by Ivey and Nanaja (link one and link two)
Genre het, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 70 episodes in 4 seasons
Status Unfinished
I distinctly recall starting to read this story back in the day. I wasn’t impressed by the Sex and the City inspiration, because I had never seen that particular show, but I loved Ivey and Nanaja’s other writings, so I had to give it a try. Having no memory of what I thought of The Naked City, other than the fact that I didn’t finish reading it, I decided to give it another go and see if I could stick with it this time.
I can see why i found the story a bit boring to begin with–I have little to no interest in love at first sight stories, especially ones featuring Isaac. That’s a little harsh, I suppose, but there’s just no drama. It takes a while for Zac and Piper’s will-they-won’t-they friendship to ramp up the drama, and even then, the inclusion of a totally vapid girlfriend for Zac just makes the drama seem even more contrived.
I wasn’t able to read every season of this story in its entirety (note that some chapters are available at one link but not at the other), breaking my own rule for reviews, but with such a long story, there usually isn’t much to miss if you skip one chapter. However, in spite of how short some of Ivey and Nanaja’s chapters are, a lot of ground gets covered in them. That makes it a little harder to follow, when the only references to time passing are in the easy to overlook timestamps. The characters also continue to act in irrational ways in reaction to contrived drama, and even over what I’ve read of the four seasons, they don’t grow a lot.
Like the sort of sitcom this story is based on, the characters just go around and around in circles, with only sexual tension and a few comedic moments to keep me interested. And while those two things are fantastic at times, The Naked City is unfortunately just another series that got canceled before its time–and before Zac and Piper got the happy ending I wanted for them.
Review by Bethany (website)