinely distressing:

5. Trey and Bunny MacDougal

I think it’s fair to lump this mother and son duo in together in fifth place considering they’re close enough to still have one another in the bathroom while they bathe. Bunny was a hellish mother-in-law and made Charlotte’s life hell with her old fashioned standards, as well as being legitimately racist over the idea of an adopted grandchild. Gross.

Trey, meanwhile, gifted Charlotte a cardboard baby while she was struggling to get pregnant, which he thought was hilarious. Eye roll. He could basically never get it up, was obsessed with his mother, and couldn’t even look Charlotte in the eye during their divorce. A manchild in all the worst possible ways. The entire MacDougal family is well and truly cursed.

4. Kyra

Kyra really yanks our chain because she’s essentially a personification of all the injustices which make single women’s life a verified hellscape once we reach our late 20s and 30s. Over the years of her friends getting married, Carrie calculates she’s spent over £2k on engagement gifts, wedding presents and baby showers. But when Carrie’s £400 Manolo Blahnik heels go magically missing at Kyra’s house, she refuses to pay to replace the shoes— after she literally offered to. “I don’t think I should have to pay for your extravagant lifestyle,” Kyra tells Carrie, while they stand in her humungous apartment, which she forces everyone to take their shoes off in, leading to the Manolo robbery.

But, shoes aside, Kyra is horrendous because she makes Carrie feel totally insignificant, telling her that her life isn’t “real” because she isn’t married and hasn’t had children. Kindly, piss off. Thanks x

3. Carrie

Yes, Carrie is the it-girl of New York City and we’ll take inspo from her outfits for the rest of our time on planet earth. But Sex and the City’s protagonist was also a self-absorbed, flakey friend who talked about herself relentlessly, ditched the girls for men, slut-shamed Samantha and lambasted Charlotte for refusing to lend her money after she’d blown all of hers on shoes. Let’s get real, if we had to hang around Carried in real life, we’d all have her muted on Whatsapp.

2. Richard

Smith stans will disagree, but Richard really was the love of Samantha’s life (even if she did, ultimately, love herself more). But despite knowing how she felt about him, Richard treated Samantha like shit, claiming “it’s just sex” when she discovered him between another woman’s thighs. Great.

Overall, this guy was great at gaslighting. He called Samantha emotional, then deliberately made her cry. He destroyed her relationship with Smith the second he saw she was happy and he literally never wore a different outfit, which for some reason is a massive red flag. Slimy and selfish.

1. Big

TV’s biggest fuckboy with absolutely no agenda. Big was at his best when Carrie was daydreaming about him but as soon as he actually stepped back into her life, that’s when the trouble began. Honestly, it would have been better if he’d been killed off by a Pelaton in the very first episode. Then we might have actually stood a chance of seeing Carrie happy with Aiden.

Big messes with Carrie’s mind, even when he doesn’t want her, encourages her to start smoking again, gives her shit for not thinking more about his feelings while he merrily tramples all over hers, marries someone else, cheats, then leaves Carrie at the altar. Entitled, troublingly addictive, and an all round shit bag.