And Just Like That... is a romantic dramedy series. It is a sequel revival to the HBO series Sex and the City and its two movies.
Several years after the last time we last saw them, columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), are all now in their fifties, navigating their lives in New York City amid unexpected changes and personal developments.
Returning cast members from the original series include Chris Noth as John James "Mr. Big" Preston, Mario Cantone as Anthony Marentino, Willie Garson (in his final performance) as Stanford Blatch, David Eigenberg as Steve Brady, and Evan Handler as Harry Goldenblatt, while new additions include Nicole Ari Parker as Lisa Todd Wexley, Sarita Choudhury as Seema Patel, Karen Pittman as Dr. Nya Wallace, Sara Ramirez as Che Diaz, Isaac Cole Powell as George, and Brenda Vaccaro as Gloria Marquette. Most notably not returning for the series, however, is Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones.
And Just Like That... premiered on Max (then HBO Max) on December 9th, 2021. You can view the trailer here
. Originally envisioned as a limited series, the show was renewed for a second season a month following its first season finale. The second season premiered on June 22nd, 2023. On August 22nd, 2023, ahead of the second season finale, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a third season, which is due to premiere in 2025.
And Just Like That... contains examples of the following tropes:
- Age-Gap Romance: Not really explored much but there seems to be about a decade between the characters Miranda and Che.
- The Alcoholic: It becomes apparent over several episodes that Miranda has developed a drinking problem, which she eventually admits is a coping mechanism for her unhappy life.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their falling out, Carrie is touched when Samantha sends flowers to Big's funeral.
- Betty and Veronica: Che is the exotic Veronica to good guy Steve's Betty over Miranda's Archie.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Miranda finds herself in one torn between her husband Steve and her lover Che Diaz.
- Boomerang Bigot: Ironically, despite agreeing with her friends that bisexuals are "greedy" and "should pick a side" in past seasons, Miranda (with the help of openly bisexual Che) realizes she's likely to be bisexual herself. To make it even worse, neither Carrie's ex-boyfriend from the original series, nor Samantha during her brief lesbian relationship caused any problems with their bisexuality (aside from possibly Samantha and her girlfriend having an argument and breaking up after realising that the novelty has worn off). Miranda, on the other hand, cheats on her spouse of 20 years with someone she barely knows, essentially stalks them at one point, lies to them about being in an open marriage (after which they break up with her upon finding out the truth, and rightfully so), doesn't seem to care how the impending divorce affects her son, and generally disregards the feelings of the people close to her all throughout her Coming-Out Story. This is the same woman who encouraged Carrie to dump her bisexual boyfriend for "double dipping" and mocked Samantha behind her back for her sexuality, despite both cases being harmless, while Miranda's behavior following her sexual awakening ends up negatively affecting several people.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Miranda is busy masturbating to her fantasies of Che when her son knocks on her bedroom door asking for her.
- Closet Key: Miranda believed and asserted that she was attracted exclusively to men... and then she met Che. Che acknowledges themselves as this when they're trashing their ex Miranda during a live comedy show following their breakup.
- Coming-Out Story: For Charlotte and Harry's child Rose AKA "Rock" who identifies as non-binary, and Miranda who realizes she is bisexual.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Heavily implied to be happening in the penultimate episode of Season 2 after Lisa decides to keep her pregnancy despite not wanting another child, only to start bleeding right then and there. It's outright confirmed by the next episode.
- Cool Big Sis: Lily to Rose, AKA "Rock". when both their parents are befuddled over their youngest child coming out on TikTok as Rock and telling the whole school about it, Lily gamely sings along with Rock in full support.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: While the scattering of ashes is a common practice in most American states, French laws are much stricter, and dumping ashes into a public river like the Seine is illegal like what Carrie did with Big's remains.
- Dies Wide Open: How Big ultimately dies in his wife's arms after his fatal heart attack.
- Everybody Has Standards: Che loves dating guys and girls, but isn't willing to jeopardize marriages or be a homewrecker to someone's family. So when they discover that Miranda is not in an open marriage, they break it off.
- First-Episode Twist: The first episode ends with Big dying of a heart attack, which serves as the main thrust of Carrie's story in the series.
- Flanderization: Charlotte, always a bit more conservative and tightly wound, now goes into hysterics practically Once an Episode and struggles severely with pressure to be "woke".
- Forced Out of the Closet: When having a Zoom meeting with many of her children's teachers, Charlotte asks who "Rock" is, unaware that Rose adopted the moniker "Rock" and told everyone at their school. All the teachers visibly become quiet and log off because they felt bad for accidentally "outing" Rose/"Rock" to their mother Charlotte.
- Get Out!: A very loud one by Anthony when he realizes his new date is a Holocaust denialist.
- The Ghost: Samantha is frequently talked about but never seen.
- She finally appears in the season 2 finale for a brief cameo, speaking on the phone with Carrie from London.
- Happy Ending Override: The first Sex and the City movie ended with Steve and Miranda reconciling following his infidelity and the second one had them still happy together. By the time this series starts, they're back to being miserable, including having a non-existent sex life, the very issue that led to Steve's cheating in the first movie. And has now led to Miranda doing the exact same thing.
- Happily Married: Carrie and Big seemed to achieve this before Big's death as do Charlotte and Harry. Miranda and Steve, however, are rockier.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Brady is very sexually active with his girlfriend to the point of annoyance in Miranda.
- Hypocrite: In episode 6 of season 2, Miranda gets mad when she learns that estranged husband Steve has been sleeping with somebody new, despite the fact that she has been sleeping with somebody else behind his back too. In episode 10 of Season 2, Che humiliates their ex Miranda during a live comedy show by with biphobic insults like "confused" and "straight, white married woman", revealing that Miranda was very sexually adventurous, and accusing Miranda of bringing her estranged husband and son as baggage to the bedroom. Despite the fact that Che themselves is also bi and they invited their ex-husband into bed with them mere episodes ago.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Miranda insists she's exclusively attracted to men, and yet she falls in love with the non-binary comedian Che Diaz and pursues a relationship with them.
- Info Drop: When Carrie is speaking to a bodega owner in one episode, it's casually revealed that her full name is Caroline.
- Informed Ability: Che's comedy chops. We're constantly told what a great comedian Che is, but we never see more than one or two mediocre jokes from them at a time.
- Innocently Insensitive: Miranda's first meeting with Nya has her accidentally blurting out a litany of statements that could make her seem bigoted. She later expresses relief that nobody filmed the conversation, or else she could have become a meme.
- It's All My Fault: Charlotte blames herself for Big's death because she's convinced that had she not made Carrie attend Lily's recital, she would have been able to help him get to a hospital in time.
- Law of Inverse Fertility:
- Nya shares her struggle to become pregnant via IVF while Miranda reflects on the pros and cons of motherhood speaking from her own experience with an unplanned pregnancy.
- Lisa finds herself pregnant again while she's making strides in her career. She's also upset with her husband Herbert for lying about getting a vasectomy years ago. Despite the incredibly poor timing and her adamance about not wanting another child, she decides to keep the pregnancy anyway, only to suffer a miscarriage almost immediately afterwards.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Miranda masturbates while thinking about Che. Unfortunately her son interrupts her before she could finish.
- More Diverse Sequel: Perhaps responding to criticisms of the original series' lack of diversity, the main cast of And Just Like That... includes not just the core three, but also new characters of varying demographic backgrounds.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: As folks gush about the dearly departed Mr. Big at the funeral, one character mutters "Has everyone forgotten what a prick he was to her?"
- No Bisexuals:
- Played with at first. The old Sex and the City is infamous for its unfavorable depiction of bisexuality, with all four leads except Samantha saying it's not real, among other things. The Season 3 episode "Boy Girl Boy Girl" ends with Carrie dismissing bisexuality as a "game" she's too old to play. Here, Che is explicitly bisexual, and becomes the Closet Key for Miranda. However, Carrie's and especially Charlotte's views on bisexuality have hardly changed. Charlotte, clearly still espousing her "Bisexuals should pick a side" beliefs from earlier seasons, asks Miranda point-blank if she's gay or straight now. Miranda says that her sexuality is possibly somewhere else in the spectrum, especially given that Che is non-binary.
- Season 2 takes it to an unprecedented level. While the original series' take was controversial, it was a much more common point of view in the 2000s. A series that takes place in the 2020s, by which time sexuality is much more complex than just "gay or straight" (especially with at least one character being in a relationship with a non-binary person, as is the case here), has no excuse for using this trope, yet it crops up regardless.
- In episode 7, Miranda is newly single after being married to a man for 20 years and having had a relationship with the non-binary Che. When asking about her Valentine's Day plans, Charlotte assumes that Miranda's next partner must be a woman (and only a woman), despite her never having been with a woman in her life.
- In episode 10, Che refers to their ex Miranda as "very confused" and "a straight, white, married woman" when publicly trash talking them during a live comedy show, despite being bisexual themself and a non-binary person who was responsible for Miranda realising she wasn't straight after a marriage of 20 years to a man.
- Poor Communication Kills: The breaking point of Miranda and Che is when they talk and Che realizes that Miranda and Steve don't have an "open marriage", and Steve has no idea about Miranda being bisexual. Che is also rocked upon learning they've unknowingly been engaging in an extramarital affair, and they break it off with Miranda.
- Put on a Bus:
- Samantha has moved to London since the last time we saw her. The reason for this is because Kim Cattrall publicly did not want to return to the role, which previously put a discussed third movie on ice until it was reconfigured into this series.
- Stanford is put on a bus in episode 4 due to actor Willie Garson's death while filming. He unexpectedly divorces his husband Anthony and moves to Japan to manage a new TikTok starlet. (Garson, who filmed his final scenes while dying of cancer, had specifically asked the producers not to kill off Stanford so Carrie wouldn't get a double whammy of her husband dying at the same time as one of her best friends.)
- Rage Breaking Point: Steve has put up with a lot from Miranda, including her cheating on him with someone she barely knows, neglecting their son, and calling for a divorce, with him understandably being upset, but still supporting her. It's only in Season 2 when Miranda expects him to move out and find his own place when Steve built the house they're in and after all she's done to him that he snaps, telling her in no uncertain terms that it's his house and she should be the one moving out, not him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In episode 6 of the second season Steve finally snaps and gives an epic one to Miranda, calling her out on all her recent actions and reducing her to tears.
- Rejected Apology: Played with at Big's funeral, a former friend of Carrie's comes up to forgive her and say "it's all water under the bridge." After she leaves...Miranda: What happened between you two?Carrie: I have no idea. I was hoping you knew.
- Retargeted Lust: Miranda tries to replicate what she did with Che with her husband Steve to re-live the sexual encounter that took place in Carrie's kitchen. It doesn't work.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Charlotte is upset not because her child Rose is LGBT+ and possibly transgender but because her child didn't tell her personally and instead told everyone at her school and on TikTok which Charlotte is not familiar with.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In episode 10 of Season 2, a horrified Miranda leaves the bar she is in after listening to her ex Che Diaz trashing her during their live comedy show.
- Sequel Series: A revival of and sequel to Sex and the City and its two movies, with largely the same cast plus some new additions.
- Series Fauxnale: Season 2 ends with a two-part finale titled "The Last Supper", involves Carrie throwing one last party before moving out of her apartment, ends with her sipping cosmopolitans on a beach, wraps up a lot of character arcs while giving others hope for the future, and overall has a heavy air of finality to it (with even Samantha making one last, albeit brief, appearance). Despite all this, the series has been renewed for a third season.
- Sexless Marriage: Miranda confesses that she and Steve have not had sex in years.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Big had been a fairly prominent character throughout the original Sex and the City series. He dies at the end of this series first episode.
- Tempting Fate: In the first scene of the series, Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte accidentally talk about Samantha with an acquaintance as though she were dead. The episode ends with someone actually dying.
- Title Drop (for the franchise): Carrie's podcast, like her magazine column before it, is called "Sex and the City".
- Twofer Token Minority: Che Diaz is Mexican-Irish, bisexual and non-binary.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Miranda and Che Diaz until episode 5 "Tragically Hip".
- The Unreveal: Ever since the before the first episode, Carrie has tried reaching out to the estranged Samantha. During the first season, there were signs of Samantha's warming up — she had started answering Carrie's text messages, although she said she still "needed time". In the season finale, Carrie invites Samantha for cocktails, and Samantha agrees. The next time we see Carrie is days later, with no mention of their meeting. The fact that Samantha had agreed to meet was definitely a good sign for their relationship, but how did it go? Are they close again? It's not surprising that we don't see the event (because Kim Cattrall is not on the series), but we don't even hear Carrie tell her friends about it.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Episode 7, at around 21 minutes in. We witness the aftermath of Carrie and her date's reliance on alcohol to break their initial tension.
- We Used to Be Friends: Carrie and Samantha had a falling out between the events of the second film and this series, which caused Samantha to move to London.
