By Adrianne Hutto
*warning spoilers ahead
I would like to begin by saying I’m a huge fan of Sex & the City, the hit HBO show staring Sarah Jessica Parker that first aired in 1998. I’ve model my life after Carrie Bradshaw, which shouldn’t be too obvious since I’m a journalism major living in New York City, and learned everything about sex, before actually having sex, from the show itself. I always joked that it was my bible. So, after six seasons and two movies I can comfortably say that we did NOT need a reboot and there are a number of reasons why.
Primarily being that you cannot make a reboot of a show and not have one of the four main characters. And Just Like That includes a number of the actors from the original cast, however, Kim Cattrall, the actress who played Samantha Jones, refused to participate. This is unfortunate as Jones was a cornerstone of the show. While the rest of the girls were wrapping their heads around what men were thinking and stressing over marriage, though mostly Charlotte, Sam was enjoying her womanhood and sexuality, treating men like disposable objects. Often described as being “a man in a woman’s body.” A character, which I believe, reassures women that they do not need marriage, or a boyfriend, or a man.
To make things worse, the way she was written off the show was sloppy and frankly, disrespectful to Cattrall. In the show, there is one brief scene where a friend mentions Samantha to Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda, instead of giving her even a little bit of air time they brush it off saying she moved and they are no longer friends. This is frustrating from a viewer standpoint because we all know there are a million better ways they could have explained her absence. For example, her cancer came back and she moved somewhere for special treatment, she followed some wealthy man on a foreign love affair around Europe, she simply moved. It’s not rocket science, it’s actually just lazy writing.
Another issue with the reboot, which may be glaringly obvious if you’ve seen at least one episode, is that Mr. Big is dead. Yes, that’s right. After six years on television and two movies, both of which were arguably centered around them, Carrie and Big finally find happiness together. They are settled in each other’s lives and comfortable being a couple. So of course, he has a heart attack and dies. While many viewers argue that Carrie and Big’s relationship was toxic, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was the main romance of the show and was the only reason I was excited to watch the reboot. After his death I had to force myself to watch the rest of the show.
I think that part of the problem with this show is that the viewers are a much younger crowd but the problems and experiences of the cast are pivotal to those in their 40s and 50s. Due to the original show coming out in the late 90s there were several scenes, references, etc. that would not have been considered PC today. While the new show has tried to make up for that fact by having the characters be much more accepting and progressive, it comes across as try-hard and ungenuine.
The last *big* problem I had with the reboot was the destruction of Miranda Hobbes. When the original Sex & the City aired Miranda was considered the boyish, homely, intellectual woman that no one wanted to be. If you were called the “Miranda” of your friend group it was taken as offensive. However, as people went back and watched the show they realized that Miranda wasn’t this ‘stick in the mud’ she was made out to be. Instead she was this educated woman, who never wanted to have children or a husband, made good money and worked hard in her field. In fact, in 2019 a book was released titled: We Should All be Mirandas: Life Lessons From Sex & the City’s Most Underrated Character. Naturally, in the reboot Miranda is made out to be this weak, silly character, nothing like she was in the original show. On top of that, she ends up asking Steve, her husband and father of her child, for a divorce because she meets someone else. So, once again we have two characters who were on and off /‘will they won’t they’ for the entirety of the series, only to break up in the reboot.
I think overall the problem with the Sex & the City reboot, And Just Like That, is that it makes a mess out of something that is already good. Imagine a perfectly wrapped gift and then taking it, unwrapping and then trying to rewrap it after having destroyed it. The series had a good, well-rounded ending and rather than simply leaving well enough alone, it decides to take something perfectly good and mess it up. All in all, the cast has aged beautifully and did an amazing job playing their roles, but the reboot itself was just an unnecessary creation. With that, watch at your own risk. I choose to believe the series ended with the second movie and that Mr. Big is still alive.