And Just Like That… (give or take a few decades), Sex And The City is back
Kim Cattrall's absence and the loss of another cast member loom large over AJLT's premiere
TV Reviews Sex and the City
There are so many reboots of classic TV properties lately, and it’s easy to see why: beloved properties, built-in audience, the lack of having to come up with much of anything new. So it’s not too much of a surprise that (most of) the ladies of Sex And The City are returning, now in their 50s, with different priorities than they had when the series wrapped up (beautifully, in my opinion) in 2004, followed by a decent 2008 movie and completely terrible one in 2010. Honestly, since the last taste the SATC left us with was a film that deserved a closetful of Razzies and showed the ladies at their privileged worst, maybe it’ll be helpful to see if And Just Like That… can help make SATC2 more of a distant memory.
There’s a giant gaping hole in the Sex And The City sequel series, though, and her name is Samantha Jones (and she’d probably have a sexy double-entendre to say about the first part of that sentence). Since And Just Like That… starts out with the familiar scene of the ladies lunching, it’s immediately obvious that this trio lacks the welcome bite that Samantha always provided. There’s a lot of discussion about her absence (now she’s having sex in another city, London, after she and Carrie had a falling out when Carrie fired her as her publicist), as Carrie and Miranda go on ad nauseum about how they’ve all tried to reach out to Samantha. It’s not their fault, the show appears to be stressing, okay? This is not the time and place to go into the cast feud that supposedly led to Kim Cattrall’s departure, but suffice it to say, her absence is deeply felt.
But leave it to SATC to add more to more, with a flurry of new characters to help flesh out the now-lean cast. Miranda, who is heading back to school to become more of a human-rights-minded attorney (but wasn’t that also her goal way back at the end of the second movie?) gets off on the wrong foot with her new professor Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman). As in olden times, this show still loves to completely humiliate Miranda, letting her babble on in a cringe-worthy manner, sounding like a clueless older white woman in front of her new teacher and decades-younger classmates (maybe it was the chablis talking?).
Charlotte is still Charlotte: happy to see that she and her family reside in the same Park Avenue apartment she inherited from Trey MacDougal, and that her adorable new dog is named Richard Burton, since her last one was named Elizabeth Taylor. Best of all, Charlotte has to deal with a thorny tween situation with her younger daughter Rose (an amazing Alexa Swinton), who is rebelling against the perfect Park Avenue template her mother has laid out for her. Fortunately, Charlotte has a new mom friend to commiserate with: Lisa Todd Wexley, played by Nicole Ari Parker (dubbed by Anthony as “Black Charlotte”). The fact that both Nya and Lisa appear to have their own plot points (Lisa’s prickly mother-in-law, Nya’s infertility issues) hopefully indicates that these women of color will have more than just supporting roles in the series.
Carrie, who has always been fairly prudish for a sex columnist (who could forget her shaming of her golden-shower-loving politician boyfriend, played by John Slattery? or her ditching of a spin-the-bottle game that didn’t stick to heterosexual guidelines?) has now been hired on a insufferablish podcast that includes a button to announce the program’s “woke moment”s. Carrie’s inability to discuss masturbation on the air may cost her the gig, but like with the other new characters, Sara Ramirez brings a refreshing viewpoint to the show as podcast host Che Diaz, self-described as a “queer nonbinary Mexican Irish diva.” Carrie needs to evolve into today’s media market (using tools like Instagram and the podcast), but at her heart, she is who she is (still in love with her shoes). We may need to change, but how much are we truly able to do so?
For me, this theme is far and away the most intriguing part of And Just Like That…. Permit me a personal note: Like the ladies in this show, I am also 55 years old. Sex And The City was my cultural touchstone in my 30s so much so that I almost moved to NYC myself (although I wound up staying in my own city, Chicago). Let me tell you, it’s a strange time of life. I get that the number sounds so old, that you’re as close to 70 as you are to 40, an age that seemed like it just happened about five minutes ago. Meanwhile, in your head, you still feel around 29, so that when the inevitable AARP card comes in the mail, you figure it must have been sent to the wrong addressed.
But it’s also an interesting, underlooked age, and women like me who spent the formative years of our adulthood with Carrie et al. are likely looking forward to processing the autumn of life with these familiar faces (also, to get some much-needed fashion inspiration). For all of their seemingly endless dating travails, after all, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda all wound up in healthy long-term marriages. Miranda is still starting a new chapter professionally, and the parenting-of-teens thing could be the whole show (Carrie starts the series by being just as self-centered as ever by refusing to acknowledge Miranda’s concerns about Brady’s prolific sex life).
But of course, the ending of episode one shifts the series completely, so that it’s pretty clear what direction Carrie is headed (guessing that the grief period will be short, or accelerated, to get her back into the dating scene faster). RIP Mr. Big. I know some viewers really hated him, and he definitely had his toxic, commitmentphobe moments.
But I recently took a deep dive back into the show’s earlier days for this feature, and I have to say: Big was always the heart of the series. From episode one, he was the one who believed that love actually existed, and eventually, he and Carrie were able to find it. Fortunately the show offered a domestic glimpse of the couple spinning vinyl and making dinner, but after so many years, it seemed too brief. Which, I guess give Big’s untimely demise, was the whole point. On to episode two, the pointedly titled “Little Black Dress.”
Stray observations
- Miranda has a drinking problem, to be addressed in a future Very Special Episode, right? Glass of chablis before 11 (was really expecting Smith himself to pop up at Smith’s Bar & Grill), smuggling wine into the school. While it seemed a but unsubtle, am looking forward to AJLT’s take on the prevalence of mommy wine culture.
- Also I get that Miranda is and has always been a curmudgeon, but what’s wrong with podcasts?
- Have we ever actually heard Carrie call Big “John” before ? That whole scene was absolutely gut-wrenching.
- There were so many shots of the cute podcast producer laughing that he is destined to become one of Carrie’s suitors at some point.
- Sad that Anthony and Stanford are quarreling, but Anthony offered some of the biggest laughs in the premiere, like scrolling through guy pics: “Not hot. Not hot. Not hot.” “That one looks like he could kill you.” “Hot.”
- Michael Patrick King has said that Willie Garson’s death won’t be addressed in AJLT because it “wasn’t charming.” There had to be a better way to phrase that. Glad we got to see Stanford in that breathtaking periwinkle suit.
- Favorite outfit: I don’t really understand Carrie’s propensity for culottes, but her outfit for Lily’s recital had a lot of nice throwbacks to previous SATC outfits: the straightened hair, when she wore all those fabric flowers in season three, and of course, the wedding shoes.
- Thinking of better last lines for the end of this episode, like, “And just like that… our future ended,” or “And just like that, the love of my life was over,” than the decidedly weak, “And just like that… Big died.”
- And, welcome to The A.V. Club’s reviews of And Just Like That…, everyone! Apologies for not getting this review up sooner, but HBO Max famously refused to release screeners ahead of this premiere, presumably to be able to keep Big’s death a secret. Hoping I get episodes ahead of time in the coming weeks, but if not, just meet me here before noon every Thursday to discuss. Episode two should be up this afternoon.
134 Comments
It’s nice to see them back in the saddle.
Only one of them rides a saddle.
This joke is not at all tired or misogynist
(and she’d probably have a sexy double-entendre to say about the first part of that sentence)I believe the phrase you’re looking for is: “Speaking of gaping holes…”
Multiple entendre!
much better than I anticipated, mostly was in it for the costumes but seems there’s still a decent enough story to tell that tackles some of the girls boomer views (without it feeling forced). Also Samantha Irby is one of the writers so big credits to her (Work In Progress, Tuca and Bertie writer), which might also explain why critics have been complaining the tone feels darker (in my opinion it feels more modern). God damn does SJP remain as charismatic as ever though.
It’s either that or sit around and look at Bueller all day. I’d be charismatic too!
Pretty sure SJP likes those oversized handbags because she can bring her husband to work with her.
Uh, they are my age. They are definitely gen-x representing. A fair amount of us don’t hold the values that a lot of boomers do. Trust. I am a cis-woman working in data and analytics for the past 25 years and I can assure you, there were like 5 of us back then. I don’t remotely hold the values of this show. I am not embarrassed to talk about sex work, self pleasure, sex positive folks, anyone of any flavor of GLBTQA+, Pan folks, polyamourous people. i don’t know exactly who this show read true to. But it definitely wasn’t my people.
They are 55, so apologies, guess that’s on the cusp. I’m a millennial and I’m happy gen z is challenging our beliefs lots already. also I’m aware a group of women who live in costumes aren’t totally representative of an entire generation, that doesn’t mean they hold some generational beliefs on the show that can’t be challenged though 🙂
The women are Gen X, not boomers. They’re supposed to be around 55.
They are firmly gen x. Except maybe Samantha.
tomato tamatah
Why can’t Carrie talk about masturbation on the air? Is she afraid Howard Stern will sue?
It was actually a clever moment! Carrie is a prude by todays standards because her ideas around sex are so restrictive, I’m excited to see where that narrative goes. The Big and her masturbation scene and him hollering her name was actually laugh out loud.
There’s a lot of discussion about her absence (now she’s having sex in another city, London, after she and carrie had a falling out when Carrie fired her as her publicist), as Carrie and Miranda go on ad nauseum about how they’ve all tried to reach out to Samantha. It’s not their fault, the show appears to be stressing, okay?Big Fuller House energy here, where Stamos & Co. made a big deal about how their door was open for the Olsen sisters, then panned them on-air in the show, then expressed puzzlement about why they in fact never did come back. I know we’re going to be stuck with reboots and reunions for all of eternity, but maybe we could come to some baseline agreement about not being so passive-aggressive toward actors who really don’t want to play the same character forever.
They should’ve just had Elizabeth Olson come in for a few episodes to play them.
In the case of Fuller House, let’s be honest; the Olsen twins didn’t come back because they didn’t need to. They’re doing just fine with their fashion lines and didn’t need the money. And if the other Fuller House actors were doing just as well, I guarantee they wouldn’t have bothered to come back either.
Considering everything that Cattrall put up with on that set, I wouldn’t come back either, and bitchy comments in the episode like this would just re-enforce that position. “I fired Samantha!” Uh huh…
I’d also think that with Fuller House all of the actors have memories of working on the show and some kind of relationship with the other cast members (I don’t know how tight they were, but if you work on a show that long you’re at least not strangers.)The Olsen Twins were infants and toddlers. They probably have few if any memories of that time and no kinship with or feelings for any of the other cast members. All they have is a huge bank account and a lot of finished episodes with them as babies staring into space while people made jokes around them. So there’s go “getting the gang” back together for them, any more than it would be for me to have a reunion with whoever was in whatever day care my mom dropped me off at when I was two.
yah plus they probably have complicated feelings about child fame. They also run a billion dollar company, they legit may not have time or the emotional capacity to put themselves back in the limelight like that.
I never liked John Stamos, but that just confirmed it for me. They don’t owe you shit. I think he and whoever else was pushing this was delusional enough to believe they really would come back.
I didn’t watch Fuller House all that closely when my kid was watching it, but I don’t remember any panning of the Olsen twins. All I remember is jokes about Michelle not being there.
So it’s not titled Grandmas in the City? Huh.
I think they should’ve handled Kattrall’s absence in a more interesting way. Like, maybe the other three just finally snapped from all of Samantha’s innuendo, murdered her and used her blood to make sangrias?
They are already tempting fate for backlash killing off Big. Killing Samantha off would have secured the reboot being widely reviled by fans of the show and basically dooming it to discontinuity. Also, I’ll defend the second film over the first one (the first one was clearly a finale type extended episode that we didn’t get when the show first ended) and it seemed to at least be a fun romp as opposed to the writers wrapping up loose ends like the first film.
Reading down the comments, it seems if the AVC had its way, this revival would have had quite the body count……(Sam, Stanford, Big just for starters). They could have turned it into a horror comedy called Dark (Eye)Shadows perhaps….
I’ve never been a huge SaMannequin fan … we haven’t watched yet but I doubt I’ll miss her shallow, largely selfish, and single-focused approach to all things.Also it’s nice the producers went to the trouble to avoid a spoiler. Too bad this writer didn’t feel the same need.
It’s a recap of the episode…why would you read it if you hadn’t watched it yet?
Recaps should be published after airing, not before. I also thought this was a general pre-release review and the fact that there isn’t even a spoiler warning is fucking nuts.
This WAS published after it aired–hence the point about HBO denying screeners, the reviewers had to wait til midnight PST like everyone else. It’s very clearly a recap. She can’t be responsible if you didn’t clock that.
The show was released at 3 am this morning. The recap was posted at 11 am.
I understand the pressure of a critic with no advanced screeners, but the vast majority of the audience for this show isn’t waiting to watch it at 12:01am or even 11:00am the next morning. Even recaps, though, often/usually provide spoiler warnings for MAJOR plot twists, which is what happened here.
Dude. It’s pretty apparent that this wasn’t a pre-release review. The mistake was on your part although I can understand you posting to vent your frustration. Once.The fact you’ve devoted six posts to it is projecting some serious entitled neckbeard energy.
It did air already. Why would you even click on an article with the headline “episode one recap” if you haven’t watched it? Silly complaint.
It aired yesterday, and then the review was published. Gwen mentions IN the recap that she didn’t get an advanced copy.
kill yourself
I’ll read a recap of an episode of a show I have zero interest in or chance of actually watching, but just want confirmation that I’m correct in my prejudices. For instance, this one.
ditto
The writer is probably under the assumption that people reading this review have also seen the episodes.
Yeah, I mistakenly thought it was a season pre-review (not a season premiere review) and was not expecting a major spoiler.
I don’t watch this show, but this is a reasonable mistake to make! Everyone is being stubborn.
Killing Big seems like a really really lazy way to avoid having to actually come up with a way to write for Parker’s character as a married woman.
Like, “We don’t know what to do with this story, so let’s make her single again and just start over.”
I watched the first episode this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised that its tone was a little more serious than, say, Carrie giving a sermon on scrunchies. I enjoyed it.I really cringed a lot, though, during Miranda’s ramblings in class, but it was redeemed when she was on the subway platform and gave me a chuckle. I also thought the Big twist might have resonated with me more if it had not been incredibly obvious early on. Even before cue the (literal) music, the longing last look as Carrie leaves the apartment, Big all excited for his Peloton…I’ll keep watching.
When he was going for the shower, I thought, “Oh wow – maybe they’re Not going to go through such a dumb, obvious-” *Big drops the phone* God damn itRegardless, I know it won’t, but I’m hoping the show will indicate how Incredibly gross all the SATC characters are, and that maybe they’ve always been that way? Or, if they are going to ‘critique’ the past in the present, maybe not with the most unbearable podcast or whatever?
I’m actually thankful for the spoilers in this recap. Knowing Big dies toward the end of the episode, I thought I was prepared. I watched it during my lunch hour and it still hit me like a freight train. I guess I thought it would be handled “lighter”, which is silly in hindsight, but took me a good ten minutes to quit crying. I thought SJP did such a good job in the scene, and the following scene with Miranda, but I was wondering why she didn’t kick off those ridiculous shoes as soon as she saw him. Even Chris Noth, without speaking a word, hit me hard in the feels. I wasn’t up for episode two, but will catch it later in the week. In other words, I’ll keep watching, too.
You were wondering why Carrie didn’t kick off her shoes and not why she didn’t call 911, grab his meds, try to resuscitate him, etc?? That scene was INSANELY stupid. She walked in, he was still alive, she stared at him, he was still alive, she went to hold him, he was still alive — and she attempted NOTHING to save his life. She just held him and watched him die. This is not how humans act when a loved one is in distress. That scene was laughably bad.
she was in shock. it reminded me of Joan Didion’s account of finding her husband after he had a heart attack, and I wondered if they borrowed from that very Manhattan account.
Nah, it was nothing like that. Joan Didion’s husband’s face dropped into his soup and he died almost instantly. Carrie’s reaction is NOT what would happen if someone found their husband still alive. It was stupid. The show is terrible — ageist as hell, completely without depth, zero chemistry anymore among the characters, awful writing, forced performances and everyone is utterly insufferable. What they have done to Miranda (turned a smart, educated woman into a dithering ninny who doesn’t know how to talk to Black people) is unforgiveable all on its own.
What they did with Miranda is pretty much unforgiveable. Really? She was supposed to be the “smart” one. A corporate lawyer for years, lived in NYC — one of the most diverse places on Earth — for years, decades (gasp), even DATED a Black guy in the original series, which was mostly very white (hence all the complaints about it being out of touch). So why do they make her, of all people, a clueless Karen rambling on about “braids” and other ridiculous things to her Black professor, like some kind of moronic bumpkin who has been frozen in time for 30 years. Are you kidding??? VERY insulting to the character and to Nixon, who deserves better. Embarrassing.And why is Steve, a man still in his FIFTIES, portrayed as a doddering old man with hearing aids who is always saying, “WHAT? WHAT? CAN’T HEAR YOU!” The hell? They have him acting like he’s 85 years old, for cripe’s sake! Charlotte is completely insufferable, but she ALWAYS was, so I guess that’s on point. Can’t even understand why these ladies are friends with her.The “falling out” with Samantha doesn’t make sense. They could have written that better, even if they wanted to have a whole inside joke about Catrall herself. Samantha would not be devastated if Carrie let her go as her publicist because of the deteriorating conditions of the book industry. NOT because she wasn’t happy with Samantha’s services. And now Samantha doesn’t talk to Miranda or Charlotte either? Why??? Makes no SENSE and does not line up with the character of Samantha at all. They could have written ANYTHING, and this is what they choose? Would have been better to kill Samantha off to a recurrence of breast cancer. At least that would be realistic!!The death scene — I didn’t understand it. Carrie walks in, Big is still alive. Instead of trying to do ANYTHING to save him (call 911, grab his pills, do mouth to mouth, whatever!!!), she just joins him in the shower, holds him and watches him die. What the hell? Not at all true to life — again, he was STILL ALIVE when she walked in, and she stood there and then just basically resigned herself to his dying and didn’t even try to do anything for him. That was stupid and not how any human would act upon finding their spouse struggling but STILL ALIVE on the floor. If they were going to do that, she should have just found him dead and gone already. Much more realistic, and much less cheesy/ridiculous.The chemistry between everyone is off, Stanford (RIP) and Anthony are ridiculous caricatures of gay men (but then they always were), the acting is weird and the new characters seem phony. Good God, this show SUCKS. The original had all sorts of problems, of course, but this show, along with both of the movies, is burying the charms it DID have for good.
“Charlotte is completely insufferable, but she ALWAYS was, so I guess
that’s on point. Can’t even understand why these ladies are friends with
her.”Doesn’t Carrie explain that in the first episode, Charlotte has moments of insight/intelligence.Anyway I agree with a lot of the rest of your post. Please at least try and get your spouses medical help if needed people, if only for your own sake…..
I guess 55 is kind of an overlooked age. The last major TV show about a group of 55 year old women was The Golden Girls.
Ouch, man
I’m not far behind.
If you ask me the biggest problem with the Golden Girls was the hairdos. If they’d all had stylish hair and gleaming extensions they’d have looked just as good as our gals! They certainly had just as much fun/sex.
Also the clothes those 80s frocks were hideous.
I rock vintage looks on the regular. I definitely don’t read as an old. I am a Gen-xer. We are probably the first generation to really subvert what old is. Unfortunately we also get lumped in with Boomers in the current time.
We definitely are. Gen x folks pretty much got lumped in with Boomers. It kinda sucks.
We’ve always been overlooked. The Boomers think we’re millennials and th millennials thing we’re Boomers.
I’m genX— and I gotta say in terms of pop culture— I’d rather be lumped in with Dark Side of the Moon and Dennis Hopper than N’Sync and Ryan Gosling. Not even sure GenX can claim much other than Darlene Conner, Grunge and depressing REM.
Gen X has plenty of good pop culture. Talking Heads, The Replacements and R.E.M. were all aimed at Gen X/ younger Boomers. Anything from the 90’s at all and anything from the 80’s that’s pretty hip or cutting edge would be aimed at Gen X. Yeah, maybe a lot of it was produced by people a little bit older than that, but Pink Floyd and Dennis Hopper were your examples for Boomer culture, and they were too old to be Boomers.
I always though they were like 70 lol.
Not sure how old the characters were supposed to be, but the actresses were between like 51 and 63. The SATC cast members who came back are all about 55 or 56. If Cattrall had come back, that would raise the average age a fair amount.
All of the characters were retired, so I would expect them to be more like 65+.
They weren’t all retired. Rose worked as a grief counselor and Dorothy was a substitute teacher (which I think means she worked more or less when she wanted to, and certainly less than full-time.) Blanche didn’t work, but I don’t think the character ever had. She had been widowed relatively young, and her husband left her with enough to live on, not to mention a fairly nice four bedroom house in Miami. She also came from money. Estelle, of course, was supposed to be in her eighties, so she was definitely not working.
Blanche worked at an art gallery, but I think that was more of a part time, something to do job rather than a paying the bills job. You’re right in that she definitely came from/married money.
The real-life ages of the four main actresses, and the correspondence with the (supposed, perhaps not explicitly specified) ages of their characters, were all over the map.If IMDB and my pre-lunch arithmetic are to be believed, when the show debuted in 1985, Bea Arthur and Betty White were both 63. Though she played the Bea Arthur character’s mother with the help of wardrobe and makeup and a (not always convincingly adhesed) wig, but enough acting talent to sell a bottle of willing suspension of disbelief anyway, Estelle Getty was actually a bit younger at 62. So, on the slightly early end of normal retirement age. Rue McLanahan was just 51. The show ran until 1992, so the first three would have been 70ish, just as you remember, toward the end.
That show is such a time capsule. Those women were grandmas and looked like grandmas. Loose drapey clothes, short set hair. Now 55 is the mom of teens and you still wear heels and tight clothes and look hot. If someone looked like a Golden Girl they’d be in their 80s.
Golden Girls was kind of revolutionary in its time because it showed women in their 50’s and 60’s who had lives, though. They had social lives, dated, even slept around, which would have been almost unheard of un pop culture prior to that. In 1985, The Golden Girls would have been considered youthful compared to characters of the same age from a decade or two before.
Aww I was hoping they killed her
There’s still time!!!
I get what Michael Patrick King is saying, but I also think the decision to just pretend Stanford is alive out there, forever and always, shows the lack of interest in reality or honesty which slowly made SATC just about impossible to watch. Giving viewers – and the characters – a chance to say goodbye to their friend would work both as a release and as a way to reinforce the melancholy that was always what drove the show, moreso than designer clothes or increasingly false friendships.
Maybe it was too soon for the actors who were actually friends with the guy who died rather young to throw a funeral for his character. Maybe next season, if there is one.
I could see that happening. If that is the case I’d rather they have said it though.
Kristin Davis was in tears on Colbert the other night talking about Garson, so I can’t imagine any of them would be up for doing a funeral episode about Stanford. And with Big’s funeral taking up the majority of the second episode it would have been far too much to add in another character’s death in this season.
let his character live on, that seems a far more fitting and beautiful tribute than killing him off.
I know I really should have learned my lesson by not reading reviews before I watch the show in question, but the off-handed way this review spoils Big’s fate is incredibly thoughtless…….Sorry, Gwen, but WTF? Not even a spoiler warning?
It’s a recap of the show. How would I possibly be able to write about it without discussing the biggest thing that happened in it?
Not asking that. Just a quick, “spoilers to follow” at the top of the article would have been fine. I thought it was a general pre-release review, not a specific recap. I’ve seen plenty of recappers put spoiler warnings if they’re going to be discussing major reveals. Of course you should discuss the episode’s content.
It’s a review. Not a pre-release (as I mentioned, we didn’t even get screeners). That came out several hours after the episode itself had dropped.
I can’t help but notice the lack of the little orange “Premier” label in the link image. Did they do away with those as well when they removed the review grades? That might have helped people differentiate between a single episode review and a pre-air one. I certainly thought this was a pre-air review and from the comments I’m not the only one. Thankfully, I don’t watch the show, was just curious about how the reboot was. I just have to say it’s frustrating when a site creates a whole visual language that their readerbase gets accustomed to and then it gets axed for no good reason. I actually find myself clicking on less articles because it isn’t initially clear it’s a review, or a really high grade would get me to check something I wouldn’t normally. Ditto a low grade too, out of the morbid curiosity of it.
Thank you!
Do you really think the bulk of your readership immediately went online to watch this show within the “several hours” between it dropping online and you publishing the review??
Do you really think the bulk of her readership is trying to avoid spoilers? How does it make any sense to read a review of something you don’t want spoiled?
Yes, some of us have 9-5 jobs and don’t get to watch an hour and a half of TV during the day.
Well, how much do you mean by “the bulk”?
I did!!!!
Hope you had fun!
Dear lord. You clicked as recap, a format that by design RECAPS what happens in whatever is being covered. Take some responsibility for yourself.
I don’t believe the writer of this obvious recap held a gun up to the bulk of their readers and forced them to read the recap. I don’t have proof that it didn’t happen, but it seems unlikely. If a person needs to taste check everything wanna watch before they watch it themselves and feel their own feelings…they get what they deserve. Spoilers.
Just don’t come to read a review, any review, of a show you haven’t yet watched. Just “know” there might be spoilers
I was annoyed that assholes spoiled it on twitter, but this is a RECAP. I purposely didn’t read it until I had watched! FFS people.
It’s a recap of the show.
It’s a review. Sorry but a review and a recap are two different things.
You wrote a recap and that’s ok if published with big SPOILER warnings in the head- or byline.
In a review it’s enough to summarize the first five minutes of an episode or a film and you still can criticize or applaud without telling too much of the story. Which isn’t what you did, in fact I don’t have a clue how the new series looks, whether the writers and directors set a new tone (aside from adding black characters) or how it holds up in comparison to other rebooted TV series from decades ago.
Some classic mansplaining there.
I don’t know if you read the comments back in the Disqus days or whenever the hell it was but the old AV Club used to mock the hell out of people who clicked on TV reviews and then complained about spoilers.Sometimes I miss those days……
Yeah, a spoiler warning would have been nice.
Movie reviews typically avoid spoilers.TV pre-release reviews also typically avoid spoilers.
TV episode reviews typically do not (though if the reviewer has seen multiple episodes, they typically stick to only discussing up to the end of the episode at hand).As long as the headline itself doesn’t spoil things… I mean, it’s unfortunate that you didn’t notice this was an episode review rather than a pre-release one but it is labeled as such.
Or the fact that Carrie just … let’s him die?
Thank you!!! Who doesn’t call “911″ IMMEDIATELY when you see your loved one on the floor gasping for death? And turn off the shower for crissakes!
“I almost moved to NYC myself (although I wound up staying in my own city, Chicago).”Welcome to L.A.!
lol
Are you moving, or are you taking the severance package?
The acting is so bad, I laughed when Big died. I always liked him and Carrie together. They’re both sort of awful. I got teary-eyed when he called her “kid” because that’s their schtick, but him dying was comically bad. I thought the cringe-worthy Miranda moment in class was totally out of character. This is a Harvard-educated lawyer who worked in corporate law. There is no way she’d bumble her way through that, and for so long. Carrie has always been a prude. She should write about fashion, since she can’t even talk about masturbation. How many years was she involved with Big? 15, 20? She didn’t know if he masturbated, and vice versa? Come ON. That’s part of the Getting to Know You sex menu!
The death scene was ridiculous! Why didn’t Carrie at least TRY to do something for him??? She didn’t even pick up the phone to dial 911! She just went over, held him and watched him die. Who the hell would do that? It made no sense.And I hate how they have turned Miranda into a dumb Karen. She was always the reasonably intelligent one. She dated a Black guy on the series, way back when it was mostly nothing but white. No way would she have morphed into a bumbling idiot who can’t shut up about “braids” to her Black professor. HORRIBLE. Poor Cynthia Nixon.
After her initial blunder the verbal diarrhea started. It happens even to smart women who dated a Black guy for a little while 25 years ago.
I can see Miranda turning into a person who does this. Being a Harvard-circa-1989-educated corporate lawyer does not in itself turn someone into a 2021 social justice warrior. It’s cool that Miranda is trying to reclaim that part of herself but it’s not a surprise that she’s self-conscious and out of touch (sneering at podcasts!). Reinvention at age 55 is not for the weak.
This wasn’t worse or better than the original SATC. It was exactly how i expected it to be. There were cringeworthy, ridiculous moments on the show back in the day. So, having them in this new iteration didn’t really bother me. The original series has always been basically a ridiculous fantasy about NYC. If you liked the show back then this is good enough of a revival.
Wow, this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race looks like the wildest one yet!
On the show in general, I actually myself most intrigued by Charlotte’s family story. We have that long history of who she is a character and who Harry is, so watching that person dealing with the perfect adopted daughter and the biological daughter seeking her own self family dynamic is genuinely interesting to me. There are just a lot of stuff that could be done with this that do feel more organic than what is happening with Miranda for example. Not that dislike the latter, but it feels more set.
The other thing was, wasn’t their daughter playing piano off-camera? I guess she looked at her father dropping dead on the floor and said “Meh.” Which, fair, I guess.
What?? That was Charlotte’s daughter at the recital in a whole other location. Big and Carrie don’t have kids.
Oh well whatever, I don’t follow this shit
then shut the fuck up, bitch
I am not the target audience for this show, but I have seen a LOT of the episodes over the many years because my wife likes it and will watch reruns on weekends. That said, if I happen to see this new season (I refuse to call it a reboot—same setting, same characters, same people playing those characters), I won’t shed a tear for Samantha. She may have been edgy back when this was first on, now she’s laughably bad on those reruns. I vaguely remember the first movie and had forgotten there was a second, or maybe vice versa (whichever was in the Middle East is what I kinda recall). Whichever one I saw was terrible. So who was asking for another season at this point?
“…Brady’s prolific sex life…”And just like that, I aged immeasurably. How is Brady anything but a wee ginger baby?
1st LONG moment of tension in 1st episode is Sam not there. And includes Carrie commenting about not being an ATM for Sam any longer.SJP, by doing this you just proved the contrary. SJP using Kim C as fodder for profit. It was low brow & low class, but not a surprise. Gwen, thank you for pointing out Big was the heart of SATC. He was very flawed, but I agree with you. I thought, “And just like that, Big died.” wasn’t poetic or over styled, it was realistic.
I think you’re reading way too much into it lol. That was a line between Carrie and Samantha, not Kim and SJP, and it felt like such a totally Carrie being selfish Carrie thing to say. Also the writers are hoping Kim will have a change of heart and return the second season, so they are leaving the character relationship with somewhere to go.
I’m with you. That explanation Carrie gave Miranda about what went down between her and Samantha/the end of their friendship was the most passive aggressive metaphor for SJP’s real life feelings. “And Just Like That” SJP (I mean Carrie) totally blamed Kim (I mean Samantha) for everything. The fact that Miranda said Samantha was “embarrassed” about what happened is the dead giveaway for me. Samantha?!?! Embarrassed?!?! Puh-leeze. There were a hundred different ways they could have written that, but what ended up on screen was ridiculous and an obvious burn against Kim Cattrall – all but ensuring the actress will never come back to the show after being written out with that kind of explanation.
It was incredibly dumb. They could have simply had Samantha working in London and have that be the end of it — no need to detail a ridiculously unrealistic friendship fallout related to a situation that didn’t even make sense (why would Samantha be upset about that?? As noted, Carrie said she no longer needed a publicist because the book industry has tanked — it wasn’t even personal). It was obviously written to “burn” Cattrall, but it was so dumb it just burned the (very bad) show.
Kim Cattrall scolded SJP for sending condolences on the loss of her brother. I think she already burned 100% of her bridges. She was never coming back.
Perhaps (and TBH I don’t know all the details of that particular situation) but the bottom line is that the actress (Kim Cattrall) publicly stated that she didn’t want to play this character any longer in a show or a movie and the creators/writers were upset by her choice and decided to be petty in the way they portrayed her & her departure from the group IMHO. They wrote that Samantha was “embarrassed” and so upset that Carrie didn’t need her as a publicist that she ran off to London? That’s not even remotely true to her character. I think they could have handled it a little more graciously instead of acting like Cattrall betrayed them by her decision. I mean, she’s allowed to decline a role if she wants to for Pete’s sake! Truthfully, they should let Samantha come back and replace Carrie on that podcast.
Is there any chance the Kim Cattrall v. everyone else feud was played up for drama/ratings? The way the fight between Carrie and Samantha is written makes it seem like there’s an expectation that Samantha will be back; they’re up-playing it, not down-playing it. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she shows up in the finale. Recent photos show a scene of Miranda/Brady/Steve with a bunch of luggage and I swear Kristin Davis posted an IG photo of her and a bunch of her crew on top of a building that looked more European than NYC (can’t find it now, but I feel like I saw it just yesterday); wondering if there’s a trip to Europe in store and Samantha shows up?On prediction I’m more likely to put money on is that Rose is trans/non-binary and Che will play a big role in helping Charlotte support her daughter.
the writers said they have written it so Kim has the option to come back if she wants, I hope so! The show works without her ok, but I didn’t realize how rigid the girls are without her, and so you need these outside characters to start challenging that rigidity.
This feels like an Edith Bunker situation. She wasn’t appearing on the show due to contract negotitations (I believe) so they wrote that she was out of town visiting her sister. But fans kept asking “Where’s Edith? Where’s Edith?” Eventually the producers realized the fans would never stop asking. There was only one way to shut them up. Edith had to die.
My main issue with the new series is that the women seem as if they’ve not progressed in the past 15 years or however long since it stopped airing. They’re liberal women who live in New York but they’re prude and I’m assuming about to be shocked by a gay daughter or that having a whole career based on her sex life, but shocked people want to talk about it for her sex talk job? I think Samantha left because these ladies are super lame.
Can older people stop trying to write “young woke” people? This show, “The Morning Show” come off as an older person who read about “woke” people online and don’t understand them other than broad caricatures. It’s so bad.
My god it was laughably bad, with the Peloton heart attack the most unintentionally hilarious scene since Michael Corleone’s death in Godfather 3.No laughs either – at all – and this was a series that had some great comic moments in the past.Fuckin’ D -.
Why are these episodes so long?? The pacing is all off, it feels so slow. Without Carrie’s VO there’s very little connective tissue and it’s noticeable in how it drags. The Samantha exchange was absurdly drawn out and painful. There was very possibly a pretty good 30 minute episode in here too!Hopefully after the first episode they don’t have characters just announcing their ages every 5 seconds.
“You know, Sex and the City turned into The Golden Girls so gradually I didn’t even notice!”
I loved this more than I anticipated. Same feeling, same breeziness, same attitude, just brought me back to the series I loved so much. I really don’t think Miranda would have been that painfully awkward. Why do they do that to her?And yeah I’m catching her very obvious “drinking problem” but if there’s a problem with purse wine at a school concert than all my friends and I are alcoholics.ETA SJP and Cynthia Nixon both look radiant. I cracked up at the hair coloring convo. Are they going to talk about plastic surgery next orrrrrrrrrr
So it’s not titled GILFs in the City? Huh.
“Big was always the heart of the series.”Um, what? Did we watch the same “Sex and the City” show? In the entire six seasons he was barely in seasons 5 and 6 and on and off in seasons 1-4. He was not great to her much of the time (I’m team Susan Sharon and her comment at Big’s funeral). The actresses, writers, and creators have always said, numerous times, that the heart of the show was the friendship between Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. And I know you couldn’t have predicted the recent Chris Noth allegations, but after that, NO ONE is going to say Big is the heart of SATC. Ever.
well done