I’ve been hate-watching And Just Like That, the Sex and the City spinoff airing on HBO Max. Why, I’m not totally sure. Out of nostalgia maybe… or curiosity. Or masochism? Or possibly because I’m here, in Torotten, Onterrible, which is currently under modified Stage-2 lockdowns and I’ve watched literally EVERYTHING else.
Another possible reason is that the show has been cursed with so much bad luck, I’m starting to feel sorry for it.
Not only did one of its main actors die during filming—Willie Garson, at the age of 57—it would appear that Chris Noth’s career has also died. Some ugly #metoo allegations against him have surfaced, throwing into question the show’s chances of a second season. The producers are apparently editing him out of the finale.
Despite all the media attention and anticipation of its loyal fans, the critical reaction has been lukewarm. The average tomatometer is 60 percent and average audience score just 29 percent.
As if all that weren’t bad enough, there’s a giant Samantha-sized hole at its centre and when Carrie and Miranda broach her MIA status in the premier, it sounds like they just made up the reason right there on the spot. Something about her moving to London in a huff because Carrie didn’t need her anymore as a publicist. As if.
Kim Cattrall declining to participate must have been a huge blow to the producers. It’s like someone, somewhere, is sticking pins into an effigy of Sarah Jessica Parker. Maybe it’s Kim Cattrall?
All this bad luck obscures what I see as the show’s most glaring and inexcusable failure: the clothes are an abomination. Exhibit A….
I don’t know what she’s smiling about. Possibly she’s happy the leftover upholstery from her chintz sofa has found a good home in that jacket or that the curtains in her apartment are detachable. Like many design choices throughout this reboot, there’s a ‘coo-coo’ vibe to this ensemble that puts me in mind of a bag lady who just won the lottery. I get it—they’re older now and life’s grown a bit more complicated. Still, there’s dressing like a mid-life crisis and there’s dressing like a mental health crisis.
It’s not just Carrie. In so many scenes, I kept getting the feeling it was Tickle Trunk day at the psych ward when the ladies all got to play dress up until the orderly declared that was enough excitement for one day and administered rapid tranquillisation…
It’s not just the main characters but the new ones as well. I’m not sure what Charlotte’s new friend Lisa Todd Wesley, played by Nicole Ari Parker, did to piss off the wardrobe department but here we are….
I knew Tilley Endurables had been struggling to find its way over the past few years. I had no idea the brand moved into the BDSM space to expand its reach.
The introduction of new characters like Lisa Todd Wexler are part of the show’s ambition to address the lack of diversity in the original series. For this go-round, they paired all three leads with their very own bipoc friend, kind of like Oprah giving every audience member a car. Miranda, you get a bipoc friend! And Charlotte, you get a bipoc friend! Carrie… you too get a Bipoc friend. Everyone gets a Bipoc friend!
Charlotte might have a cool new black friend but her wardrobe is consistently whiter than a mayonnaise sandwich with the crusts cut off. That 90s era dress with the navy sailboat pattern is actually one of her saner, less distracting outfits. For some reason, the wardrobe people insist on dressing her like Lorraine Baines, Marty McFly’s mother in Back to the Future.
Wondering perhaps if the June Cleaver hourglass look just wasn’t to my taste, I asked my stylist friend Jenna her thoughts. “I don’t mind the occasional Scarsdale twinset but this is way too close to caricature of ‘rich upper east side Stepford Wife’ only more aggressive, bordering on deranged. Those skirts are crying out for some Valium.”
Jenna, who has lived in New York on and off, was especially put off by Charlotte’s footwear. “What is with those yellow pumps? She needs a hotdog with all that mustard! This is New York. Where is Central Park Charlotte? I’d put her in biker boots for that dog walk. Or platform sneakers. Frauline Maria is gonna get a heel lodged in the cobblestones.”
In fairness, it’s not all a train wreck. There are moments of brilliance—or at least ones where they don’t all look desperate for attention or dowdy or off their meds. Like when they tone things down for Big’s funeral. Tragedy seems to nudge them out of their own heads, as though they only just needed something bigger to focus on than themselves.
Oh yeah… Sorry if that’s a spoiler but Big is dead. As the show’s only happy, successful, hetero, cisgender white alpha-male, they had no choice but to kill him off. Ostensibly, it’s a rigorous Peleton workout that kills him but I wondered if it was anticipation of another of Carrie’s wardrobe changes. A premonition, perhaps, of her putting on a crinoline to fetch coffee…
Getting crazy vibe after crazy vibe from the array of wardrobe changes, I couldn’t help but wonder—to borrow a Carrie Bradshaw-ism—if I’d misremembered the original series. Was it too a hot mess wardrobe-wise and I had been too swept up in the show’s freshness and originality to notice? Apparently the answer—according to Exhibits A, B and C—the answer is yes…
Maybe it’s just me but something feels different this time around. Back then, Carrie’s outfits always had elements of humour and discovery. Alas, she was younger then. I was younger then. New York was a happier, less Covid-y place. I hear now all the tourists are gone and everyone wears masks all the time, even outdoors. Maybe the odd crinoline is exactly what New York needs right now.
Those skirts are crying out for some Valium. !!! 🤣🤣🤣 I've been saying for years that designers/wardrobe departments must hate women and these costumes prove it. Godawful ugly. And what's with the Tam O'shanter/flying saucer on Carrie's head to top off her funeral getup? Ai yai yai.
On the money. Agree with your fashion commentary. Tickle trunk 😂😂❤️❤️