Thank you for reminding me how much the raunchy banter meant to me in the original SATC, and how I’ve missed it in AJLT. We didn’t have HBO, so I first saw the show in a hotel room and it was Samantha’s “funky spunk” report to the girls (season 3, I believe). I was just laughing hysterically (“*what* is this?”) and my husband woke up and joined in. As soon as we got home, he bought me the first of our six SATC DVD sets (even the mention of “DVD sets” at all is nostalgic, but not as nostalgic as the “funky spunk” banter…eeeww!). Couldn’t agree more with you about Big vs Aiden and “go get our girl” gave me chills, too…I’ve watched those last two Paris episodes over and over.
I would have given this two hearts if that was possible. I just rewatched “funky spunk” in preparation for writing this piece, and it’s as hilarious as it ever was. Samantha’s face!! And his, when she makes him do it!
The past series was raunchy but it was conversation.I thought the new series tried way too hard to be politically correct and there were way too many weird situations (the Kegels, Anthony and the new boyfriend’s ‘who’s on top’ drama, Miranda messing up Che’s stand-up) and way too many sex scenes. I mean...
Yet I watched it, very often with an ‘ewwww’ expression on my face. LOL.
Susan, this is the best review of *And Just Like That* I've read, especially in the way you pinpoint the missing funny (really funny) dialogue in the original *Sex and the City* and the way the AJLT writers and showrunner left Carrie as a "waiting Penelope" at the end of the second season. They deliver her comeuppance for dumping Aidan in the beforetimes, supposedly responding to what fans want. Not this fan. I'm with you — I was always rooting for Big, not a New Ager like Aidan. And I was really surprised that so many of the "recaps" of the finale seemed to think it was reasonable Carrie would hang around waiting, that she deserved what she got. Ugh.
And yet (just like that) I did watch the whole second season. Here's my own take on the wretched beginning of it, before Aidan even shows up, in which I talk about the ups and downs of the "friendship plot":
You nailed it. That Aiden breakup was so lame. But --and this would probably not fly in the NYT--the new POC characters are BORING. I can't even remember which is which. Seema is oK but still too cautious. The elephant in the room is that middle aged and older women stick to their own race when it comes to friendship--sad but true. Educated, affluent black women DO NOT hang out with white women and they are not interested in hanging out with white women. They have their own language, outlook and assumptions and feel they can relax with each other. They don't want to have to be self-conscious or judged by white women. Watch the series, Harlem, it's a black Sex and the City without white women. On the flip side, I don't know any group of older white women with POC girfiends . Young women yes, they are a whole different generation. But white people are so afraid to say something "offensive" they can't relax with black women. Seema is the most likely one because she's foreign so not attached to her own ethnicity. AND if they were going to add POC women why not get someone like Tiffany Haddish--a black Samantha. Che is just bizarre and so not funny. It just doesn't work--at all. Agree with you about Big. He was insanely hot.
Really great points, especially about the “elephant in the room.” I originally had several paragraphs about the treatment of race, which I deleted because the post was getting too unwieldy, but of course you are right. Leaving the show aside for a moment, The reality has been painful to me personally, because my daughter is Black so when she was younger and dealing with schools, etc., I had Black women friends, and felt more at home with them than my white friends. (There’s an affinity between Blacks and Jews that has gotten obscured during the past couple of decades, for complicated reasons.) But that’s changed since I no longer have either the academic context or my daughter (she’s 24 now) and on Facebook, there have been all sorts of assumptions about who I am (I’ve become a “white women” in a way I never felt when I was growing up in Newark—a very different world than the world of Sex and the City!— or when I had Black friends like bell hooks) and it’s been hard to get through the “be quiet and listen, do better,” etc. notions about what it means to be an “ally.” As far as I’m concerned, you can’t really be friends if you’re so bottled up and twisted up with fear of offending. But enough about me!! A personal stream of consciousness inspired by your comments about the show…..!
Thank you for reminding me how much the raunchy banter meant to me in the original SATC, and how I’ve missed it in AJLT. We didn’t have HBO, so I first saw the show in a hotel room and it was Samantha’s “funky spunk” report to the girls (season 3, I believe). I was just laughing hysterically (“*what* is this?”) and my husband woke up and joined in. As soon as we got home, he bought me the first of our six SATC DVD sets (even the mention of “DVD sets” at all is nostalgic, but not as nostalgic as the “funky spunk” banter…eeeww!). Couldn’t agree more with you about Big vs Aiden and “go get our girl” gave me chills, too…I’ve watched those last two Paris episodes over and over.
I would have given this two hearts if that was possible. I just rewatched “funky spunk” in preparation for writing this piece, and it’s as hilarious as it ever was. Samantha’s face!! And his, when she makes him do it!
The past series was raunchy but it was conversation.I thought the new series tried way too hard to be politically correct and there were way too many weird situations (the Kegels, Anthony and the new boyfriend’s ‘who’s on top’ drama, Miranda messing up Che’s stand-up) and way too many sex scenes. I mean...
Yet I watched it, very often with an ‘ewwww’ expression on my face. LOL.
Yeah, more bodies and less clever talk. And many “ewwwww”- worthy scenes. Would have been better to just end the series with season one.
Susan, this is the best review of *And Just Like That* I've read, especially in the way you pinpoint the missing funny (really funny) dialogue in the original *Sex and the City* and the way the AJLT writers and showrunner left Carrie as a "waiting Penelope" at the end of the second season. They deliver her comeuppance for dumping Aidan in the beforetimes, supposedly responding to what fans want. Not this fan. I'm with you — I was always rooting for Big, not a New Ager like Aidan. And I was really surprised that so many of the "recaps" of the finale seemed to think it was reasonable Carrie would hang around waiting, that she deserved what she got. Ugh.
And yet (just like that) I did watch the whole second season. Here's my own take on the wretched beginning of it, before Aidan even shows up, in which I talk about the ups and downs of the "friendship plot":
https://marthanichols.substack.com/p/sugar-for-the-soul
You nailed it. That Aiden breakup was so lame. But --and this would probably not fly in the NYT--the new POC characters are BORING. I can't even remember which is which. Seema is oK but still too cautious. The elephant in the room is that middle aged and older women stick to their own race when it comes to friendship--sad but true. Educated, affluent black women DO NOT hang out with white women and they are not interested in hanging out with white women. They have their own language, outlook and assumptions and feel they can relax with each other. They don't want to have to be self-conscious or judged by white women. Watch the series, Harlem, it's a black Sex and the City without white women. On the flip side, I don't know any group of older white women with POC girfiends . Young women yes, they are a whole different generation. But white people are so afraid to say something "offensive" they can't relax with black women. Seema is the most likely one because she's foreign so not attached to her own ethnicity. AND if they were going to add POC women why not get someone like Tiffany Haddish--a black Samantha. Che is just bizarre and so not funny. It just doesn't work--at all. Agree with you about Big. He was insanely hot.
Really great points, especially about the “elephant in the room.” I originally had several paragraphs about the treatment of race, which I deleted because the post was getting too unwieldy, but of course you are right. Leaving the show aside for a moment, The reality has been painful to me personally, because my daughter is Black so when she was younger and dealing with schools, etc., I had Black women friends, and felt more at home with them than my white friends. (There’s an affinity between Blacks and Jews that has gotten obscured during the past couple of decades, for complicated reasons.) But that’s changed since I no longer have either the academic context or my daughter (she’s 24 now) and on Facebook, there have been all sorts of assumptions about who I am (I’ve become a “white women” in a way I never felt when I was growing up in Newark—a very different world than the world of Sex and the City!— or when I had Black friends like bell hooks) and it’s been hard to get through the “be quiet and listen, do better,” etc. notions about what it means to be an “ally.” As far as I’m concerned, you can’t really be friends if you’re so bottled up and twisted up with fear of offending. But enough about me!! A personal stream of consciousness inspired by your comments about the show…..!
It's ironic that all this ally stuff has made friendship impossible. You should write about it