Mr. Big is the main love interest on Sex and the City, a show that is all about dating and relationships. Therefore, the New York man is an essential part of the entire series. Sex and the City is considered iconic by many viewers simply due to the fact that these characters have many dimensions and are refreshingly far from perfect. This certainly applies to Mr. Big who is no Mr. Right, yet at the same time he is quite interesting to watch and analyze. He can get Carrie Bradshaw all riled up, providing a whole other level of drama to the show that we'd never get to experience if it wasn't for his mysterious ways.
So without further ado, let's take a look at the 6 times Mr. Big was actually pretty great and 4 times he was the absolute WORST.
HE BUILT CARRIE A CLOSET (BEST)
His name is Mr. Big for a reason. When he puts his mind towards something he's passionate about, he goes big. He considers his actions to be "all or nothing" and when he tries his best to win back Carrie's affection in the second Sex and the City movie, he is willing to do all of the dirty work in order to make the love of his life happy.
Although he may not be able to provide Carrie with romantic poetry that will sweep her off her feet as she seems to desire, he is able to go a step further and do something that is personal and specific to Carrie Bradshaw. We all know how shoes and clothes are the true love of her life, so with that in mind, Mr. Big makes her a closet! That's some solid boyfriend material right there, but at the same token, he only did this after the fact that...
HE LEFT CARRIE AT THE ALTAR (WORST)
Yes, the fact that he made Carrie a closet the size of a horse stable is incredibly romantic, but he only did it after the fact that he left her at the altar! Only a coward of a man is willing to humiliate his love like that, especially for the case of Carrie and Big where he has basically been stringing her along from the very beginning of the series and made her feel insignificant pretty much the whole time. Carrie has been through enough heartbreak with Mr. Big, and you would think the two getting married would finally give her a break. Nope! Of course, he had to go and screw things up again by ducking out on what would be his FOURTH marriage to a woman who has been pining after him for ten long years.
HE WENT FULL OUT WITH DATES (BEST)
As sad as it is, we currently live in a generation where "dates" are considered to be "hangouts" that usually involve a drink at a dingy bar followed by a night in their messy apartment filled with roommates and pizza boxes strewn everywhere.
This is usually followed by a potential hook-up session, and although some people prefer this simpler dynamic, it certainly lacks a romantic quality that a handful of people in our current dating pool just can't seem to nail down. Mr. Big, on the other hand, is classy when it comes to going out on dates. Perhaps it's his wealth, perhaps he's being a bit of a show-off, but we don't care. The fact of the matter is, he's taking Carrie to these gorgeous 5-star restaurants and jazz bars, he's taking her out dancing and bowling. it's nice that he goes all out with his dates and gets creative with them too. Carrie, as we can see, certainly appreciates it.
IT TOOK HIM A DECADE TO SEE HER WORTH (WORST)
The fact that Mr. Big couldn't see Carrie's worth for a whole decade is problematic because they had been in an on-and-off relationship for so long. It would be one thing if they were just two buds in an unrequited love situation, but these two were in a committed relationship and he couldn't figure out for all that time that Carrie was "the one" until the finale, ultimately proving that he was sort of wasting her time. If he was more straight up with Carrie over the fact that he wasn't necessarily looking for anything serious, things would be different. But throughout the series, he did no such thing. Luckily he realizes carries worth in the series finale when he says "Carrie, you're the one!" after all that time.
HE CHEATED ON HIS WIFE WITH CARRIE (WORST)
The fact that he cheated on his wife repeatedly is bad enough, but what's even worse is that he kept doing it with absolutely no remorse whatsoever for his wife's feelings. Yeah we get it, his wife was kinda boring, she was kinda too perfect, but does that allow for her to be repeatedly cheated on? Absolutely not. There is no excuse for the childish way Big had been behaving despite the fact that he's a fully grown adult man. At least we can tell that Carrie feels terrible. Big, on the other hand, is just working as hard as he can to keep pulling Carrie back into bed.
HE REFUSES TO GET TO KNOW CARRIE (WORST)
It was clear throughout the series that Carrie Bradshaw wanted to know everything there was to know about the mysterious Mr. Big. She wanted to know about what he did during the day, who his parents were, what made him tick, etc. Big on the other hand, seemed as though he couldn't care less about Carrie's life.
He never showed any interest in meeting her friends and blew off plans towards hanging out with all of them regardless of how much he knew it meant to Carrie. He felt extremely uncomfortable with the idea of introducing his parents to Carrie despite the fact that she really wanted to meet them. It's strange how much he doesn't want anything to do with the woman who he is supposed to care about and love.
HE PUTS UP WITH CARRIE (BEST)
We can go on and on about how selfish and unstable Big is as a love interest, but at the end of the day we can straight up praise the guy and owe him some well-deserved respect for one thing - He puts up with Carrie's nonsense. Carrie Bradshaw was written to be the anti-hero, some even claiming her to be the first female anti-hero as a TV protagonist. She is designed to be a hot mess, thriving off of bad habits and relationship drama. Big is able to put up with all of her woes and complaints which is more than a lot of people would be able to do. In that sense, he deserves a real pat on the back for his laid back nature in the wake of her neuroticism.
HIS FEAR OF COMMITMENT IS VALID (BEST)
We are quick to want to label Mr. Big as a macho pig who can't commit simply due to the fact that he would prefer to sleep with as many women as possible rather than just one woman for the rest of his life, but this doesn't seem to be the case. The real reason Big has difficulties with the idea of committing has to do with the fact that he has been married several times and there is a clear pattern of it not working out for him. It makes sense that he wouldn't want to jump into a serious relationship because as we can see, it ended up hurting him more than once in the past.
HE IS UNDERSTANDING WITH CARRIE'S MISTAKES (BEST)
When Carrie sorta cheats on him in the second movie after she and Aiden kiss, Big is surprisingly calm and understanding with the situation. He feels as though he has been a poor lover to her and therefore he promises that he'll be better for Carrie when he could have reacted in a totally different way. This final moment with the two in Sex in the City history, made viewers hold onto the faith that Big and Carrie would manage to work things out in the end.
HE LOVES CARRIE FOR WHO SHE REALLY IS (BEST)
A lot of people are certain that Aiden was the better fit for Carrie simply due to the fact that he seemed a lot nicer of a guy. Yet at the same time, there was a hidden factor in Aiden's personality that made him want to change Carrie and mold her into the perfect little girlfriend that suited him best. Big is able to fully see Carrie Bradshaw for who she truly is, flaws and all. While Aiden claims "flaws are the best part," when it actually comes down to it, Big is actually able to appreciate her uniqueness to a fuller extent. He gets her a black diamond ring instead of a clear colored one like Aiden had given her, because he knows the black diamond caters more to Carrie's uniqueness.
What do you think about Mr. Big?