One could point to two major elements missing from season one of And Just Like That … that left the Sex and the City sequel series feeling a little … let’s call it untethered from the mothership: Samantha Jones and sex. The AJLT team has dealt with the Samantha factor as well as it can (I guess?) given the situation, and I am equally thrilled for and already let down by the news that we’ll get one short phone call with Samantha in the flesh this season.
The sex, on the other hand, was pretty much nonexistent in season one except for the collective nightmare that was Che Diaz fingering Miranda in the kitchen while a post-op Carrie is left to piss in an empty peach Diet Snapple bottle and then proceeds to spill it all over her bed while her bestie comes next to the patented Bradshaw oven-closet. The memory of it still sends a shiver down my spine. Remember also how Che christened Miranda with the nickname Rambo and Miranda started using it? That has nothing to do with sex, but I can’t be the only person who has to think about how that was an actual thing that happened. You’re welcome.
Anyway, season two arrives with a big bold message that seems to declare, We have not forgotten about the sex: a montage of all our main ladies getting railed and/or doing the railing. Carrie and her podcast producer, Franklyn, have moved to the bedroom after making out in the elevator, Charlotte and Harry are keeping things steamy, Lisa Todd Wexley and Herbert remain a superhot married couple, Seema and club owner Zed are still hooking up, and Miranda and Che are nice and cozy in an L.A. hot tub. I’m very happy to see everyone deservedly getting some. My only note for this whole thing is that this montage includes shots of Nya, lonely after her husband took off on a tour during a rough patch in their marriage, just forlornly watching a sex scene on TV. It makes her look so pathetic, but also … watching other people have sex on TV is exactly what we’re doing right now. Like, why does And Just Like That … have to come so hard for me right off the bat? It’s hilarious, and also, How dare you? Time will tell if season two will be much more pro-sex or if this montage is just the show blowing its wad, as it were, in the first three minutes. Fingers crossed that it’s the former.
I honestly can’t tell if I’ve been worn down by the cringe of season one or it’s just that we now know what to expect (and not to expect) from And Just Like That …, but this premiere feels like the series has settled into itself a little bit. That’s not to say it has solved all its problems. If you come to season two wondering if the show has somehow grown into a prestige dramedy or something, you will be sorely disappointed. But it’s fine? It remains fine? The premiere, sex and all, at least points to something much lighter than the first half of season one, which was bogged down by so much grief and heaviness. Carrie isn’t free of her grief — which feels true to life — but there is a sense that the show is having a little bit more fun this time around.
I mean, a naked Miranda clawing her way out of a sensory-deprivation tank and exclaiming, “Fuck the new me!†regarding her new L.A. outlook on life? That’s fun. It feels very old-school Miranda Hobbes. The East Coast gang prepping for the Met Gala, which they scored invites to thanks to LTW and her gobs of money? That’s fun. The episode’s major set piece gives us fashion emergencies (Carrie hires Jackie’s up-and-coming designer wife, Smoke, to design her dress, and it all goes wrong hours ahead of the event) and nostalgic fashion moments (Carrie pairs Smoke’s cape with her iconic Vivienne Westwood wedding dress and veil), and hey, that’s fun! There are also some truly ridiculous fashion moments — like the cotton-candy My Fair Lady–Burlesque mashup Charlotte dons and that wild headpiece LTW wears. In all fairness to her, the theme is “Veiled Beauty†and she is owning that. And in all fairness to And Just Like That …, the show acknowledges the insanity by letting LTW explain to her husband, “It’s not crazy. It’s Valentino.†See? Fun! And the whole running gag about Anthony being someone’s plus-one only to continually get ditched? That’s a good time, right? No one is dying after a Peloton ride! We are having a good time this season!
But while the whole Met Gala story line offers a lot of promise for season two, it does highlight some lingering problems from season one, in particular the surplus of half-baked plotlines. Sure, it’s not like Sex and the City was ever worried about strong story structure, nor was it super-serialized, especially in the beginning. But on And Just Like That … it just feels more glaring. Or is it simply that, beneath the sex and fashion, a lot of the subplots are a little boring? Charlotte’s entire story line in this episode can be boiled down to “Harry mistakenly thinks he’s Charlotte’s plus-one, so she has to uninvite Anthony, but then Harry finds out normals don’t walk the stairs and no one at work will know he went, so he ditches and Charlotte reinvites Anthony.†She has very little to do. Lisa’s whole deal is that she’s stressed out by doing seemingly everything for her family, plus trying to make her next big documentary, and when she lets go for the eight minutes it takes for Herbert to give her an orgasm before the gala, she forgets to confirm their ride and they have to walk the ten blocks to the museum. (It does make for a fabulous shot of Nicole Ari Parker and Chris Jackson crossing the street.) In a baffling move, Seema gives up her spot as Carrie’s plus-one to have lunch with Zed and his son, who is only in town for one day, along with Zed’s ex-wife, but when she learns Zed is still living in the same house as his ex, she decides she has no time for that mess and runs off to make it to the Met just in time. Her gold ensemble and metal mask are my favorite look of the episode. None of these story lines is bad, per se, but they are flimsy.
Carrie fares a little better: When Franklyn tries to make their casual, once-a-week hookup into something more, she eventually works up the nerve to be honest and let him know she isn’t ready for anything more than “exit-out-of-grief sex.†That, at least, shows some character development and forward momentum. The same goes for Nya, who, after spiraling about being abandoned by Andre Rashad, takes herself out to dinner and gets hit on. While she seems super-interested (did you not hear about the sex montage? Nya is horny!), she lets Toussaint know she’s married. Back home, she’s drunk and puts on some lingerie in the hopes of video-chatting with Andre Rashad but learns he’s “writing songs†in his hotel room with a backup singer named Heidi. Nya basically breaks things off right there.
Maybe it’s just a premiere issue — we’re getting reoriented to the large ensemble’s current whereabouts, emotionally speaking. Or maybe we’re making a trade: This time around, the characters feel more well rounded, more lived in, but no one has enough time to do much of anything. And we haven’t even gotten to Los Angeles yet.
It’s true, I 100 percent buried the lede here. In my defense, I’m still wrapping my tiny brain around perhaps the biggest news to come out of the season-two premiere: Che’s big network pilot about the Mexican-Irish nonbinary TV version of themself is called Che Pasa. When that tidbit of information was mentioned as if it were nothing, I had to pause the episode and take a quick li’l walk around my living room. Che Pasa. Was not a single person like, We could just call it Che, you know? Regardless, what a blessing. Or a curse. I can’t tell yet. I love it. Or I hate it. I haven’t decided.
If I’m being nice, I could assume a title as cheesy as that one may just be the first hint that Che’s dream isn’t going at all as they had hoped. It does seem like that’s where we’re headed. The crux of the Miranda-Che story line in this episode has to do with their becoming more vulnerable with each other, and I don’t just mean Miranda trying to figure out how to put on an elaborate strap-on — but I guess I don’t not mean that?
Miranda is embracing her big impetuous relocation to Los Angeles for the summer and seems a little less manic than last season. She does, however, begin to stress when Che starts acting a bit strange around her. They keep pulling away when Miranda tries to embrace them in public, and Miranda begins to worry that Che thinks their relationship is just about sex, nothing outside of the bedroom. Eventually, though, Che opens up about what’s really going on: During a nightmarish costume fitting, several people made comments about Che’s size, and while they don’t want to let it get to them, it has. I mean, Che Diaz cries! They didn’t want Miranda to see how hurt they were about something so silly. Miranda tells Che they are the most beautiful person they’ve ever seen, and it’s actually very sweet? It may be the first time I really buy these two as a couple. And Miranda is still super into Che even after they end their set with a joke about taking an Uber from the bedroom to the bathroom, which should, scientifically speaking, kill all sexual attraction in perpetuity, so that’s not nothing. Maybe these two crazy kids will make it! Or maybe there is an impending disaster headed straight for them and things will blow up in their faces. Probably the latter. Still, it was nice not to be completely baffled by AJLT’s Miranda-and-Che choices for once. Like I said, we’re having a good time!
This and That
• We get a quick shout-out to Stanford, who’s still in Tokyo with his client and is sending Carrie gorgeous kimonos. That’s a nice thought!
• During their fitting for the Met Gala, Lisa and Charlotte are complaining about how their husbands need them to do everything for them. Anthony’s response: “Hey, I’m really enjoying listening to your podcast, Rich People’s Problems.†He isn’t wrong!
• I hope at some point Smoke gets a fashion win with Carrie because otherwise, oof, that was rough.
• Okay, I laughed so hard at Charlotte trying not to be so “Charlotte†about her discovery of Carrie’s podcast lover. She tries to be more Samantha: “How big is his dick?†And then more Miranda: “If you sleep with someone at work, you are giving away your power!†And I laughed again at the perfect callback of having Miranda say that exact thing when Carrie tells her about Franklyn.
• Also great: Charlotte’s face when she gets hit with the one-two punch of Carrie having sex again AND being able to poach an egg. It’s a big morning for them both.
For more, join us for And Just Like That Club, our subscriber-exclusive newsletter dissecting and obsessing over all the minutiae of the new season. Existing subscribers can visit this page to sign up. If you’re not a subscriber yet, click here to get started.