I… think I enjoyed ‘And Just Like That’…?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2023 (1144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And Just Like That, HBO’s sequel series to Sex and the City, is not a good show.

At least that’s what everyone says about it. I have even said that about it.

And yet, I was always excited when a new episode dropped on Thursdays. I was legitimately happy it got renewed for a third (!) season, making AJLT half as long as the original series. I am ashamed to say that I was fully anticipating Kim Cattrall’s 74-second return as Samantha Jones in the season finale, even though I knew it would be a green-screen fan-service nightmare (and lo, it was). I was thrilled to blow the dust off all my “Aiden sucks” arguments of yore.

I wasn’t even hate-watching And Just Like That. I was just full-stop watching it.

Critical reviews and casual conversations alike seem to be taking the same posture: it’s not good, but I want more. As Vanity Fair writer Chris Murphy commented on CBC’s Commotion podcast: “I can’t say it was good, but I looked forward to every episode and I had fun watching every single episode.”

Yes, same. But doesn’t that make it good? Is AJLT good, actually?

Certainly, there are problems with this show. Hoo, boy, the problems. I hate when critics (myself included) use the crutch phrase “it’s not perfect but” because truly nothing is.

I also think fans hold the original series in an untouchable reverence; there were problems in Sex and the City, too. It was a smart, groundbreaking show but it, too, had moments of weakness.

The first season of AJLT was clunky, and I will truly never forgive the writers for ruining Miranda, the formerly no-nonsense, sarcastic, acerbic lawyer played by Cynthia Nixon who was recast as someone’s bumbling and out-of-touch Facebook Aunt, constantly messing up people’s pronouns and spouting weird microaggressions. While I do believe some middle-aged women would struggle with these things, I do not accept that Miranda Hobbes would.

It also doesn’t always know what to do with its women of colour — professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), real estate mogul/Samantha proxy Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury), documentarian Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) and comedian/possibly the series’ most maligned character, Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) — often tokenizing them in the process.

Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) no longer has a column (and, therefore, no voice-over narration) anymore, so her fill-in-the-blank, episode-ending quips — “and just like that…” — make no sense. Who are you talking to, girl?

But Season 2, which just wrapped last week, shed the self-consciousness that hummed through Season 1 and had more of the snap, crackle and pop of the original. It’s starting to treat its characters of colour as full people. It had a breeziness to it, with more resolved-in-an-episode hijinks. It’s frothy and fun, which is why I enjoyed watching it.

I’m generally leery of sequel shows because I don’t care about what the characters are up to now; they can live in the past and I’m content with rewatches. But I don’t want Carrie Bradshaw and co. to be Forever 35; I’m curious to see how they’ve grown, or haven’t.

Speaking of growth, my least favourite of the foursome, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), has become my favourite, something I certainly didn’t have on my 2023 bingo card.

What makes a show “good” is subjective, of course, and we all value different qualities in our TV shows — storytelling, dialogue, pacing, plot, and, if you’re a real nerd, cinematography. But what makes even a “bad” show “good” — or at least watchable — is having, at its heart, characters you care about. And I care about these characters.

An underrated viewing quality, though, is pleasure, and the women that populate AJLT’s world, with their clothes and their frictionless, monied existences, provide plenty of pleasurable escapism. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures because there’s nothing guilty about pleasure. Not every TV show needs to be “challenging” or “groundbreaking.”

Sometimes you want a steak and sometimes you want a cheeseburger — with large fries and a Cosmopolitan. If you know, you know.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com