AND JUST LIKE THAT
Despite considerable fanfare in the form of Deuxmoi spottings and paparazzi set photos, it’s easy to understand why some might be skeptical of another chapter in the SEX AND THE CITY series following Carrie Bradshaw and company. The original HBO show revolutionized cable programming at the time of its release and has since provided generations of single young adults with six full seasons of comfort viewing and ill-considered dating advice. But many regard the show as an ineffable product of its time, so the question remains: why beat a dead horse? Having watched the first two episodes of AND JUST LIKE THAT (trailer here), I’m pleased to report that the latest chapter’s not an entirely fruitless endeavor.
For one, never underestimate the staying power of characters you’ve watched grow across decades: seeing Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte with grown families and fully formed lives is simply heartwarming. And while Samantha’s absence is deeply felt, the explanation for her omission isn’t all that distracting (no—she’s not dead!) and feels emotionally honest to this iteration. AND JUST LIKE THAT also introduces a number of new characters in Samantha's wake, whose main purpose seems to be a foil to the main trio’s lack of “wokeness.” It would be hard to not acknowledge the ladies’ slip-ups after countless problematic moments from the original series, but the show's attempts at self-recognition or relevance—like the sex-positive podcast that Carrie now co-hosts—border on cringe more often than not. Occasionally, however, they hit the mark; leveraging Miranda’s self-righteousness, for example, to show her making a fool out of herself as she Karens her way through interacting with her younger, Black professor when she returns to school is pretty satisfying. I do hope that the new characters (mostly queer and/or people of color) are given a little more real estate to develop their own stories as the season continues, instead of merely highlighting the original cast’s blind spots. But all in all—and without spoiling anything—AND JUST LIKE THAT is a promising, startlingly emotional return to the world of SEX AND THE CITY.
—Neal Mulani, Development Assistant
