‘And Just Like That…’ was a jolt for ‘Sex and the City’ fans. For Season 2, they have suggestions

NEW YORK — When “And Just Like That…” premiered in late 2021, fans welcomed the revival of “Sex and the City” with a mixture of giddy anticipation and wary trepidation.

To viewers who got hooked on the show during its run on HBO and rewatched countless times via syndicated reruns and/or DVD box sets — then endured two movies that declined steeply in quality — “And Just Like That…” represented a chance for the franchise to return to its original glory while also exploring the particular challenges that Carrie Bradshaw and her friends faced as they settled into late middle age.

It arrived at a time when the aspirational frivolity of “Sex and the City” felt like a much-needed escape for fans stuck at home after nearly two years of the pandemic, lounging in sweatpants instead of donning Manolos and heading to brunch. And it also offered an opportunity for the show to redress its lack of racial diversity, which it was long criticized for, by bringing in three new characters who are women of color — real estate broker Seema ( Sarita Choudhury ), professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman) and filmmaker and socialite Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker).

“And Just Like That…” immediately ignited the cultural conversation, although not necessarily in the ways that showrunner Michael Patrick King and his team of writers had likely envisioned. Che Diaz, the pot-smoking nonbinary comedian played by Sara Ramirez who has an affair with Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), became the character fans loved to hate, sparking a slew of snarky memes and critical think pieces. The long overdue integration of Carrie’s friend group was handled with maximum awkwardness and minimal nuance.

A number of absences loomed over the series, including Carrie’s husband, Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who died after a Peloton workout in the first episode, helping to tank the company’s stock price, which was already on the decline. Noth was scheduled to reappear in the Season 1 finale, but shortly after the show’s premiere, the actor was accused of sexual assault by two women, forcing producers to recut the episode and leading the exercise company to pull a hastily assembledad featuring the actor. Noth has denied the allegations.

Stanford Blatch was hastily written off the show when the actor who portrayed him, Willie Garson, died in the middle of production. And Carrie’s best friend, Samantha Jones, was present only via text message because Kim Cattrall declined to reprise her role as the lustful publicist. Carrie’s witty, whimsical voice-over was also gone, depriving the show of a strong point of view and writerly flourishes that made it distinct.

And, perhaps most painful of all, the characters who were back seemed, well, not quite themselves. The eminently sensible Miranda abandoned her legal career for graduate school, started drinking too much and then left her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), to follow Che — a self-described narcissist — to California. Carrie, a well-established columnist and author, tried to pivot to podcasting about a decade too late.

Many fans, who felt intensely connected to characters they’d spent decades watching, couldn’t help but wonder: Why would Miranda blow up her entire life to run off with someone who told such hacky jokes? Why did Steve suddenly seem so frail and aged? Why didn’t Carrie immediately call 911 when Big collapsed in the shower? And why don’t any of these savvy New Yorkers know it’s not called a “comedy concert”?

As longtime viewers brace for Season 2 of “And Just Like That…,” which arrived Thursday on Max and which promises the return of Carrie’s ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) and a cameo by Cattrall, they remain hopeful that the show will eventually find its footing.

Bridging the gap between the two series

“All of the characters felt off,” said Ryan Green, a virtual event producer in her 40s, who first began watching the show on VHS tapes more than two decades ago after a bad breakup. “We left them as accomplished professionals in 2010 [in ‘Sex and the City 2’], and now it’s 2023, and it’s like they woke up without growing at all in those 10 years.”

Green estimates that she has watched the original series at least 20 times. She moved to Brooklyn to pursue her own big-city dreams as a designer of handbags and home decor. “I would sit at my sewing machine for hours every day with ‘Sex and the City’ playing on my computer screen. It was something I didn’t have to give my full attention to but also kept me entertained over and over,” she said.

As attached as she was to “Sex and the City,” Green was apprehensive about a revival because “it felt weird to bring [the characters] back, given their age and how much the city has changed.”

The absence of Carrie’s narration in “And Just Like That…” was a major problem for Green. “We need her voice to tie together the theme and jokes between all the characters,” she said. “I think that’s a defining part of ‘Sex and the City.’”

And while she had no problems with the show killing off the “boring” Big, Green thought his death was handled in a bizarre way. “I wonder if [King] has a beef with Peloton,” she said.

Danny Pellegrino, who dissects “And Just Like That…” on his pop culture podcast, “ Everything Iconic,” first caught a few episodes of “Sex and City” as a closeted teenager in Ohio, “pretending I wasn’t interested even though I was enthralled.” He became obsessed in his 20s, after he’d come out and borrowed DVDs from a friend.

“I was thrilled the series was being rebooted, because there are so few scripted series about women over 50, and I realized that because this was a hugely successful franchise, they would be given a budget and promotion to take some big swings,” said Pellegrino, the author of “How Do I Unremember This?: Unfortunately True Stories.” “I was devastated Kim Cattrall opted not to return but, ever the Charlotte, I hoped that they would all be able to bridge the divide eventually. I still hold out hope for a more permanent return of Samantha.”

To Pellegrino, what was supposed to be a comfort watch felt destabilizing. Between the death of Mr. Big, the allegations against Noth, the death of Garson and Samantha’s rift with Carrie, “There was a heaviness to the season that perhaps many people didn’t expect. Even though the original has a lot of heavy moments, it’s the comedy that I remember.”

And while he was glad to see Miranda’s character go to interesting places, “there was already so much change happening with the show and characters we loved for so many years … that asking the audience to accept this new dynamic was a lot to take in,” he said, voicing a complaint, common among fans, about how Steve was treated by the writers (and Miranda). “I struggled with that.”

Rectifying the portrayal of aging and diversity

Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez, who cover “And Just Like That…” on their website, TomandLorenzo.com, and podcast, “Tom & Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinionfest,” were deeply invested in the original series, even naming one of their cats after Amalita Amalfi, a memorable character from Season 1 of “Sex and the City.”

“What we appreciated about the show was its uniqueness at the time. No other show was talking about sex so explicitly,” said Marquez.

They were both disappointed with “And Just Like That…,” particularly its nostalgia-driven compulsion to revisit the past — evident in Aidan’s return this season.

“If you look at ‘The Golden Girls,’ [those characters] were roughly the same age as these women are now. It was a lot bolder in how it accepted that these women were forward-looking,” said Fitzgerald. “They weren’t obsessed with their past or their youth. They were trying to figure out the next phase of their life. And that was 35 years ago that television was doing that. So it’s disappointing to see a show dealing with women in the same age range, but they’re all just awkward and obsessed with correcting old mistakes. It’s a rather dreary take on late middle age.”

Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda have become ossified, Fitzgerald said, more intellectual property in a billion-dollar franchise than human beings evolving in organic ways. “It’s almost like superheroes or Disney characters. You can’t move from it, so they’re stuck replaying stuff that they did in their 30s.”

Though Che felt like a modern addition to the ensemble, Fitzgerald thought that the writers glossed over some of their flaws and were too timid about satirizing the character: “They should loosen up because there’s a lot [about Che] to satirize. ‘Sex and the City’ always made fun of a certain style of pretentious New Yorker.”

Che, whose comedy represents an awkward blend of confessional Hannah Gadsby-esque stand-up and shock-jock gimmicks, including a “woke moment” button they activated during their podcast, would be rife for ridicule, said Fitzgerald.

Miranda and her friends “would routinely date obnoxious men and [‘Sex and the City’] would make a point of spotlighting the fact that those men were obnoxious,” Fitzgerald said. Even though Che behaved outrageously on several occasions — having drunken sex with Miranda in Carrie’s kitchen while Carrie lay immobile in bed a few feet away — Miranda received little pushback from her friends about the relationship.

“If any guy they were dating back in the day [did the same thing] while Carrie was passed out in bed, that would have been [examined] more,” he said. “Maybe they didn’t want to make fun of the first nonbinary cast member that they’ve ever had. I get that, but now it’s time.”

Likewise, while the attempt to diversify the show’s version of New York City was welcome, Fitzgerald felt it was handled clumsily.

“There’s a way to depict, say, the microaggressions that wealthy white liberal women in New York are capable of foisting upon the people in their social group who are not white. That would be a great thing for them to unpack. But instead, they made all these women just look stupid,” he said, noting how Charlotte (Kristin Davis) literally knocks on a neighbor’s door because she doesn’t know any other Black people she can invite to a party she’s throwing.

Still, Fitzgerald said watching the characters stumble is part of the DNA of the show, and he has no plans to give up on Carrie and the gang anytime soon.

“We’re going to watch every episode. I know we are. We are ride or die, ‘til the end.”

‘AND JUST LIKE THAT…’

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under age 17)

How to watch: Max