Sex And The City Fans Don't Hold Back Their Feelings About The Reboot
HBO's "Sex and the City," created by Darren Star, ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2004. The series follows four 30-something (or 40-something) friends — sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), art gallery worker Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), publicist Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), and lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) — as they navigate their love lives while living in New York City.
The revival series, "And Just Like That...," which premiered on HBO Max in December 2021, is missing Samantha as Cattrall opted not to return; instead, the show focuses on Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda, now in their 50s. Carrie, grieving the death of her husband Big (Chris Noth), explores her new life as a widow. Miranda has gone back to school to get her Master of Humans Rights degree and struggles with an increasingly estranged marriage with Steve (David Eigenberg). Meanwhile, Charlotte, still happily married to Harry (Evan Handler), faces an unexpected bump in the road when her child, Rock (Alexa Swinton), comes out as non-binary. Plus, there's a slew of new characters: Carrie's non-binary podcast co-host Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), Miranda's professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), and Charlotte's fellow parent at her child's school, Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker).
As much as fans may have been ecstatic at the prospect of catching up with these beloved characters later in life (and meeting a slew of new ones), the revival turned out to fail to live up to fan expectations. Here's what fans have to say about the revival — and they don't mince words.
Fans are really disappointed by the revival
Fans have taken to Reddit on several occasions to discuss the ways in which "And Just Like That..." isn't working for them. When the show first premiered, in December 2021, Reddit user u/sbs5903 expressed their disappointment with the revival and noted that they would have rather they decided to do a reunion special, like "Friends" did, instead. The comments were full of other fans who agreed. Speaking for many of the commenters, for example, u/SuddenBird4926 wrote, "Agreed. I am done. I am a hard core fan and I am so disappointed."
Many fans finished watching the 1st season of "And Just Like That..." despite the series falling short of expectations — but their opinions didn't exactly improve. In August 2022, u/LegitimateCap9112 posted a poll asking fans how surprised they were that the series didn't receive any Emmy nominations and the result was overwhelmingly in favor of "not surprised." A whopping 1,500-plus users voted for "not surprised," whereas the second most-voted answer was "not even a [pity] one?" with significantly fewer votes at 110. (Only 33 people thought that the show was "robbed"). One commenter, u/Amanda_Costner, wrote, "Lol even the people who didn't hate watch wouldn't go so far as to say they deserve an Emmy. That season was a lot of things...but award-winning ain't one of the things it was!" Meanwhile, u/kittylovesdindin had a generous but practical take: "For the most part I enjoyed watching it, but never once did I consider it quality TV."
However, u/Mpoboy was harsher on the series, writing, "Don't they have an Emmy award for 'ill conceived or half as [sic] plots that went nowhere'? I'm talking about Miranda's alcoholism and Carrie's friend at the funeral that sounded like she had secrets." Further, u/IggyBall declared that the show's only worked on any level due to fans' nostalgia for the original series.
Fans have ideas to how the show could have been good
In another Reddit post, u/WikiSchone suggested the fans rewrite the series to improve it, beginning with notes such as Miranda becoming a law professor instead of going back to school. On the topic of Miranda, another fan, u/HoldOnToYaWeave, wished they had gone about the end of her marriage to Steve differently. (In the series, Miranda begins an affair with Che before telling Steve she wants a divorce). They wrote, "I also feel like Miranda would naturally have grown apart from Steve – I just don't think she would have cheated on him as she was so broken when the same thing happened to her. I think they'd have drifted apart but the Che storyline was so not Miranda."
One fan, u/ninetiestrends, laid out an in-depth pitch as to how the show could have been better, beginning with the show starting a year after Big's death instead of having that be the start of it. They also had an idea for how to bring back Carrie's voiceover, which many fans missed: "Carrie has her radio show/podcast that allows for a voice-over. The opening line is 'I'm Carrie Bradshaw and this is Sex and the City.'" They continued that, instead of having the new women of color characters help the white main characters navigate the more culturally aware climate, Seema, Nya, and Lisa could have been already integrated into the friend group. They continued, "Just six women bonding over anything and everything. They are all so different with different worldviews, their conversations would be interesting to witness."
Many fans enthusiastically agreed with this idea. One Redditor, u/Initial-Promotion-77, replied, "This. This is all of what I wanted."
Critics agree with the fans
As it turns out, critics were just as disappointed as the fans were with "And Just Like That..." — resulting in the 1st season of the series receiving just a 48% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
One of the biggest gripes critics have had with the series is the forced manner in which it attempts to address relevant cultural touchstones, such as Black Lives Matter or gender fluidity. According to James Poniewozik of The New York Times, this even holds "And Just Like That..." back from being a better show. Explaining that the series feels like two different shows, Poniewozik wrote, "One, which tries to grow with the women as they navigate their 50s and mortality, is a downer, but it takes risks and in moments is very good. The other, which tries to update its sassy turn-of-the-century sensibility for an era of diversity, is painful."
Mary Sollosi of Entertainment Weekly elaborated on this topic, noting that, while "And Just Like That..." tried to make up for its lack of characters of color in the original series, they were unable to do so in a natural way. "First the show punished itself with multiple humiliations for a hopelessly out-of-touch Miranda, then it rushed in a new POC BFF for each of the lead characters, who engaged with their main-cast counterpart in a way that explicitly illuminated their cultural experience," she explained.
"And Just Like That..." is currently streaming on HBO Max.