Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for And Just Like That… Season 2.
To quote our dearly departed friend Lexi Featherston (Kristen Johnston) from Sex and the City: “When did everybody stop smoking? When did everybody pair off? This used to be the most exciting city in the world, and now it’s nothing but smoking near a f*****g open window. New York is over: O-V-E-R. Over. No one’s fun anymore! Whatever happened to FUN? God, I’m so bored I could die.” And just like that, Lexi Featherston fell out the open window she was smoking from and plummeted to her death. In many ways, her monologue was a pretty solid call out to the current state of And Just Like That….
Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) might be visibly missing from the series, but there’s something much larger that this show is actually lacking: the in-person togetherness of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon). Long gone are the days of shooting the breeze at short-lived bars like BED and screaming for all the world to hear on the Staten Island Ferry. Lexi Featherston was right: what did happen to fun?
‘And Just Like That…’ Season 2 Makes Us Miss the Good Old Days of ‘Sex and the City’
Sure, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda always had their own separate plot lines going on in Sex and the City, but there was a specific closeness that always existed in tandem with their own, individual lives; for some reason, And Just Like That… decided to switch out the now-trio’s in-person gatherings for errant phone calls that come about as regularly as the buses on the weekend. They might gather every now and then for a quick bite at a local café, but even those are few and far between, and not to mention, pretty lacking in the types of frank conversation that used to be had in the old series.
The greatest moments of Sex and the City always occurred when Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda were simply together: despite the name, the winning ticket of this series wasn’t even the sex—it was our four gals getting up to various antics throughout the city. Getting wasted and eating hot dogs in the stands of Yankee Stadium, dancing with a bunch of firefighters in Staten Island, and renting a house in the Hamptons while simultaneously getting crabs were all things that happened fairly regularly. A city is nothing without its people, and in that same vein, a Sex and the City reboot is nothing without its friendship—strong, close, honest friendship that never stops giving.
‘And Just Like That…’ Could Still Get the Girls Back Together
To right the ship back on course would mean completely uprooting the way that And Just Like That… has been operating since it first premiered back in 2021, which—for the most part—has involved making every character an individual as opposed to being part of a larger, more cohesive group. When the characters do decide to hang out in person, it’s usually just a one-on-one situation, whether it’s Carrie and Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) grabbing drinks or Miranda and Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman) hanging out. While there are definitely more characters to track in And Just Like That…, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to ditch the group hangs altogether—at least throw us a bone sometimes if you’re going to stick to your guns and have things be more individualized.
While it’s no doubt a massive win to have as diverse a cast as the show does, it almost doesn’t leave enough room for our original three—Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda—to break off and have their own friendship. After all, the bulk of us originally tuned into this reboot to reunite with the characters who started it all; to omit their unbreakable bond is not only a disservice to the series itself, but to the audience who ultimately wants more of everything they loved about the original Sex and the City.
Overall, the dynamic generally feels off and it’s because we’re missing the show’s supreme ability to create a well-balanced mix of highs, lows, laughs, and cries. The general vibe feels more akin to performance art as opposed to any sort of honesty that’s rooted in the ground, and if you weren’t convinced of that already, just take another look at the coat that Carrie traipsed through a snowstorm in during Season 2, Episode 6 of AJLT. By dedicating so much time to the facade of things, the series is missing the entire point of the original show: that friendship, above everything else, is the glue that keeps our lives together.
While we’ll keep watching and enjoying AJLT for the sheer experience of seeing Carrie back behind that computer in her apartment window, it shouldn’t be the only thing keeping us from falling off the wagon. Bring us back to a kitschy bar where Carrie spends the entire time actively dodging an old flame, Charlotte accidentally gets locked in a bathroom stall, and Miranda confesses to eating another pastry out of the garbage. And throw in a wistful line about New York City, too—just for old times’ sake.
