LOS ANGELES — Michael Patrick King wants the record to show that “Sex and the City” had a “slow burn of a love affair” with viewers on its way to becoming, eventually, an adored success.
The executive producer’s motive: that his HBO Max sequel, “And Just Like That…,” get a chance to prove itself. After its two-episode debut last week, the remaining eight are arriving on consecutive Thursdays.
“You’ve seen a couple of episodes of our show; you’ve seen six seasons” of the original 1998-2004 comedy about 30-something friends in New York City, said King, who was a writer, director and executive producer on “Sex and the City.”
“I feel confident in coming back with these actresses — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon — because I knew they could play whatever it was we and the writers came up with,” he said.
A “bold story line” intended to grab audience attention also gave King confidence that the sequel was a good idea. Spoiler alert: That daring encompasses a major plot twist in episode one and its fallout, addressed below.
King, interviewed the day after the show debuted, could be forgiven a certain defensiveness. Critics, and some viewers, took issue with its dark tone as it revisited its characters in their 50s, in contrast to its frisky predecessor.
Viewers got much to lament and chew on in the debut episodes. Samantha, played by Kim Cattrall in “Sex and the City,” is in the sequel in name only. Willie Garson, part of both series (and the films) as Stanford, was lost to pancreatic cancer after taping part of the sequel. And in this version, diversity gets a place at the table.
A Big goodbye
The first episode ended with John aka Mr. Big (Chris Noth) suffering a heart attack after an intense Peloton workout and dying in wife Carrie’s (Parker) arms. Her failure to call 911 galled many, while jokesters dubbed the scene the worst product placement ever.
Peloton, which avowed ignorance of how its machine was to be used and defended its health benefits, rushed out a clever commercial with Noth and Peloton instructor Jess King (also seen in the episode) sitting fireside post-workout and deciding on another spin.
Did Big — cigars and known heart condition aside — really have to meet a premature end?
“Yes, I had to kill Big,” King said, bluntly. “The reason I came back was to kill Big, because I wanted Carrie and the audience to feel, ‘Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all?’ ”
Darren Star, who created “Sex and the City,” said the twist opened up “a new chapter” and also weighed in on the commercial spoof: “I loved it. I have a Peloton and I don’t believe the bike killed Mr. Big.”
Where is Samantha?
In London, and giving her once-close pals the silent treatment after Carrie dropped Samantha as her publicist — a tiff that seems to echo Cattrall’s 2018 social media post in which she criticized Parker and said, “You are not my friend.”
When the series minus Cattrall was announced last January, Parker brushed aside a fan’s post suggesting a feud. “No. I don’t dislike her,” Parker replied. “I’ve never said that. Never would. Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us.”
King said Cattrall decided that “she didn’t want to play Samantha anymore. She was finished with it … so we created something in the writing room that happens to a lot of friendships, where you just fall apart.”
Welcome to the club
New York is a melting pot of ethnic diversity, but “Sex and the City” was strictly white. That’s changed in “And Just Like That…,” which adds characters of color played by Sarita Choudhury, Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pittman and Sara Ramírez.
