The long-awaited second season of the Sex And The City reboot And Just Like That is finally here – and so are the reviews.
And Just Like That sees Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis reprise their famous characters Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte, with the first of season two’s 11 episodes debuting on Thursday.
And while the first series of the revival wasn’t exactly lauded by critics, the second run seems to be just as divisive.
While some have branded the new episodes “dull” with the same old “clumsy dollops of self-awareness about living in the 2020s”, others have encouraged fans to “keep the faith” and said that anyone who enjoyed season one will “lap up” the new batch of episodes.
Here’s a selection of the initial reviews, which might well go down easier for some fans with a Cosmo in hand...
The Independent (2/5)
“There’s always a pleasure in the reunion of beloved TV characters, and there’s no denying the chemistry between Parker, Nixon and Davis (though Nixon’s coastal move upsets that trio). But the show still seems uncertain about its place in the world. Is it a throwback? A reimagining? An update? Or an entirely new thing?
“Caught between all these potential aspirations, And Just Like That has ended up a toothless imitation of its ancestor. Where Sex and the City gave a voice in prestige TV to a generation of women, And Just Like That… is giving little more than pay cheques to its well-coiffed stars.”
BBC News (2/5)
“Some shows make it too easy to throw their own lines back at them. During a blunt lunchtime conversation about sex, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) compares a certain male bodily fluid to ‘an old friend that gets on your nerves – I think I’d miss it if it were gone’. That also sums up the comfortable, unexciting And Just Like That which returns for its second season despite a bumpy, divisive first round.
“The new episodes of the Sex and the City sequel do a smoother balancing act, as the series tries to move the characters forward while also satisfying fans who want the familiar group back. But the show is still a sometimes annoying and dull nostalgia-fest offset by clumsy dollops of self-awareness about living in the 2020s.”
The Telegraph (2/5)
“Episode one sees the characters going to the Met Gala, but nothing funny happens (thank goodness for gay friend Anthony, who has remembered that this is supposed to be a comedy).
“Episode two includes Carrie and her handsome podcast producer boyfriend writing an advert for vaginal wellness products, and that isn’t even supposed to be funny. It’s dull. But SATC devotees should keep the faith: Carrie’s old flame Aidan shows up soon. And there’s the promise of that Kim Cattrall comeback.”
“And Just Like That remains its own odd thing. Its structure follows its story appealingly: Its characters, forced by circumstance or tempted by boredom into reinventing their lives after 50, are doing so on a project that has blown up what a Sex And The City TV show looks like. Its narrative lines aren’t clean, and things often happen sort of randomly, as in life.
“I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend the show, exactly — in substantial part because if it’s for you, you already know, and are watching. But as part of a sustained storytelling project about how cities, relationships, people and stories themselves change over time, it finds its way toward an askew sort of excellence.”
“And Just Like That was certainly more thematically cohesive during its first season as it explored the dissolution of friendships as people age, but at least shines in its second when it embraces its predecessor’s routes: The characters coming together over brunch to discuss the merits/drawbacks of things like dry orgasms and penis pumps. (‘Who knew you were a cumslut?’ Miranda marvels at Charlotte.)
“But SATC wasn’t always cosmos and girl talk — and AJLT successfully embraces high drama during a mid-season argument between Miranda and Steve that ends with a superbly acted monologue by Eigenberg.”
“Mostly, though, [And Just Like That] is now passable, rising up to the level of nostalgic mediocrity to which most of the recent boom of TV revivals seem to aspire.
“If you enjoyed season one specifically for how strangely terrible it could be, this may be a disappointment. If you’re just looking to reconnect with your old friends in something that feels vaguely like the good old days, it’s much closer to the mark.”
Metro (3/5)
“In season two, despite the complaints being impossible to ignore, all feedback from fans has been ignored and subsequently And Just Like That’s return is a huge misfire. A misfire I was somehow, albeit reluctantly, still gripped to…
“I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before that ‘hate-watching’ And Just Like That was enough to make sure I and most of us who persevered through season one were still counting down the days for a new episode. After complaining all through the season two premiere, I had the same compulsion to binge the rest of the series too.”
Radio Times (3/5)
“As with season one, the second instalment of AJLT takes a while to warm up – the most exciting thing that happened in the first four episodes were the tiny stools that Carrie, Seema and Charlotte rested their very expensive handbags on while at a restaurant – with the action and the quality of the writing picking up in the final couple of episodes that were made available for review…
“But at its best, it remains an entertaining watch that demands very little from viewers, which is a blessing in an age of Succession and Severance and Barry, that also has the capacity to be insightful and inspire emotion. This is not the bold, ground-breaking telly that SATC was, but that doesn’t matter. If you enjoyed season one, you’ll lap this up.”
“The improvements are mostly a matter of sensible tweaks. The tangled underbrush of relationships gets a healthy thinning; the new [cast members] – Nicole Ari Parker’s Lisa, Sarita Choudhury’s Seema, Karen Pittman’s Nya and Sara Ramirez’s Che – are all fitted more comfortably into the narrative, and the daring, sexy, silly frivolity of the old show is back.”
iNews (2/5)
“So far though, this is a paint by numbers revival that favours egg drama over the sort of thorny relationship issues that were the engine of the original series.
“Carrie’s usually at her best when she’s merrily penning clichés, and there’s not that much of that here – things would certainly improve if she gets off the pod and back on her laptop. So far, it’s all just a bit dull.”