And Just Like That, a Turd Dropped on HBO Max
In case that's just too subtle: I didn't like the premiere.
I could open this newsletter a million ways, with a bajillion complaints about And Just Like That…, but it would be journalistically irresponsible to bury the lede here, and that is:
Technically we did talk about this last year on Go Fug Yourself when the photos first came out, and you can see more angles there, including the giant bobble on the back. Carrie and Seema took a walk in the park to discuss Seema’s problems, and not ONE of those problems was, “I am currently being seen in public with a woman wearing a ten-gallon hot water bottle on her head.” Seema got out that great tote and real grown-up lady clothes, and Carrie looks like she’s cosplaying Holly Hobbie. Not a single extra did a double-take. Seema even stared directly at her and didn’t even flinch. I assume Sarita Choudhury was secretly looking over her shoulder so as not to start laughing in SJP’s face here. I’m sure that they didn’t call out the elephant on the head out of politeness — that hatmaker probably loaned them this item for exposure, and SJP has said she saw it and simply had to wear it, so they likely felt like they couldn’t have somebody make fun of it. But I would argue it’s almost meaner to said hatmaker to have Carrie wear this at all, knowing the Internet would do its thing and correctly bewail this lid lunacy. IN NO UNIVERSE would this bonnet have passed without comment. If I wore this to dinner with Jessica, she would take me to Urgent Care.
That’s one of my beefs with the show itself, in fact. Carrie was married to Big, a megarich finance dude, for, what, a decade? She went from a scrappy little clotheshorse to something probably (however unwittingly) closer to a society lady, and then she was his widow, and now she’s living single (but not single enough, AHEM, AIDAN), and nobody ever stopped to think about what that meant for her fashion sense or what story her clothes are telling about where Carrie is in her life. In fact, Carrie not knowing that, and needing to discover it, might have been a relatable and fascinating anchor for a story about being in your fifties and navigating a world that has a lot of feelings about how women — particularly those who have been known for a certain wild aesthetic — should present themselves. But did anyone bother with that story? Hell no! Because when faced with potentially useful and interesting and rich story choices, And Just Like That… never fails to do the exact opposite.
And so it is that two years have passed since And Just Like That… ended its second season with Carrie and Seema on the beach, their respective boyfriends off in their own worlds, appearing to toast the unexpected openness of their futures. What a phenomenal opportunity, when returning for season three, to skip ahead those same two years and completely reset the table. Naturally, because nobody on that staff can make a sensible decision, the premiere picks up more or less where we left off so that it can drag us through unnecessary emotional purgatory. Why grow when you can stagnate, right?
I did a chat on Friday with Jennifer of Ministry of Pop Culture, who has written extensively about Sex and the City and reviewed the new season for The Wrap. We discussed at length the ways this show shot itself in the foot during seasons one and two, and how it chose and still chooses against its own interests every single time. The entire SATC universe might be a victim of its stars becoming executive producers, and perhaps having a vise-grip on what their characters will and won’t do, and why. Accordingly, we are being held hostage to someone’s loyalty to Aidan fucking Shaw, who — against all reason and logic — has found a way to make himself even less appealing. If he is the endgame, it’s going to be a long eleven episodes from here to there.
Let’s do a power ranking, from best to worst, of who came out of this episode ahead and who should crawl inside the nearest bonnet and never emerge again.