And Just Like that S3 cont’d - And Just Like that, it was the finale 😭

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Previous thread here

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5364045-and-just-like-that-s3-cont-and-hopefully-s4-the-one-where-we-hope-carrie-finally-bins-aidan?page=39&reply=146259107

Join us to discuss the penultimate episode and the finale. If you’ve watched the latest episode, please write spoilers at the top of your post so no one sees spoilers in their ‘threads I’m on’ feed.

I agree with that. I liked her career focus and sarcasm and that got lost in this reboot

Yep - it was giving up the internship to follow Che to LA for what was (initially) a month to film a pilot. Why?? Do a weekend or two there, sure, then figure it out if it looks more permanent

ETA this was more annoying than Che was

Miranda was so ambitious and intelligent. Now she's a ditzy, unambitious drifter whose future is cleaning up everybody's shit.

I think the writers actually seem to despise Gen Z, otherwise why have they written so many awful, clichéd characters. Apart from Brady none of them are well rounded, my dc , who have seen bits of it, have been cringing or scornful of the younger characters portrayed, seeing them as "what old people think young people are like".

Apart from a few good episodes at the end of season 2, they really shouldn't have bothered and left SATC as it was.

I get that. She was relatable in that way.

I think making it to the heights of her profession and then turning her talents to human rights work is really impressive!

I’m disappointed with how it ended. It just felt so hugely rushed.

That really felt like a final episode written in preparation for not being renewed. This didn’t, and I don’t believe MPK for one second in any claims that this is deliberate.

For one thing this was clearly a ten episode season with four short episodes that could and should have been two longer episodes. I have no idea what the thinking was behind doing this but the last ‘two’ episodes were very obviously not a deliberately two-parter franchise finale worthy of the SATC brand .

Re Miranda’s personality change, I think the viewers in general felt a sense of mourning for the old Miranda. There was nothing to replace what she brought to the show before. And for all the women who lose confidence in menopause, I also know plenty who double down on their nascent grumpiness and truly embrace the zero-fucks of middle age. Miranda felt like she would go in that direction if anything.

The new relationship and sexuality muddied the waters there of course but I think the writers didn’t MEAN Che to be a totally inappropriate person to leave Steve for and that was what felt so wrong. It was never framed as that, and we were all told we were transphobic/homophobic for finding Che so awful!

I feel hugely let down by the finale. To me it was like they all arrived on set on Wednesday and someone said I can’t be bothered anymore, everyone else agreed and they decided not to return on Thursday. What a huge, huge disappointment.

The toilet scene was so completely unnecessary.

Okay, I haven't read all your comments

But WTAF did I just watch?!

The weird thing is, they had some good material, but they somehow managed to wreck it.

I've read a review in the independent. My initial feeling was that it needed editing, and whoever times each scene got it badly wrong - with all the seasons. But the independent has described it as being "edited with a hacksaw" which I think is probably more accurate.

I don't understand why we didn't get friends together more. I don't understand why Charlotte didn't have a storyline. I don't know why they let Brady down so badly by having an unwanted baby crashing into his life. And with a horrible mother too.

It feels like the end of The Good Wife - like they literally just wanted to trash all the good work they've done. And they wanted to trash the whole of Gen Z which does seem totally ageist.

and why choose the Ally McBeal song for the end? Choose something else.

And there was no difference in the text in terms of being alone or being on her own.

I'm absolutely delighted if Carrie has finally realised she can be happy on her own. But that's probably the only good thing about this.

Yes this, everything else was dreadful. So disappointing.

If Miranda had left Steve for Joy not Che, season 1 would have made a lot more sense 😀

Okay, I've caught up with the comments

I've just realised I never watched the end of Ally McBeal so I didn't know she had a daughter! But that song belongs to that show.

In terms of the hacksaw, I know in the previous episode Anthony mentioned that he thought Giuseppe would see him as a mother figure. And I thought they can't be going with that, if you wanted a mother figure you would not go with Anthony! I'm about as childfree as it's possible for someone to be and I would make a better mother figure! So I can't believe he actually wanted to talk to him about that. I suppose the pie shows how ridiculous it was. At least they didn't break up. But they could've actually got married - that would've been a nice thing to have in the last episode. Even a note saying they can't come to Thanksgiving because they're eloping to Vegas.

I don't know about all the men pissing, is it meant to be a metaphor? but it did make me think how glad I am not to have that around. Also, Adam walking around in the nude. Presumably not a link to Harry walking around in the nude....But my previous boyfriend used to walk around in the nude a lot. And I used to tell him to put some clothes on. So I was looking at that thinking "thank God I don't have to deal with that anymore". Is it possible that they were signalling that Carrie doesn't have to deal with that anymore?

In terms of Mark having a plane, how many times have we seen Carrie get on a plane?!

I think LTW and Herbert are actually really sweet. But that was a wasted storyline. And why couldn't LTW just make a successful documentary and win awards? And it sounds like a really interesting documentary. So why did they have to shove in crappy storyline where she fancies her co-producer?

in terms of what's right with it, the whole show we needed to see more of what was right. But the beginning scene with Carrie in the restaurant and the robot server and Timmy tomato, when Carrie made the point that even in the future, it's unacceptable for a woman to be dining alone, I thought that was a good point. I can't really imagine them putting Timmy tomato in front of a man.

Maybe they chose the Barry White song deliberately to do all the heavy lifting

This is pretty much what they did with Taylor Swift "how did it end". That episode did not go the way it should've done - it was badly acted and weird. MPK talked about the importance of the song, but actually the song was doing a lot of heavy lifting. I don't think I would've felt sad otherwise. I mean, I didn't want Carrie to end up with Aidan. Or his dreadful son. It was actually a big letdown I think, for Carrie to get on board with that. she always knew she didn't want children so why would she tolerate someone else's children?

Perhaps they thought if they chose a song for the finale, without a lot of history, it had no hope of bringing any cheerfulness to the last episode?

I was hoping for Moon River ☹️

Oh @EachandEveryone ❤💔

Someone who works at Sky in scheduling must be disappointed with the AJLT ending too…or it’s just a happy coincidence that today one of the SATC episodes on in real time was Miranda and Steve’s wedding, one of the best episodes when Samantha announces her BC, the taxi scene, the wedding location, etc 😞❤️

I also think Carrie in AJLT is too entwined with SJP’s own identity and ideas for the character. Carrie was always flawed, messy, badly behaved, infuriating but ultimately a fun and relatable character you rooted for. Carrie in AJLT was dull and joyless and was never portrayed as anything other than perfectly prim and proper and in control. She was no longer relatable or even likeable.

I like all your summary @PurplebeadedFendi and especially agree with the Miranda points, on the Carrie notes I think they tried way too hard with the ‘Carrie is a grown up now’ narrative- the far too big house- was the ultimate metaphor (they even copied the final scene along the hallway from a SATC series, where she broke the fourth wall by popping back out of the room and smiled to camera, I was expecting that again but no, not even that on offer in the AJLT so-called finale). Carrie was super polite and very grown up in every situation, portrayed as a respected player in NYC society, a far cry from her drunk at Vogue rebellious moments.

I’d like a film, please, a final closure piece of work, maybe just for small screens not set in Abu Dhabi Maybe Netflix could step in at this point?

Carrie was super polite and very grown up in every situation

And that motherfluffing hair! Those scraped back hairdos, the severity of it, or the look on casual occasions as if she's just sat in a hairdresser's chair for the last three hours for some intricate scraped back updo. All the side hair, with one side scraped back. The late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy could do a scraped back pony or chignon and look chic. But CBK, Carrie is not.

I wonder if those years of being officially Mrs Big rubbed the shine off Carrie. Big was always part of NY society like Charlotte was. Carrie was the boho writer who didn’t conform.
Years of being monied and mixing society people would make most people conform.

Do we think she was still writing in the later years of her marriage to big?

@EmeraldRoulette I think they added in the daughter because they couldn't find a love interest to top Larry (curse you RDJ, and sorry Bon Jovi). In the last season a 10yo gilr shows up on Ally's door one day - she's the result of a fertilised/implanted egg from a mix up at the lab (in college Ally had donated an egg to an egg bank for the money). So Ally is her biological mother.

I’m sure, peak SATC, I read an interview, possibly with Patricia Field, probably in Heat magazine, or Grazia! They decided to keep the SATC hairstyles real, so the rule was it had to look like it was something they could have achieved themselves at home.
Obviously now they’re monied (eg the Met gala, Carrie had hair and makeup booked).
Why do I seem to think Carrie was the first ever cover star when Heat launched? Anyone remember?!

Ending on Anthony’s marriage would have worked - maybe that was in the plan for next season.

yes Miranda meeting joy at work would have made much more sense than fancying a random comedian

Thanks for the explanation, I was wondering how on earth she could have a daughter she didn't know about 😂

I can't remember when I stopped watching, but I'm glad I stopped! What a load of crap!

I think I stopped watching very early on, actually. Too annoying to watch really. That whole Barry White thing was always fun though.

I quite like Carrie being a grown-up. I mean it's only about 30 years late and not with regards to men, but we could've celebrated the fact that she got there at the end of the episode.

Now I'm wondering if I'm misunderstanding something. Yes, I can see that she gets to walk away from the chaos of other people's families. But she has a great bond with Brady which they could've explored. She doesn't mix with Rock and Lily this season, although she seemed to get on very well with them too.

One obvious ending for me would have been to correct the whole "single and fabulous?" thing from that episode and conclude firmly at "single and fabulous. Period."

There has to be a way to work that in and I'm sure they could've found it.

It does really make me wonder if the show got cancelled and everyone just decided to make it nonsense. Almost out of spite. Seema is a good character. Her last line did not need to be about gluten!

I now can't remember why The Good Wife ended, did they decide or was it forced on them, but that whole final season was appalling. We watched the characters navigate so much and then be reduced to a load of crap at the end.

There's a bit of me that wonders if some of this is about scheduling. Could they not get them all in the same room to have enough scenes with them together? I know the café scenes in Sex and the City took a long time to film. But honestly, if they had a green screen to get more scenes with them together properly that would've worked.

This whole series is like what happened to their friendship? Oh God, I hope that's not a depressing portrayal of how the people involved in the show have found their friendships have gone over the years. But it's a big change from season one of AJLT.

I guess we'll never know what any of the writers etc were thinking. Honestly, I wonder if the cast feel let down.

I saw Jim Parsons being asked if they'd consider a TBBT reboot. He said he couldn't speak for the others, but he was like no - we caught lightning in a bottle so why would we try to capture that again? It's not verbatim, but I thought it was a really good way of phrasing it.

but maybe that comment is irrelevant because actually AJLT didn't need to be a disaster. So the mystery remains!

I assume s4 was meant to be about Miranda navigating grandparenthood and a new relationship, Charlotte and Harry seeing Lily off to college etc.