Things I ...Just Don't Buy in the ...And Just Like That Finale

too many to count tbh

While season 1 of …And Just Like That was an absolute, near-unwatchable train wreck (I still watched every episode, due to a longtime allegiance to and fondness for the original series, plus hello it’s TELEVISION HISTORY), this second season had some moments that actually circled the riveting emotional stakes of the original series, and even some (like maybe a handful) of the delight of the orig, too.

To me, the general theme of this entire series seems to be genuinely piquant, fascinating topics that the writers drop faster than Samantha’s neon trou in SATC Seasons 1-5 (zero judgement, only love for her abandoned character). From post-menopausal dating in one’s 50s (in 21 episodes, we saw Carrie actually date in…two episodes? Before reuniting her with Aidan, someone she’s only ever had tepid chemistry with?????), to a pregnancy in one’s 50s (miscarried so quickly and not even a discussion or real thought given to abortion, in 2023????), to raising a non-binary child (just used as weird punchlines and zero exploration of what it means for a teenager to discover this identity for themselves), to raising an adopted child of a different race, this series just brings up “Big Topics” and lets them ker-thud so loud even Stanford could hear it in his monastery (?????) all the way in Kyoto. Instead of the post-show interviews where Michael Patrick King cries with pride at all the writer’s room choices, I need to see an interview where the writer’s room is grilled on every issue listed above and below, at minimum.

…And yet, of course, I continue to watch.

THINGS I DON’T BUY IN THIS SEASON 2 FINALE:

1. Carrie having or caring for a pet. She has never liked or been comfortable with animals (remember Pete?) (or babies or children for that matter), and her with a kitten in her arms just looked awkward and unnatural?? SJP in real life apparently adopted the kitten, which, I believe SJP with a cat. Carrie? No.

2. Editors are real and masterful because I don’t buy there not being one to multiple moments of Kim Cattrall or SJP WINCING in their telephone chat. Of course, they didn’t ever have to interact in order to make this scene, but staging it in this way was so cringeworthy to WATCH I can’t imagine how it must have felt to FILM.

3. Charlotte and Harry would not have a queen-sized bed???? I hate that the film industry does this, I get that it’s to take away dead space in frame but it’s distracting how their walls are paved in literal gold lamé and yet we’re supposed to believe they sleep in a queen.

4. That Steve’s employee knew that Miranda as a visitor meant bad news (i.e. his ex-wife) but that Steve didn’t know that he didn’t speak (perfect, unaccented) English???????? Why did we have to sit through a full 45 seconds of Steve trying to speak painfully horrible Spanish? Is there no end to the humiliation these writers put him through in this series???? #JUSTICEFORSTEVE must go beyond the shocking and gorgeous display of his pull-up six-pack!!!!!!

5. That Steve and Miranda’s son would randomly be bicycling by at that moment, and more importantly that he would look anything more than the pissy prick he’s been written as this entire series.

6. That Carrie’s downstairs neighbor would be a successful jewelry artist having made a butterfly ring so ugly and unimaginative that it looks like a half-step up from gas station mood rings????

7. That Che and Miranda ever had a single bit of chemistry, but we know this already.

8. That Carrie would have allowed that bright-ass lighting at her party - nary a warm-tone to be found until everyone leaves??? (See photo above) Everyone was so over-lit with aggressive key lighting you could practically see the wattage imprinted on their Botox!

9. Actually, posting this photo again because:

   

   -MULTIPLE characters commented how gorgeous the tablescape is. It’s literally an ugly teal tablecloth matching her ugly teal flower wallpaper (not MY Carrie) background, with a bunch of white peonies in silver vases? UGH! Was this table set in 2001???????????????? What happened here???? Nothing about this looks contemporary.

10. That Aiden requested FIVE YEARS of a break without so much of a discussion as to what that means???? Also LOL to a 18 or 19 year old needing his dad to lie around his Virginia farmhouse in silence waiting for him to come home for 2 yearly breaks from college and not date anyone in the interim, just floating around his green acreage like a hoo-boy Southern ghost? My parents sold our house when I went off to college and you didn’t find me snorting psilocybin and crashing tractors in devastation (though, if I had, wonder which of my mom’s bad ex-boyfriends could have been avoided….???? lol)!!!!

11. The cat, again. See? Doesn’t work.

12. Seema’s proclamation that she wouldn’t “give up her life” for a few MONTHS or even a few WEEKS to explore Egypt, at no personal cost???? I DO NOT understand!!!!!!!!! But she will flit off to an island nearby IMMEDIATELY?! The fuck???

    

    Side note, I find it so WEIRDLY racist how they dress her character in “exotic” animal prints throughout the entirety of this series. She is one of two non-white series regular cast-members and she is the only one CONSTANTLY in zebra, leopard, or cheetah print. It’s excruciating, but Sarita Choudhury is a literal queen who transcends time, space, bad writing and costuming.

Tell me what you hated about the finale, I’m listening!!!!!!!!!

Or share with a friend who also insists on watching this show despite his/her best judgment of time and space!!!!