And Just Like That- people hate it, why?

[PotatoWafflerWrites]

Wanted to start a thread regarding And Just Like That. I loved SATC and personally also have greatly enjoyed watching AJLT. I totally get that this is my personal taste, and a lot of criticism has been fairly made towards the characters, plots and scripts being not what many viewers wanted. But seeing so much dislike and vitriol directed at the program has made me think, is the real thing that people hate (upper) middle aged women? I just get a real sense of people disliking women, mature women. There's a sneering dislike that reminds me of hearing my younger colleagues talking about 'karens'.

I think I saw an article advertised that argued this point, but it was behind a paywall and I now can't remember where I saw it.

I wondered what the fwr mumsnertters think? I know this is a largely GC space, so realised that some storylines and themes on AJLT are not really compatible with that, but nevertheless, I think the show still stands out as being female centric and about female friendship and women's lives. SATC was a controversial and divisive show, but AJLT seems to really upset people, and I am intrigued by that.

Any thoughts?

Sex and the City ( the iconic NY series)
And Just Like That (the reboot in the 2020s

If it had been a standalone show, I'd not have watched more than a couple as it was utter shite. But I watched it as a diehard SATC fan, and would've continued no matter how much more bilge they churned out. I hated pretty much every character in AJLT.

I got about 3 1/2 - 4 episodes into series 1 - I just couldn’t carry on.

The turned Steve into an imbecile.
Miranda became a menopausal / forgetful stereotype. She was a kick ass Harvard lawyer ffs.
Woke crap being pushed - I want to be entertained not reeducated.

The cherry on the top - using the script to take spiteful swipes at Kim Catrall. The comment along the lines of - she’s gone to England, because older women can only work there. So fucking unnecessary. What a bunch of real life mean girls - I don’t want to watch that spite play out under the pretence of “it’s just a program”

I stopped watching after the first episode when Miranda came across like she’d never seen or talked to a black person before. I normally liked when Miranda would be embarrassed or insecure about something in the original series as it showed she had depth. But there’s a scene in AJLT where she is super ignorant and cringey that I just didn’t believe she’d act that way. Plus in general all the woke nonsense with pronouns turned me off.

I think from the start it was hard to pull off. I did like the set up of having Big die as it freed Carrie for some relationship storylines. However there were lots of issues. Samantha’s loss was hard to recover from. Also being a show centring 4 white women they had to include minorities and didn’t do it in the best way. Though I think it was always going to be hard to pull off as you still want the original characters at the centre. Also the actors had some control which didn’t help. Cynthia wanted her character to be gay. Not against a storyline with women exploring their sexuality but it should come from the writers.
It was always going to be hard to make a success of.

Well I’m a middle aged woman and wanted to love it. I loved SAtC. But this was shit. Terrible storylines, awful script, bad acting, shit character development.

They could have told interesting stories about older women, but instead Miranda lost iq points and all her personality. Carrie didn’t gain any maturity at all. She was always ridiculously selfish and vapid, but you would think that age and loss would give her some perspective.

I had no interest in watching woman old enough to know better act like such dolts. That doesn’t mean they needed to be perfect, but it was just ridiculous.

So contrived it was painful, some of the splitting hairs about perceived insults, also painful.

Carry as a successful writer, not believable. Previous poster was correct, there was no maturity. Carry the pushing 60 disney princess, where does she get the energy?

All the reasons given above plus the Anthony story arc. He is a deeply unpleasant and miserable person yet we're meant to believe a beautiful man half his age would fall head over heels in love with him after what felt like 5 minutes. He was no replacement for Stanford as the token gay male character.

Well people obviously tuned in to see the great Tommy Cooper and were left bemused, annoyed and very let down.

It was just awful for all the reasons already mentioned. If the original show didn’t meet current expectations of diversity then they should have left it in the 90s or ignored the critics and focused on the remaining core characters.

Seema was pretty good but I just couldn’t care less about LTW and her ridiculous clothes and twice dead father! Che was awful and so annoying.

It’s a shame really because it could have been an interesting show about middle age, widowhood, failing health, divorce and growing children. Instead it was butchered.

I really didn't like earlier episodes - especially the story line with Duncan who had zero chemistry with Carrie and seemed embarrassed to have to say his lines about "hello sparkly shoes" or whatever it was.

It is sad to see Miranda reduced to squabbling over a yoghurt with a completely self-obsessed Carrie.

There was another thread on here where we all discussed what a let-down the series was. (Can't find it now).

I was therefore expecting to loathe the finale episodes but actually there were some bits I didn't mind. I thought Charlotte's reaction to Rock as Millie was quite touching and very Charlotte. I do feel she stayed true to her character throughout.

I also liked (SPOILER) the fact Carrie ended up alone. Right until the last minute I was expecting Duncan to knock on the kitchen door and ask to borrow an English Breakfast teabag or something.

I don't get the Lisa hate. After Charlotte I found her the most anchored and relatable.

I also liked (SPOILER) the fact Carrie ended up alone

Apparently the original series was going to end like that but I think they gave into pressure and went for the unrealistic happy ending with Big.

TBF at that time it would have disappointed me.

It's possibly because I could actually see the attraction of Big. Neither the Aiden nor Duncan dynamics seemed to work for me.

But I think it's also because it took me until the AJLT series to fully clock that Carrie is actually incredibly self-absorbed. She is bubbly and makes lots of friendly noises so you need enough time to see through that. And to me there was a kind of gentle moral in that, which I don't mind because most literature or entertainment is faintly didactic at some level. I think Carrie could be a fun and sometimes very supportive friend, but I don't actually think Carrie can set herself and her needs and wants aside from total priority spot for long enough to really be long-term relationship material. And that's fine: some people prefer to be that way.

SaTC was created/written/produced by Darren Star and Patrick Michael King.

The best seasons of SaTC were when Star was in charge, it went downhill when King took over, and he has helmed AJLT.

Star went on to do Emily in Paris, which is enjoyable fluff, whilst AJLT is desperate stuff.

I think they should have written a new series about women in their 50s and their experiences on this “new world”. Tacking it onto sec and the city didn’t work.

I loved Big and I loved Samantha. Without them the other characters are just a bit too much I think.

I am a middle aged woman - I hated it - but I did watch it all - and I am sad it’s over.

All the same reasons cited.
I think they should have played it all a lot straighter and let comedy arise rather than create a buffoon slapstick version of the women.

SATC was much smarter,slicker and respectful of the female audience who was watching it - which was why it was so groundbreaking at the time. Not everything will have aged well but overall they were treating the audience as adults. This felt like they were patronising the audience.

Agree. I haven't the energy to go back and rewatch SATC, but I actually think Carrie had become MORE immature than that series. Unless I was just immature myself at the time ... and I've grown up but she hasn't.

Also, small point, as it's been a few years since I was in NYC (pre-lockdown), but is it really within contemplation that even a flamboyant dresser like Carrie would have so many street outfits that dragged along those filthy pavements? I found it quite distracting ... like when someone opens a door on film, walks through it and doesn't close it behind them!

I’ve only watched the first two series of JLT, I didn’t hate it but did think the characters lost their way especially Miranda.

I really liked the Miranda character, clever, ambitious but also caring and down to earth but she completely changed to someone unrecognisable in JLT.

I have a teen dd so could relate to charlottes character trying to navigate the teen years.

I think really SATC should have been left alone, it was such an important and iconic show of its time and they should have all left it at that.

I also respect Kim Cattrell for being the only one to have any integrity.

I agree that Charlotte was relatable and seemed to have successfully moved on to a new phase of her life. I thought the bit where Rock was in costume was actually quite moving - and very true to the character of Charlotte in so many ways: the sensitivity about saying nothing, but also the way in which she was struggling with it.

I also had a wry smile at Brady's bunch of guests and the kind of "I don't eat cheese except when I do" behaviour. I definitely recognised that!

The problem with this series and many others like it (like Only Fools and Horses) is when they need to do a new series after it ended they have to reset the ending so that they can continue.

Only Fools and Horses had to make them poor again and move back into their original flat, Carrie Bradshaw had to become single again and move back into her original flat.

My own reaction as a lover of SATC was an annoyance over the dominance of LGBTQ themes & insertion of a largely irrelevant black family as a means of making the show 'more inclusive'. I'm very pro minority & this was even too much for me. It was just so obviously for minorities sake that it was actually counterproductive to it in that it just legitimises the far right's extreme white victimhood narrative by incessantly 'shoving it in our faces'.

Moral of the experience: White people's guilt can make things much worse for minorities.

Was not expecting a thread on Sex and the City to mention "far-right" but here we are.

The episodes are too long and I've found myself bored and having to look at the iPad to get through the episodes, it was the same with Ted Lasso 3.

Make the episodes shorter. AJLT lacks the spikiness of the original (mainly because Samantha is missing) and is because it is so afraid of upsetting anyone.

I haven’t watched it, but as far as shows about female friends in their 50s I enjoyed that little series with/ by Julie Delpy… can’t remember the name of it help me out!

I hated it! I watched the first season and that was enough! I'll stick to the original that was actually fun to watch 🙁