A Toast To And Just Like That...: No, It Never Came Close To Sex And The City, But We'll Still Miss It
Let me start this out by saying: I have watched Sex and the City way too many times.
I'll even sit and watch the reruns when they pop up on E!, with all the profanities bleeped and the sex scenes trimmed out, because I just enjoy spending time with these ladies, in any form I can get it. So when HBO Max announced that its SATC sequel series And Just Like That... was ending (abruptly) at the end of its current third season — the series finale airs this Thursday at 9/8c — I admit I got a little sad. Not because the show was perfect. It wasn't! In fact, I'll go over its (considerable! glaring!) flaws in just a bit here. But as flawed as it was, it still carried on the legacy of Carrie and company... and it's hard to say goodbye to that after all these years.
From the moment it premiered in 2021, And Just Like That was already at a heavy disadvantage, simply because it couldn't bring back the core friend group that made Sex and the City so great. Kim Cattrall famously did not return as sex-positivity pioneer Samantha Jones, and her absence left a glaring void at the heart of And Just Like That that it never managed to fill. The original Sex and the City boasted one of the best foursomes in TV history, with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha's wildly different personalities perfectly balancing each other out — and once Samantha was removed, the whole show teetered unsteadily like a table missing a leg.
To overcome this absence (and to atone for Sex and the City's terrible track record on diversity), And Just Like That introduced a host of new characters — all women of color — to round out Carrie's friend group. But the additions were a mixed bag: Some, like Sarita Choudhury's Seema, fit in beautifully, while others, like Sara Ramírez's infamous Che Diaz, stuck out like sore thumbs. It felt phony to tack on all these new friends at once — yes, Charlotte is best friends with Lisa, don't you remember? — and it moved the show further away from the Sex and the City we loved, despite all its missteps.
And Just Like That catches up with Carrie Bradshaw more than 20 years after Sex and the City, where she's now in her 50s, and so naturally, the show had to evolve from its sexed-up glory days. It struck a more somber tone, more in line with Sex and the City's later seasons, though it did try to work in some outrageous sex scenes here and there. But it was a markedly different show than Sex and the City in its prime — and that's actually not a bad thing. And Just Like That took on issues facing women of a certain age, from health struggles (Carrie had a hip replacement!) to ailing parents to disappointing kids. If we can take off our Sex and the City goggles for just a minute, we have to appreciate that And Just Like That put a spotlight on a rarely celebrated demographic and gave older women a chance to shine. (Even in her 50s, Carrie's designer wardrobe continued to enchant and befuddle us.)
And if you watched all three seasons of And Just Like That, you have to admit there were moments here and there that channeled that fun, vibrant Sex and the City energy we fell in love with. When Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte got together for lunch, their banter could be as sharp and witty as vintage Sex and the City. (Cattrall's all-too-brief Season 2 cameo as Samantha may have been a mere crumb, but it was a delicious crumb.) And the show wasn't afraid to take chances, either: The decision to kill off Big was a bold one, but it opened up all kinds of storytelling avenues to explore about Carrie starting a new chapter on her own. And whatever you may think of her dalliance with Che (and I might agree), Miranda's late-in-life discovery that she's gay was just the kind of thoughtful, honest, occasionally smutty storyline that Sex and the City would've fearlessly tackled back in the day.
No, And Just Like That wasn't great. But hey, news flash: The Sex and the City movies weren't great, either. Even (dare I say it?) the last couple seasons of the HBO run weren't up to the very high bar set by the first four. It's just impossible to recreate that fizzy feeling we had watching Sex and the City the first time around, and And Just Like That stumbled more than once in its attempts to do so. I complained about this show, sure, but I'll miss complaining about it, if that makes sense — because complaining about it was a way to stay connected to the spirit of Sex and the City, which I'll always hold dear.
In the end, for all of its many flaws, And Just Like That gave us more of what we want to see: Carrie Bradshaw drinking cocktails and talking about relationships with Miranda and Charlotte. And God help me, I'm always going to tune in for that.
Admit it, Sex and the City fans: Will you actually miss And Just Like That? Hit the comments to share your thoughts ahead of this week's series finale.