“Oh thank you. My purse was exhausted,” Carrie comments when a waiter brings over a foot stool for her bag in the opening seconds of the just-released Season 2 trailer for And Just Like That — a hit show that still, even with the release of its trailer, is only committing to “June” as its release date.
It’s the same affectation she used in the first film, when a still-alive Big takes her up to the penthouse they’d own by the film’s end and Carrie expresses her approval sarcastically: “It's hideous. I hate it. Hurts my eyes.”
Moments earlier, at the trailer’s start, Carrie is heard through voiceover: “If you’re lucky, no matter what life hands you, you can always count on your closest friends to be there.” It’s a sentiment we’ve heard ad nauseam throughout the show’s many chapters — and often, better put than in this instance. The best interpretation, for me, comes in Season 3: “It's hard to find people who will love you no matter what,” Carrie narrates while we see her putting on a smile at Charlotte’s wedding, mere moments after Aidan breaks up with her. “I was lucky enough to find three of them.” Or there’s Season 4, when Charlotte declares that, "Maybe we could be each other's soulmates." (This, of course, ignoring Carrie’s countless friendship faux pas, like blowing off Miranda at a bar one night so she could eat veal with Big, or getting upset at Charlotte for not offering her a loan for a down payment on an apartment.)
But beyond the rehashing, it also feels especially hollow, considering that Carrie is without two of her best friends: Samantha, who is still off in London for reasons we can’t quite discern, and Stanford, who is in Japan to support a 17-year-old social media star he represents who is going on tour in Asia. In fact, Carrie seems to “count on her friends” despite their overwhelming tendency to leave the country and cut off communication with her (save for a few texts).
There are many head-scratching decisions when it comes to And Just Like That, but I think one of the biggest among them (that gets dissected the least) is the radical shift in the character of Carrie. Once a cuntress, Carrie has slowly devolved into a shell of her former self, a longtime sex columnist who now asks to “buy a vowel” when she’s asked if she masturbates in the pilot episode of the series. Later in the first season, she’s surprised to learn that one of her best friends still performs oral sex on her husband.
“I think one of the things that’s happening to the characters is that they’re becoming much closer to the actresses, less about the characters,” Sex and the City book author and forever NYC it-girl Candace Bushnell mused on a recent episode of the very fabulous Every Outfit podcast. And it’s so true, bestie. That’s best reflected in the character of Miranda, whose arc on the series feels less in line with the Miranda of Sex and the City and more like Cynthia Nixon IRL.
Still, any Carrie and co. is better than no Carrie and co., I’ve reasoned with myself against my own better judgment. So when the trailer dropped, I was ready to make the switch from Jury Duty being my sole personality to preparing myself for the jumpscare that would be seeing Che Diaz back on my screen. It’s a jumpscare I was excited about, because let’s be honest, Che was the buzziest part of the first season — outside of the Peloton. Do I think the Internet’s obsession with Che can withstand another go-round? Like Ariana DeBose’s BAFTA rap, I think this was more a case of a one and done.
What did we get? By way of plot points, not much. Charlotte’s daughter Lily wants to lose her virginity, there’s some kind of MILF list, Carrie’s having “exit-out-of-grief sex”, and Che Diaz is still Che Diaz-ing.
But let’s get a bit more granular, ‘cause that’s what we do here. First, we get Carrie at the table with Miranda, Charlotte… and Anthony. It’s a motif they tried in the first season. It will never work for me. Anthony was a character meant to be served in small doses a la Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace. Bringing him around more, and in effect humanizing him, has given us nothing but a bread business we certainly didn’t ask for or need.
Then, as Carrie is heard in voiceover saying “closest friends,” we get shots of Seema (Sarita Choudhury), Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) and Nya (Karen Pittman). Carrie barely had any scenes with Lisa or Nya last season, so I’m curious how these friendships, let alone close friendships, developed so quickly. As writer B.A. Parker commented in a viral tweet: “I still can’t get over each main character getting their own emotional support woman of color.” That part, and I still think it’s such a loss that we don’t get to see some of our favorite friends of Carrie’s through the years like Amalita (Carole Davis), Laney (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) or Enid (Candice Bergen), for instance.
“We are all blissfully unaware when our lives are about to change,” the disembodied Carrie continues, with a lesson I think we got when Big dropped dead in the shower at the start of last season. I’m reminded of Whistler’s voiceover on the Buffy Season 2 finale, moments before Buffy discovers her friend and fellow slayer Kendra has been killed. “Bottom line is, even if you see 'em comin', you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really.” I digress!
Then we get my least favorite line of the trailer: “Our lunchtime fodder is not usually this low-brow, I swear,” Charlotte tells Nya over lunch. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Samantha telling the girls she’s dating a guy with the funkiest tasting spunk. The Carrie of today would no doubt do a Kyle Richards in Amsterdam and sprint outta the diner the second semen entered the chat.
Miranda announces “a big step up” for her and Che, which hopefully involves them breaking up and Miranda realizing she’s still in love with Steve, only to discover that the virile Steve is also discovering new facets of his evolving sexuality. (The #JusticeForSteve train is a locomotive I’m staying on board with.)
Victor Garber pops up briefly. Yay!
As does Carrie’s downstairs neighbor. Whatever! Carrie then voiceovers that “some things are better left in the past…” as Jessie Ware’s “Pearls” (an inspired choice, I will admit) plays in the background. And then: “... But maybe not everything.” That’s when Aidan (John Corbett) appears for the first time in the trailer and for the millionth time if you’ve been following the onslaught of “leaked” images from the set. He doesn’t say a word, just looks up at Carrie. It’s a moment that no doubt would achieve higher impact had it not been revealed months earlier, and had it not already happened in Sex and the City 2 thirteen years ago.
Am I worried about Season 2? To quote Luann de Lesseps: “Not really.” I’m actually far less worried, having settled into the reality that And Just Like That is less “the next chapter” — as it was once billed — and more a fever dream. Am I bummed they’re doubling down on the new characters introduced last season, underdeveloped and incongruent to the world of the show? Sure. Do I miss the promise of what this show could have been? I do. Will I eat the dish that’s being served? I’ll do as Season 4, Episode 12 of the original series suggested and just say yes.
Breaking Down the Expectedly Mid 'And Just Like That...' Season 2 Trailer