I couldn't help but wonder: Does "Sex and the City" belong on that list?
As the second cinematic installment arrives Friday on a glitzy, silver screen platter, it's a good time to consider it.
In recent memory, HBO's "Six Feet Under," FX's "The Shield" and the original, British version of "The Office" all had intensely satisfying conclusions, while "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Fugitive" have classically acclaimed endings. "The Sopranos" and its indecisive last-second cut to black belongs in a class of polarizing brilliance.
For me — and, yes, I watched and enjoyed every episode of "Sex and the City" — it was a conclusion so satisfying that I look with disdain upon the first movie.
It wasn't where I expected a show about four single women in New York City to go, but that was precisely why I wound up respecting it's conclusion.
They were drawn so distinctly in the pilot: The snobby art dealer, the career-minded lawyer, the promiscuous public relations rep, and, of course, the relatable columnist.
But of the joy was watching them break these bonds and become full-fledged characters. It earned its finale by taking its leading ladies to places we never expected them to go.
Even Samantha (Kim Cattrall), the most sexually adventurous of the bunch, found someone strong enough to endure her phobias about intimacy and commitment.
The series' final season was about watching its gals begin to settle down. That should be anathema for the show's premise, but it was particularly satisfying because it did it on its own terms, dragging its ladies kicking and screaming into their futures.
That's precisely where it needed to stop. The series is called "Sex and the City," which implies single, young women on the prowl, not Betty White in stiletto heels.
The movie added nothing to our experience or understanding of the characters.
Also, at 2.5 hours, it lacked the focus of a single episode and left me wondering what, exactly, was the point. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) was still married. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) still had children. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) wed, which we knew would happen anyway.
It undid Samantha's well-earned conclusion and insulted Carrie's intelligence. Little about the characters' fates changed as a result of the leap to the big screen.
These issues make me wonder what a sequel could possibly add, if anything. Carrie and her former flame Aidan (John Corbett) are set to cross paths Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, making the flick sounds like it might as well be named "Sex in Another City."
Should it continue to drag on, the franchise risks unwittingly becoming something else entirely -- a commentary about women and aging. The perpetually hot and bothered Samantha is said to confront menopause in the new picture, for example.
Being single in New York City in your 50s is probably impossible and maybe even fodder for a sitcom or a movie, but that should be its own effort, not a further bludgeoning of a franchise that ended things with the sass, style and sexiness it so richly deserved.
"Sex and the City" came a long way to a complex and satisfying conclusion. Its characters may not have wound up where we thought, but it felt genuine. They had depth and dimension.
Not bad for four single gals who started out as stock characters in a sitcom.
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