{"id":74585,"date":"2025-08-17T07:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T07:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74585\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T07:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T07:59:11","slug":"and-just-like-that-final-episode-was-it-any-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74585\/","title":{"rendered":"And Just Like That final episode: Was it any good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That \u2026 ended on Friday<\/a>, capping off a three-season run that divided critics and fans alike. The show, which started with a bang when it killed off Carrie\u2019s husband while he rode his exercise bike, ended with Carrie writing the epilogue to her novel about a woman who finally learnt to love being on her own. But was AJLT really, really, as bad as countless critics seemed to think, or was it unfairly judged? Culture Editor-at-Large Michael Idato takes up the case against, while National TV Editor Louise Rugendyke is here for the defence.<\/p>\n

The case against And Just Like That…<\/p>\n

It is said that television dramas survive by changing, and sitcoms survive by staying the same, a kind of forced reset that sends their characters back to square one of the story sequence just in time for next week\u2019s episode. The result: an unchanging universe where the same jokes, riffs and punchlines work, week in, week out.<\/p>\n

When Sex and the City began in 1998, it was like nothing else on television. It was wholly fictional and \u2013 based on where they lived, what they wore, and how they spent money \u2013 laughably unreal. And yet, somewhere in the midst of the Manolo Blahniks, the secret trysts with Big and the self-examinational narration, it was also deeply authentic.<\/p>\n

\"Sex<\/p>\n

Sex and the City\u2019s Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker.<\/p>\n

For 96 almost-perfect half-hour episodes, the unreal world of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) felt very real. Creator Darren Star and lead writer Michael Patrick King mined humour and drama deeply.<\/p>\n

And Just Like That …, which came some 2\u00bd decades later, was a grand thought experiment, an answer to television\u2019s age-old question: can you really ever go back and recapture the magic? (The answer is no, we have since discovered.)<\/p>\n

What is easily forgotten is that the original line-up \u2013 Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha \u2013 never quite carried equal weight. The younger three women were on a journey, full of questions and able to make mistakes. The last of the four, Samantha, was already there. She was the destination: equal parts wisdom and sass.<\/p>\n

Which means Samantha\u2019s absence from AJLT makes it less the Beatles without Ringo, and more ABBA without either Agnetha or Frida. AJLT is trying to recapture Sex and the City\u2019s best harmonies, and it\u2019s missing the lead singer.<\/p>\n

\"Samantha<\/p>\n

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) in her season-two AJLT cameo.<\/p>\n

The result is half a show, still asking questions, and leaning on a rotating patchwork of supporting players shoehorned into Samantha\u2019s gold strappy stilettos. Seema (Sarita Choudhury) was the best of a loose group.<\/p>\n

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Sequels are tough, to be fair. Three women in their 20s, full of self-doubt, is fair. The same women in their 50s still struggling to find the answers was less convincing. These girls were once the apex predators of our generation. They were turned into the narcissistic, overbearing girlfriend(s) who get jettisoned for the sake of everyone else\u2019s sanity.<\/p>\n

When living art is pushed into the world and left to grow for decades, ownership becomes a thorny issue. Its creators would lay claim, but just as every Star Wars movie ticket (or action figure) buyer eventually became a shareholder, the audience often doesn\u2019t just have an opinion; they sometimes have bought a seat at the table.<\/p>\n

What cuts deepest about AJLT is that it is, ultimately, the betrayal of a promise made 27 years ago.<\/p>\n

Instead of holding these women up, AJLT held them down, turning beautiful imperfection into undiagnosed neurosis. Instead of razor-sharp social commentary, AJLT offered sermons on social issues clumsily thumb-tacked to the narrative.<\/p>\n

The Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote that there is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief. It should come as no surprise that he was Greece\u2019s master of stage tragedies. He would also have made a great television critic. Michael Idato<\/p>\n

\"Carrie<\/p>\n

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) with Shoe the cat.<\/p>\n

The case for And Just Like That…<\/p>\n

Three months ago, when I gave AJLT a four-star review<\/a>, I turned to William Shakespeare (kind of): \u201cI come not to bury AJLT, I come to praise it.\u201d Now, as its well-dressed corpse cools, I turn to the Bard again: \u201cThe evil that [wo]men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or to quote another, more modern, bard<\/a>, the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, and I\u2019m just going to shake it off.<\/p>\n

For I come to defend AJLT from the braying hordes, the smirkers and the cynical. I am here to remember the good and not pile on like so many before (I\u2019m looking at you, Michael Idato!). I am the silent majority. Just ask all the other mums on the soccer sideline.<\/p>\n

\"Seema<\/p>\n

Seema (Sarita Choudhury) and Adam (Logan Marshall-Green) find their own happy ever after.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie, there were times during this third \u2013 and apparently final \u2013 season that I have had reviewer regret (I felt the same way about this season of The Bear, another regrettable four-star review<\/a> I deliriously wrote after a late-night viewing marathon.) At times, AJLT was ridiculous, with fluctuating plots, some truly terrible characters and, at its end, an overflowing toilet. It continued to struggle without Samantha.<\/p>\n

But it was familiar and fun and never took itself too seriously. It was memories. It was my 20s. It was our 20s. It was Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Harry, Antony, Steve and Brady and some great new friends in Seema, LTW, Herbert, Joy, Adam and Duncan. It finally kicked Aidan to the curb and sent Che packing.<\/p>\n

\"Kristin<\/p>\n

Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon in And Just Like That.<\/p>\n

It kept us talking, sharing and engaged. Love it or hate it, AJLT kept us watching in an era of choice overload. When every second option on streaming services seems to involve a true-crime documentary about the murder of a woman, some romance scam or a truly foul holiday disaster, AJLT was pure comfort television. It was relief.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if part of the reason it received such a kicking was because it was a show about women in their 50s who dared to live big, fabulous lives. They shone brighter than the army of lookalike Gen Zs who have, in real life, infected Carrie\u2019s old stomping ground of the West Village, drawn by the lure of Sex and the City.<\/p>\n

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For better or worse, Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte have all changed since we first met them 27 years ago. But who is the same person they once were in their 20s and 30s? All three of them have undergone significant life changes over those years (death, divorce, infertility, babies, affairs, sexual reorientation), who wouldn\u2019t be a little wobbly occasionally? They weren\u2019t perfect, but they weren\u2019t victims, either. Carrie finally found the courage to dump Aidan and be alone. Quietly radical for a show that for so long saw marriage as the end goal for its heroine.<\/p>\n

To ask the four women to stand still for 20 years would have been ridiculous. To complain about who they have turned into is sillier still. If you don\u2019t like it, move on.<\/p>\n

I completely admit nostalgia is a big factor here, but I\u2019m also nostalgic for the days when we were just able to enjoy television. Sex and the City was criticised for many things \u2013 for being too racy, too feminist, not feminist enough \u2013 but it was also never dissected at the level of AJLT. It was allowed to breathe, to flourish, to grow \u2013 things AJLT won\u2019t be able to do.<\/p>\n

\"Farewell,<\/p>\n

Farewell, Carrie… Sarah Jessica Parker in the final episode of And Just Like That…<\/p>\n

I am mad that HBO Max cut them off without a proper finale. They deserved more than that hurried Thanksgiving farewell. Just one season to see what life for Carrie looked like now she had embraced being \u201con her own\u201d, to see Miranda as a grandmother, to give Charlotte her power at work and allow LTW the opportunity to meet the damn Obamas.<\/p>\n

So farewell, ladies, it\u2019s been fabulous (except for Carrie\u2019s book, ain\u2019t no one got time for that).<\/p>\n

And Just Like That\u2026 is now streaming on HBO Max.<\/p>\n

What did you think of And Just Like That? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments below. <\/p>\n

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size The Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-74585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}