When Three Is Neither Company Nor A Crowd: Least Favorite Love Triangles On TV

By Maureen

I’m not a fan of love triangles. I’ve never been involved in one, and neither has anyone I know. The modern television writer, however, seems to think that love triangles are so commonplace a situation that shows feature them frequently. Usually I am able to ignore them, but three particular examples in recent memory come to mind as especially aggravating. In the spirit of the “power of three,” here they are.

Aidan/Carrie/Mr. Big: Sex and the City, Season 3 through the second feature film

Carrie meets Aidan at his store and they hit it off; she even becomes fond of his dog! Then Big swoops back into her life, and everything goes to hell and obnoxiousness in a Louis Vuitton baguette.

Carrie sleeps with the then-married Big and they carry on an affair for months, which ends when his 25-year-old wife catches Carrie raiding the fridge in their apartment one summer day. The respective relationships as well as the affair end, Carrie and Aidan eventually reunite, move in together, and get engaged. But ultimately, Aidan realizes what we’ve all known since the pilot, namely that Carrie is obsessed with Big despite his innate snobbery and will never formally commit to Aidan the way he wants.

Carrie and Big get married in the first feature film, despite all of her protesting throughout the series that she’s “not the marrying kind.” In the entirely unnecessary sequel to the film, Carrie improbably but conveniently runs into Aidan in a market in the Middle East, and they have dinner and subsequently kiss. Carrie has clearly not matured or learned anything from her two prior positions being caught between these two men.

My biggest problem with this love triangle is the shallow and immature behavior of the characters. Instead of breaking up with Aidan when Big comes back into her life, Carrie takes the greedy approach and more people end up getting hurt. I have long said that Aidan is too good for her, and I think that this plotline proves it more than any other in the history of this franchise.

In the episode “The Belles of the Balls,” Big and Aidan actually get into a physical altercation at Aidan’s country home and Carrie encourages them to see how ridiculous they’re acting. When Carrie Bradshaw is the voice of reason about people acting ridiculous, we have a problem. When Big’s wife tries to confront Carrie, Carrie runs away from her down the fire escape, and Natasha ends up chipping her front tooth after slipping on her undoubtedly overpriced impractical shoes. A mature woman would fess up and sit down to talk it out, or at least not run away like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar.

This triangle plotline adds very little to the story, and asks the viewers to have sympathy for Carrie as she “struggles” with her “feelings.” We all know she’s going to choose the materialistic commitment-phobe; Aidan’s upstate home and DIY fashion sense never even stands a chance.

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