And Just Like That (The Anthony Appreciation Society)

[ReeseWitherfork]

First thread….
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4819133-and-just-like-that

Spoilers etc.
Everyone posts when they’ve seen the episode so probably best to avoid the thread until you’re up to date.

Recipe calls for pure maple syrup… not in this cost of living crisis 😅

Luckily they don’t sound like my thing at all.

I think they should be baked and eaten during the last episode of this season. I went to a last ever episode of SATC party in my friends flat where we (somewhat predictably) had Cosmopolitans, which I thought were far too sweet but drank anyway and repeated for the first movie, met in a bar to drink cosmos before the cinema. Now it’s a cuppa and a garlic biscuit for the fun.

I have maple syrup in the pantry, but no intention of wasting it on something so revolting sounding.

10 cloves of garlic??? I thought it was something that had just the tiniest amount in. It does seem to make a lot of cookies but that's also a lot of garlic. I love garlic but I'll keep it in my dinners and on my garlic bread I think.

Enjoyed this episode again - although no episode escapes having a few niggles (which in any other series would be quite serious flaws that would make me stop watching!)

A few scenes I found really weird - Aiden and Carrie in the bed and him on the phone to order breakfast to be continually but on hold while he told the chicken story. It was just odd. Him being on the phone seemed to be so unnecessary! Why not just have them in bed talking about it.
And not to mention the fact that there's no way Carrie would be endeared by a story about a chicken going onto someone's bed.

And the scene with Seema and Carrie outside the hair salon having the talk. The whole setting seemed odd and the script seemed so laboured.

I don't see the whole Seema being weird thing as being about her and Aiden. Although I hope I am wrong, as its a much better angle than it being Seema being incredibly selfish about her friend getting a boyfriend! Obviously we have all been there when your single buddy has hooked up with someone but her reaction was really mean I thought. Asking for space when Carrie hadn't done anything wrong. I understood why she wouldn't want to go to the Hamptons with them but not go for a group dinner?

Carrie and Aiden in Che's apartment is all a bit tedious. "We bought a pepper grinder!" Who cares!
"Oh we are cousins" NOT FUNNY!

Miranda getting promoted was a bit of a leap but generally I liked her alot more this ep.
Same for Che - but still don't get why one bad focus group for a pilot has meant that she is now moonlighting as a vet's receptionist and her career is over.

I think my mistake when watching AJLT is expecting something interesting/nuanced or a twist to happen when really the storylines and dialogue really is as drab as it appears. But I still enjoy it - so they are obviously doing something right.

I've really enjoyed the last two episodes.

This week in the scene with Che, I don't think Carrie was directly saying Big was a mistake. I think she was saying that not marrying Aiden was a mistake. She didn't leave Aiden for Big, there were Berger and The Russian (ick) in between.

In the lunch scene with 'was Big a big mistake?' I think that's maybe intended to show she's completely dickmatized by Aiden and it won't properly last.

Need to listen to the writers' room podcast, which often clears up what they heck they were aiming for.

I hope Aiden dumps her this time, surely she can't ditch him for the THIRD time?!

Ok so the “Was Big a big mistake” - let me tell you a real-life story.

My Aunty and Uncle (Aunty by marriage) were together for 20 years when he did in his early 50’s from cancer. It was devastating. My Aunty was obviously especially heartbroken. But….my uncle was a cantankerous old shit at times and he was awful to my Aunty. Really gave the runaround in the early days and only married her when he fell ill so she wasn’t obstructed by red tape on his death. Much like Big and Carrie, he held all the power, he wasn’t a brilliant husband and he had a real unpleasant streak - despite the fact they were an otherwise well matched couple who were forever laughing together.

Six months after my uncle died she introduced us to her new partner, who’d also recently become widowed. They knew each other from way back when and I swear he is the nicest man in the world. The difference in how he treated her vs my uncle was very obvious. For example, we visited and he’d make sure she had a cup of tea, that she was comfortable, he’d give her knee a reassuring squeeze etc. where my uncle would just only ever bark orders at her and wouldn’t be affectionate in front of others in his life depended on it - even in his last moments.

Im still very close with my Aunty and she confessed to me that whilst she misses uncle dearly, she realised there are good men out there who are nice and loving and she missed out on 20 years of being respected the way she wanted for the sake of a ‘treat em mean keep em keen’ man who was funny but cruel.

Shes married her new partner and I’ve never seen her so happy - she smiles all the time and I do think she thinks being with my uncle was a mistake.

When Carrie was talking with Aiden and che did she say mistake or mistakes? Because let's face it, there was a catalogue of stuff she could have done better. I assumed she was referring to cheating on Aiden as the mistake but hadn't considered she may be meaning either her marriage to big or non marriage to Aiden or just the general shit way she treated him.

Fair point @WeetabixTowels

Glad things turned out well for your aunty. Thanks for sharing the story.

By the time Big died, hadn't him and Carrie been married for near on 20 years? Thats a hell of a big mistake (no pun intended).

I don't dislike her and Aiden being back together (I always liked Aiden, I think because when I started watching it originally, it was their first stint as a couple). I just think it would have made more sense to introduce him back into the story through Steve - wasn't Aiden a partner invested in Scout? Which we know Steve is still running...

Its the constant undermining of the initial series that bothers me. MPK said something publicly about how "the fandom thinks that carrie hurt Aiden"... No. We literally watched it and saw it.

I actually think that AJLT would be much better without MPK involvement, he seems to be getting so much stuff wrong and then actively blaming the fans/viewers for calling him out on his mistakes.

Che suddenly a million times more likeable away from Miranda. And vice versa. Miranda seems to have remembered who she is a bit more/

@WhyDoesItAlways I thought in the Aiden/Che scene that she said 'I made a mistake' which I interpreted as not marrying Aiden, but I wouldn't swear to it!

I actually think that AJLT would be much better without MPK involvement, he seems to be getting so much stuff wrong and then actively blaming the fans/viewers for calling him out on his mistakes

Hmm, just like a narcissist.

I do think Carrie having a bit of a “Sliding Doors” moment with Aiden is interesting if explored truthfully. The truth is, they had nothing much in common back then, other than a sexual connection. However, they are both now older, matured and successful in their respective careers, equals in terms of money and success, have both loved and lost someone else in their respective ways, and are perhaps not as hell bent on pursuing and pushing their own agendas (him, marriage and country life, her, Manhattan party girl life and semi freedom from obligation to a romantic partner). Coming back together with the maturity and their experiences behind them shouldn’t need to involve pretending their past decisions were mistakes and to try to erase the past. It can just be accepted that life sent them the long way round for good reasons, before bringing them together again in a situation which would finally work, and for them to acknowledge that this is their time and the past was just false starts. It needs to be sensitively written so that the original and beloved SATC continues to make sense; but it’s being handled by a very silly (narc) man who has no idea how to connect with fans and their love and deep interest in the original stories, and write the current story logically and sympathetically.

I just googled that and apparently the baby wasn't her baby. I was confused as I was sure they were doing the concealed pregnancy dressing in that series? Or maybe it was a different one. Either way, it wasn't her baby.

Oh wasn’t it? Can’t remember where I heard that it was. It was the series after her concealed pregnancy (the first episode of the last series), so would make sense if it had been.

Just to be clear, it’s the episode following Bobby and Mitzy’s wedding (SJP obviously pregnant and looking beautiful), when she has her first official date lined up with Berger. She’s running away after spotting Berger in the street, because she’s not in her perfect date outfit. That’s when she runs into Aiden carrying baby Tate.Seeing how he has moved on prompts her to forget perfect and just seize the moment, she phones Berger from a phone box (miraculously knowing his mobile number) and they go to the movies.

Ugh I am just on the episode where she meets Berger.

I like Ron Livingstone, he was excellent in Band Of Brothers, and I love him for that coffee shop/vocal fry skit.

@Ridemeginger he was SO GOOD in BOB! That was the most wonderful series wasn't it! What's the coffee shop skit?

@DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy If you go on YouTube and search “Ron Livingston vocal fry” you will find it (I would link, but I think doing that makes it harder for the thread to load for people reading on phones). And agree, BOB is a masterpiece, incredible cast, writing and acting.

@ReeseWitherfork i hide the maple syrup in my house otherwise when I need it for a recipe there is none available after everyone has used it over yogurt instead of honey. It gives me the rage 😂 Shan’t be using it on that abomination though 😆

On the Aidan issue, she said ‘I made a mistake’ which I took to mean ‘because I cheated on him’. Fact is, she didn’t let him get away, she rejected him. By the time he’d asked her to marry him (‘let’s get Maui’d’ gave her the ick fgs) she couldn’t work up any excitement about it. Plus she secretly smoked and hated having a dog. Oh, and she was madly in love with Big.

Aidan returning in the spectacularly awful SAtC2 movie was always jarring. I never understood why she kissed him as it made no sense nor why Big took it so well (or why she told him).

I do think that the whole rewriting of history is due to Chris Noth’s current situation. What happens if he is found not guilty like Kevin Spacey? Will he suddenly become the love of her life again (just like in the book she’s just published?) 🤔

She kissed Aiden because Big wasn’t being who she wanted him to be (Manhattan glitterati, always going out and being seen), and rather than listen to him about how they could compromise within their marriage on their different expectations, she ran away with the girls; and straight into some sort of fantasy holiday, where she thought Aiden manifesting himself in a souk half way across the world was a sign that her marriage was a mistake and this was “a sign” her real person was Aiden. Carrie is written as such an immature nob in SATC2, I find it hard to understand why anyone would take her advice on love and relationships seriously. And she was so nasty to Charlotte, who tried to warn her against seeing Aiden, then immediately upon her return (having nearly cheated), demanded the ladies’ audience to listen to her moaning about doing exactly what Charlotte was warning her not to do. But of course, more lazy writing, Aiden just happening to be in the same random country as Carrie, that makes sense (he wouldn’t be buying rugs for his business in a tourist souk).

Ha @Ridemeginger found it! That was so good. What a treat!
I've been thinking about how good BOB was since I woke up. David Schwimmer was such a revelation to me. And god did I have a crush on Captain Spiers

I do think that the whole rewriting of history is due to Chris Noth’s current situation. What happens if he is found not guilty like Kevin Spacey? Will he suddenly become the love of her life again (just like in the book she’s just published?) 🤔

Good point @Netaporter

I always found it uncomfortable how Chris Noth lost absolutely everything overnight, when he hadn't actually been tried/convicted. Same as Kevin Spacey.

Don't get me wrong. There's absolutely NO way that predatory men shouldn't be called out. But equally, the guilty until proven innocent has always bugged me.

@Netaporter
“I do think that the whole rewriting of history is due to Chris Noth’s current situation. What happens if he is found not guilty like Kevin Spacey? Will he suddenly become the love of her life again (just like in the book she’s just published?) 🤔“

yes I also wondered this. He’s been in the news again this week with it all hasn’t be.

I think the Big being a mistake thing just sums up how flighty and callous Carrie is clearly capable of being. He was killed off and she should have just left it at that with the plot line. If she was my friend and she had gone on to describe him to me - after all the shit she’d forced me to endure wailing and wring her hands / eating her heart out over this guy - as a mistake I would have had quite a lot to say to her.

the way she sniffed that conveniently located copy of Howard’s End before going out of her apartment with her little trolley….. she becomes more juvenile with every episode.

This programme is absolutely spoiling a series which I really loved. I don’t think I even enjoy watching the old episodes of SATC as much as I used to because of what they’ve turned into .

The whole Norfolk farmhouses thing was stupid. They were clearly houses in England, they didn’t look American.

Separately Howard’s End is in Hertfordshire not Norfolk.

And Carrie hates the countryside.

It was ridiculous.

If a chicken jumped on my bed I’d leave and never come back - will she really like that!!!