SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers from “There Goes The Neighborhood,” the ninth episode of Season 2 of “And Just Like That,” now streaming on Max.
Like most devout “Sex and the City” fans, I’ve tuned in to “And Just Like That” for every episode since it first debuted in 2021 — despite Samantha Jones’ absence.
My girlfriends and I are now the same age Carrie Bradshaw and her crew were when the original series premiered in 1998. Also, as a Black woman, Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pitman and Sarita Choudhury’s roles as Lisa Todd Wexley, Dr. Nya Wallace and the glorious Seema Patel, respectively, are more closely aligned to the friend group I have living in present-day New York City.
While the show is full of nostalgic fun, “And Just Like That” also has its missteps. Miranda’s ill-fated relationship with comedian Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) was a nauseating experience that briefly erased all traces of the Miranda fans have grown to love over the past 25 years. Amid her grief over Big’s death, Carrie has thrown herself again on the Aidan Shaw merry-go-round. While Carrie and Aidan’s reconnection has been warm and buttery, we already know how this will end. Moreover, despite its attempt at diversity and inclusivity, the series needs help figuring out what to do with its new characters. Seema, Nya and LTW are often inserted into dinners or brunches with very sparse arcs of their own. Yet, nothing on “And Just Like That” has been more puzzling than the subplots about the kids in the series.
Of course, motherhood came up in “Sex and the City.” Charlotte experienced fertility difficulties, and Miranda decided to keep her baby after an unplanned pregnancy. However, motherhood never overtook their identities. Samantha was proudly and devoutly childfree, and Carrie embraced her role as dutiful auntie. In episode 9 of the final season of “SATC,” titled “A Woman’s Right to Shoes,” Carrie’s $485 Manolo Blahniks get stolen at a friend’s party, forcing the fashionista to address the disdain that childfree women often get for living their lives and spending their money how they see fit.
But that was some twenty years ago. The mothers on “And Just Like That” — Miranda, Charlotte and LTW — are decades into parenthood. Charlotte has spent the last two decades working at home as a mother and wife, giving her the most compelling parenting narratives. Her youngest child, Rock (Alexa Swinton), came out as non-binary in Season 1, allowing Charlotte to learn, grow, and expand as a parent. From understanding pronouns to getting fired as Rock’s manager when they no longer wanted to pursue modeling, motherhood is a seamless aspect of Charlotte’s storyline.
However, as the series addresses topics like teen sex, things get dicey. The scenarios involving the teens range from incredibly awkward to wholly unbelievable. The “MILF List” from the third episode of this season, “Chapter Three,” was beyond cringe; I doubt even Samantha would approve.
I’m all for sex-positivity, but as a child of the ’90s, I recoiled when Miranda and Steve stayed silent, allowing their teen son to have loud sex in their Brooklyn apartment while they got ready for bed in the next room. This season, Charlotte stomped through a blizzard to deliver condoms to her eldest child, Lily, who’d planned to lose her virginity but forgot protection. Open and honest conversations are important, but there appears to be a lack of boundaries and respect between the parents and the teens. There is no world in which I could see Herbert Jr. allowing his girlfriend to riffle through his Black mother’s closet. Now that Brady and Lily are likely hooking up, and Carrie is ready to go all in with Aidan and his three sons, fans will, unfortunately, be forced to choke down even more of this.
In Thursday’s episode, “There Goes The Neighborhood,” it became appallingly clear that the kid storylines have truly spiraled out of control. After bouts of unexplained exhaustion, LTW reveals her pregnancy to her husband, Herbert. Though this isn’t an impossibility, it feels like an implausible cop-out for such a vibrant character stuck in the same tiresome conversation about working mothers and husbands who aren’t pulling their weight. LTW deserves better, and so do we. Adding another kid to the mix is such a bizarre choice.
Friendship, love and sex were themes central to “Sex and the City.” Therefore, when parenting and motherhood are pushed into the foreground in “And Just Like That,” the franchise is thrown off-kilter. Writing about teens and kids is challenging. Since no one knows what to do with these young people, they are left to wreak havoc on plot points and characters, letting the show drift to an almost unrecognizable place. Kids are fabulous, but “And Just Like That” may have benefited from taking a page out of the “Will & Grace” reboot playbook – deprioritizing parenthood.
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