Carrie Takes Manhattan...and Big

It was a fairy tale-esque ending for a show that firmly resisted stranding its designer-clad damsels in ivory towers.

HBO's Sex and the City came to a close Sunday night after six seasons of Cosmo-swilling, Manolo-hogging, brunch-eating and bed-hopping mayhem--and neatly wrapped up the lives of its four not so single and fabulous characters.

Carrie picked Big. Charlotte got her baby. Samantha found true love with Smith. And Miranda made the ultimate sacrifice for Steve--letting his ailing mother move into their Brooklyn brownstone.

HBO did not immediately have ratings figures for the finale, but Sunday's show was expected to be one of the top-rated in the cable network's history.

Simultaneously, the sexy series collected a Screen Actors Guild Award Sunday night for the collective effort of its cast, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon--a fitting send-off for a show about the power of female friendship.

But let's not forget about the fellas.

Ending months of will-she or won't-she speculation, Carrie ditched self-involved Ruski Aleksandr Petrovsky to give Big a second (or is it third...or fourth) chance, bringing her full circle to the series' premiere when she met the businessman after spilling the contents of her purse--condoms and all--on the sidewalk.

The show concluded with Carrie moving back to New York, her friends and a fresh start with Big--or as was revealed in the final moments of the finale on Carrie's cell phone caller ID: John.

By all accounts, it was a perfect ending.

"Thank you SATC! What an ending! Perfect! I loved how we learned that Carrie and John are going to be together," gushed a viewer on HBO's discussion board.

That sentiment was echoed in several messages:

"Of course Carrie had to end up with Big," concluded an SATCer.

"Perfection, perfection, perfection, as always!" claimed another.

Even the skeptics were swayed.

"I admit that before tonight I didn't want to see Carrie get back with 'Big'...However, the writers did such a great job, I am satisfied that John will try to do his best by our girl," read a post.

Critics, however, were a little less starry-eyed.

"Couldn't Carrie just be happy on her own?" questioned the Washington Post's Jennifer Frey, who claimed to swoon and groan simultaneously when Big declared his intentions for Carrie.

"It took me a really long time to get here," said Big, "but I'm here: Carrie, you're the one."

It was never really much of a choice wrote USA Today TV critic Robert Bianco. "Most fans had assumed Aleksandr was relationship roadkill the instant he took her to Paris, which removed any suspense the show might have been trying to build."

Predictable? Maybe. But New York Post critic Adam Buckman called it a "satisfying climax" nonetheless.

But are the ladies really headed toward happily ever after?

Viewers might get a chance to find out with a possible SATC movie. Executive producer Michael Patrick King and the cast are in talks with HBO about reprising their roles for a big-screen fling.

Until then, fans will have to settle for seasons one through five on DVD and slightly tamer syndicated versions of the show airing on TBS beginning in June and on Tribune Broadcasting, which owns 26 U.S. TV stations, and cable superstation WGN starting in September 2005.