What’s Next for ‘And Just Like That’?
And just like that, everyone is talking about “Sex and the City” again.
The finale of the second season of “And Just Like That” debuted Thursday — featuring a Samantha (Kim Cattrall) cameo! — and it was…fun? Moving? Not as deranged as the first season!? My colleague Ben Travers reviewed the finale here, but with the news that the show, Max’s No. 1 original, would indeed be returning for a third season we got to thinking about how the show can continue on its sudden upward swing.
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The last few episodes of Season 2 have shown some promising signs of life (and, yes, plenty of the show’s now-standard WTF-ness). So members of the IndieWire brain trust who have consumed all 21 episodes of this compelling chaos train couldn’t help but wonder: What one change would drastically improve the show for Season 3?
For myself, the answer is easy: It’s time to get rid of Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez). The internet’s favorite punching bag served their purpose for two seasons and in the Season 2 finale, they and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) basically made their peace. Time to move on! They can go off and be happy with a teased new love interest, and I can back to never thinking about them, or their “comedy,” ever again. (Not for nothing, a recent Instagram post by Ramirez suggested they may be ready to move on as well.)
The finale showcased some intriguing new options for Miranda — cable news star! friendship with Steve! — all with plenty of dramatic fertile ground. Go down that road instead.
BEN TRAVERS: As tempting as your proposed Che banishment sounds, Erin, I have to go the other way. No, I’m not advocating for more Che — I am not a masochist, and if one new character deserves more screen time / better development, it’s Nya — but I am pushing for more of the chaos Che represents. “And Just Like That” has too many issues for one alteration to make the show “good,” so rather than implement incremental change, let’s keep blowing shit up to see what happens.
Bring back Trey MacDougal. Oh, someone already proposed that? Then put Carrie to work. Sure, some of “And Just Like That’s” appeal is the financial freedom each series regular enjoys, and Carrie’s cushy bank account shouldn’t dwindle down to nothing. (This is not a show built for such realities.)
But she should get back to writing. Carrie was a popular sex columnist whose pivot to podcasting coincided with an extra prudish attitude — her return to singledom (post-Big) should have encouraged her to dig deeper into her own wants, her own needs, her own passions. Writing was always one, and it dovetailed nicely with her interest in people, dating, and romance. Podcasting clearly didn’t bring out the best in her, so let her try to find her way through the cold, hard world of modern publishing — run some freelance pieces, grapple with the backlash, try out Substack, delete Substack, dabble in the social media sphere (for, at most, one day).
It’s nice that Carrie is getting book deals, but she needs to push herself into deeper, daily engagement. After Big’s death and Aidan’s abandonment, I want to see Carrie get wrecked — in a good way. Follow your passion, lady. The grind doesn’t need to last more than a season — she can come out the other side with a new book idea, or one of those modern rarities: a full-time columnist position. But at least we’ll see her engage with topical territory authentic to who she is, in a cultural arena “AJLT” is nervous to explore. They tried with Che and stumbled. But we got some stories out of it. Carrie should, too.
MARK PEIKERT: I endorse this message, Ben! “I wanted to be a writer, I made myself a writer,” Carrie said in Season 6 of “Sex and the City”. We’ve seen nary a moment of that this season, despite the publication of her memoir. Maybe — and hear me out, just calm down. No, you think you’re calm but you’re about to not be — she needs to start revisiting more exes than just Aidan. Maybe her new project is looking back at failed relationships and interviewing the men about what went wrong. After all, who knew that Aidan harbored such guilt about their multiple breakups? What if Carrie forced Jack Berger to have that uncomfortable conversation he avoided via Post-It? Has he changed? Is he a men’s rights activist? I don’t know, but I would love to find out!
But what I desperately yearn for is more time together for these women. They all have careers again (except Carrie), but that didn’t stop “Sex and the City” from throwing them together at brunches and dinners and life stuff. Bring that back! Find ways to create new connections between them. Carrie invests in Hot Fellas to take it national; Nya, Miranda, and Harry do lawyer things together; Seema and Charlotte team up to fill the apartments Seema sells with art. Carrie’s narration was always the unifying aspect of “SATC.” I’m not advocating for its return, but there needs to be some way of making these characters feel part of the whole rather than loosely connected vignettes without the thematic storyline connection that sometimes resulted in eye rolls but more frequently showcased multiple facets of the same issue.
SAMANTHA BERGESON: Since both Seema and Carrie are stuck in relationships with time constraints (five months vs. five years!), Season 3 better start with a time jump, ASAP. Sure, it would accelerate the whole Lily and Brady romance (will Lily stay local for college at Juilliard or another music school to deepen their relationship?), but we simply cannot be buying into Aidan’s “I’ll see you soon” concept.
We’ve already seen Carrie grieve once in this revival series; just let her have fun, date, and put the sex back in the original “Sex and the City.” She cannot be hung up on Aidan’s b.s. excuses come Season 3. So, jump ahead at least a year, have Carrie and Miranda both be fabulously single, and just maybe then an unexpected, early Aidan appearance will be worth it.
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