Is And Just Like That Getting Better?

And Just Like That has been a disappointment to Sex and the City fans since the beginning, but as it nears the end of its second season… is the show finally starting to get its magic back?! Before the show aired, we were all so excited about the prospect of getting to see our faves on screen again (though with tempered expectations, because we all remember what happened with the movies… But when And Just Like That premiered, it felt pretty much like a completely unrelated show that just happened to have characters that shared the same names as Sex and the City’s leads. Despite the show desperately trying to prove how Updated and Totally Hip With The Times it was, Miranda’s character being completely ruined, and the characters becoming so wealthy that none of their problems seemed real anymore – we kept hate-watching, hoping that maybe, sometime soon, it would start to feel something like the old show we knew and loved. After a season and a half, we started to lose faith… but then, somewhere in the middle of season two, the show started giving off sparks that evoked Sex and The City’s magic! Old characters are feeling more like themselves, new characters are becoming more relatable, and Aidan Shaw has returned once again. So, we couldn’t help but wonder… is And Just Like That finally getting its mojo back?!

The Characters Feel Like Themselves For Once

A huge issue with And Just Like That up until now has been the fact that not only did none of the main characters feel anything like they did in Sex and the City, no one on the show really seemed like an actual person. Carrie, Charlotte, and Mirana felt detached from each other both emotionally and physically, and each were given new “diverse sidekicks” that didn’t seem to have a purpose beyond letting the writers say “look, we listened. Please clap.” But in late season 2, things just might be turning around! Though no one could ever replace Samantha, the characters have finally started summoning some of her charm by putting themselves (and sometimes their careers) first, in spite of their partners. Naya is using her legal skills to file her own divorce. Lisa Todd-Wexley won’t sideline her career for her husband’s. And she’ll even walk through a bomb cyclone to make it to her event. Seema is getting her own Hamptons house with Carrie.

And Che is finally getting a chance to step out and fill their own space as a character. And now Miranda can hopefully stop acting like a possessive, out-of-touch Che Diaz groupie and start acting like Miranda again. Their breakup lent some much-needed emotional depth to Che’s character, who has often felt more like a cartoon caricature of every leftist stereotype than a real person for most of the show. It was also great to see Miranda inspired by Naya, and finally getting the kick in the pants she needed to move on from her marriage. Charlotte, Sex and the City’s resident prude is working to shake off her puritan habits by supporting her daughter when she wants to lose her virginity (even in a snowstorm) by buying her prophylactics. And it looks like the show is finally going to start focusing on Charlotte herself as an individual person separate from her kids. One of the main issues with her recent storylines has been a lack of time dedicated to her interiority. To quote an accidentally very high Charlotte York: But now she’s accepted a job at a gallery, just like she was working at in Sex and the City.

Sex and the City was, at its core, about a tight-knit group of women who were balancing love, friendship, and careers. And Just Like That, however, has felt incredibly imbalanced, with too many characters (who aren’t even all friends with one another) and so many jumbled plot lines that no one’s story really gets fleshed out. So to see the balance shift more towards the core tenets of Sex and the City feels like a comforting and less chaotic return to form. There are also some other joyful moments that signal And Just Like That may be able to be taken off life support. The show is finally finding its footing with fashion again, too! One breathtaking moment this season saw Carrie, Lisa Todd Wexley, and Charlotte looking exceedingly glamorous (and impractical) during a bomb cyclone, which felt very Sex and the City. And it was very on brand for a finally-single Miranda to have a meet cute… that ends up giving her the ick. Even just seeing Carrie and Miranda walk and talk on the street instead of fretting about Che Diaz feels refreshing. Sure, in And Just Like That’s weird weird, things are often clunky but at least it’s a little closer to the fun we used to have watching Sex and the City.

The Return Of Aidan

Speaking of nostalgic and refreshing fun, another aspect that’s giving some juice back to And Just Like That is the return of Aidan Shaw. After discussing Aidan at a group dinner, Carrie lets her friends, and the audience, know that Aidan is divorced and pretty rich after selling his company to West Elm. So, of course, Carrie sends him a friendly email to see how he’s doing… (remember when he was one of her first “buddies” on AOL?) And when he asks Carrie out on Valentine’s Day, the girls get into a very Sex and the City-esque conversation about whether Aidan meant to ask her out on that day in particular. And we couldn’t help but smile, listening to Charlotte read so much into this little detail, which felt like the good old days.

When Carrie and Aidan do meet up, they have to navigate whether they can move past their two decades worth of baggage, showing a new level of emotional weight and growth for these characters as a couple. And while at the end of the episode they decide to go to a hotel room and rekindle their relationship, it felt satisfying for the writers to actually bring up Carrie and Aidan’s many many issues before starting things up again. And after spending literal days in a hotel room together, they take another mature relationship step. The girl who couldn’t even wear Aidan’s engagement ring on her finger now wants to go up to Aidan’s nice country house and meet his children. This is miles away from their original relationship – where it felt like every time Aidan took one step forward with Carrie, she took four leaps back. And unlike so many other episodes and situations of And Just Like That, Carrie and Aidan’s relationship feels grounded and mature, with emotionally honest performances from Sarah Jessica Parker and John Corbett, instead of the wacky, privileged, and unrelatable mess we’ve been subjected to in so many prior episodes. We even see Carrie address the entire tension of Sex and the City, although we wish it was in a cheeky voiceover: Carrie was so blinded and love-bombed by Mr. Big’s wealth, charm, and avoidant insecure attachment style that she could never be objective about Big in the original series, much to the annoyance of her friends and the viewership at large. So the fact that she’s finally willing to question things now signals a lot of growth.

How The Show Got Its Groove

While the show definitely still isn’t perfect and hasn’t yet fully captured the magic of the original series, it has been great to watch it finally find its footing to some degree. It finally feels like the show is working to get back to its roots of friendship, love, and, well, sex. And Just Like That has a long way to go before it can really feel true to Sex and the City’s legacy, even if we’re looking at it through rose-colored glasses. We wish we could unsee and unhear Anthony’s sex pun-off with Drew Barrymore, for example. But, to be honest, maybe this rubric we’re grading And Just Like That on should just be thrown out entirely. Tom Smyth at Vulture has noted that if we just think of this show as a continuation of the absolutely baffling Sex and the City 2, all of its off-putting quirks do feel more like a natural progression of the franchise. And Just Like That creator Michael Patrick King once said of the original series: And it feels like the creative team is finally starting to understand the importance of this formula when it comes to And Just Like That, too. Realistically, we’ll never be able to get Sex and The City back. It exists in a different era, with its characters at different stages of their lives, tackling different social issues. But we can hold out hope that the rest of the season continues on its path of improvement so that maybe by season three, And Just Like That will be a show we watch because we genuinely love it for what it is and not just because we’re hoping to rekindle an old flame.