National broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) has announced it will broadcast “Sex and the City,” a hugely popular American sitcom, on Monday night amidst widespread mixed reactions.  

>> 18+ adult films to regularly go on Vietnam TV channel next month

>> Mixed reactions to Vietnam Television’s decision to broadcast “Sex and the City”

According to the latest information provided by the broadcaster, “Sex and the City” will air on VTV2 which is the education and science channel of VTV at 11:00 pm three days a week – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – starting tonight, as originally scheduled.

The show will be labeled 18+ and is intended for adults only, a channel representative noted, assuring culturally inappropriate scenes, or even whole episodes, will be omitted but many gender issues would be retained.

The premiere broadcast was first slated for November 10 but it was later delayed until November 17 following differing opinions on airing such a sitcom on the national channel. However, the TV station has now decided to stick to the original plan.

“Sex and the City” is a 94-episode American romantic TV series sitcom which won seven of its 54 Emmy Award nominations, eight of its 24 Golden Globe Award nominations, and three of its 11 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Set and filmed in New York City and based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell, the original show follows the lives of a group of four women – three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties – who, despite their different natures and ever-changing sex lives, remain inseparable and confide in each other.

Broadcast on HBO from 1998 until 2004, the quirky series had multiple continuing storylines that tackled relevant and modern social issues such as sexuality, safe sex, promiscuity, and femininity while exploring the difference between friendships and romantic relationships.

Shortly after VTV’s announcement that it would air the series, local film directors, producers, scriptwriters, lawyers, and psychologists voiced their opinions for and against the forthcoming broadcast.

An opinion poll launched on the online version of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper over the past several days yielded nearly 10,000 comments from readers.

Nearly half of them support the broadcast, while the remaining respondents either oppose it, or support it but call for caution in editing and censoring the content.

The proponents said there is nothing wrong or inappropriate about VTV2 – a science and education channel – airing such shows late at night and helping promote sex education and raise youth’s awareness of safe sex as well as prevent abortion and new HIV infections.

Many expressed their delight at VTV2’s receptiveness to sensitive films, which have long gone unnoticed on local TV channels.

They also concurred that the planned airing is compatible with current global and regional trends of segmenting TV viewers and catering to each segment’s particular needs.

Several stressed that the uproar from parents about the upcoming broadcast may add to teenagers’ undesirable curiosity.

Meanwhile, opponents stated that the show, intended for sex educational purposes, will actually arouse young people’s curiosity and provoke their sexual lust.

This group urged that VTV2 produce other beneficial programs on sex education instead of airing the show, or VTV broadcast the sitcom on other on-demand channels, which require registration.

Several underlined that the 15-minute talks which will follow each episode and discuss at length the sexual matters covered in the episode will make the situation even more ridiculous.

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