Episode Fifiteen: shortcomings

So, Carrie is dating a short-story writer, but the actor who plays the short story writer is the same actor who played the novelist she almost went home with in season one. When he comes on screen for the first time, the voiceover says: “it’s amazing how much better looking fiction writers have become.” I wonder if that’s a self-reference to the show, since the last time this actor showed up, he had a unibrow. Also, why couldn’t she have just started dating the novelist, and have the actor play the same character again?

Rhoda from Mary Tyler Moore guest-stars in this episode, and we’re supposed to fall in love with her, like Carrie does. She names her daughters Zooey and Franny, like the J.D. Salinger book, and when talking about her son’s premature ejaculation, she says “I don’t even want to get into the irony — he writes short stories.” But the part of his family I like most is his dad. He’s just so strange. And Carrie’s all sad about having to break up with the mother, but if you watch dad’s face when she gets up to leave and hands him her plate, it will break your heart.