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The Scrapbook

Background Info:

The Sex and the City Scrapbook is a section of the Sex and the City website on HBO.com. Although it has been off the air for some time, this was one of my favorite shows for quite a while, not only because I thought the writing at times was genius and hysterical, but also because it provoked a kind of community viewing experience between my friends and I (yes, guys too) that I had previously not experienced in watching any other television show (perhaps because, with the exception of Law and Order and certain documentaries, I don’t really watch much TV).

What is It?:

The Scrapbook is actually a popup window on the HBO site that is organized both by season and by episode. It allows viewers to click on a particular episode and see various information about that particular episode including the story highlights, who the characters were dating, the designer that the outfits for the show were designed by, a memorable quote from the show, a particularly famous location where part of the story took place and information as to why the writers wrote that particular episode the way they did.

Is this original?:

You can’t actually watch any of the episodes either in their entirety of in part on the scrapbook and there is no additional ‘scenes’ that are included, which I suppose technically means that it is not an actual internet TV viewing experience. Nor is the idea of providing additional information about a particular series on the network’s website a new one. However, I have been to several websites for different TV shows and often I find that the sites offer very little relevant information that I would actually care about and are unnecessarily hard to navigate. The reason I think the scrapbook is successful is because it very easy to find and view information and, most importantly, because it plays directly into the reasons that many fans of the show watch in the first place. Sex and the City was popular in part because of its memorable one-liners, relationship development, fashion consciousness and because of the city backdrop itself. However, when watching an episode on TV it would be ridiculous for the writers to have included reference to every location that the girls partied at, ate at, etc. or every designer that outfitted Carrie. The scrapbook provides fans, especially those who are unfamiliar with New York, a means, not only to remember the particular ‘point’ of each individual episode and understand the plot development from the writer’s point of view, but a way to look up contextual information about locations that they themselves may want to visit and information about the wildly expensive clothing that the characters wore.

Could this exist in another format?:

It is possible that HBO could have provided this information in DVD format and they do, to some degree. The Sex and the City DVD collection contains most of the highlight information as well as the option to watch each episode with commentary from the creator of the show, which is actually kind of interesting if you are an obsessed fan (I myself as aforementioned am guilty as charged). However, I think that the other kinds of information, such as the on-location spots and wardrobe details are best suited to a web viewing experience. If one wants to know the location of the club the girls were at in episode 67, it would silly for that information to only be available via DVD. Its location on the site provides easy access in an environment much better suited for searching. It would have been great if the Scrapbook had also included deleted scenes or further snippets of the overall storyline; however I think it was ultimately successful in providing fans with an outlet to further quench their desires for Sex and the City information, and adequately provided information that most fans would be looking for. I am not sure how many other TV show sites provide information about the show’s actual shooting locations and character wardrobes maybe because in most instances such information would be irrelevant. But I think that by creating a website that very successfully plays into the reasons behind the shows success, the Scrapbook provides for an interesting viewer experience. I believe that the online presence of a TV show does not necessarily have to do much then providing an interesting context to be successful.