I begrudgingly started watching the original Sex And The City series when it first aired on HBO in the 90s. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an episode and in anticipation of the reboot And Just Like That, I rewatched the series again. I think we can agree that the series did not age well. Most people of color are either stereotypes or punchlines. Money rules their world and they spend a lot of it on cocktails and shoes. If love ever happens it needs to be tragic and if it is true love, it means that someone settled for what’s behind Door #2, i.e., Miranda & Steve.
I’m already eight episodes in to And Just Like That, and I’m starting to see that Carrie might really be a Karen. It’s hard to believe this, but it’s totally possible. Carrie is living in hell. Her husband Big is gone and she’s pondering a face lift even though she didn’t have “old lady disease.” Her friend Miranda is getting down in her kitchen with her boss Che. Her buddy Stanford Blatch disappeared. Charlotte is preoccupied with getting in good with LTW to make up for years of not having a black friend. Carrie is struggling to adapt to the new world of podcasting, but to her credit she did manage to get in a few “zingers”. Her BFF Samantha bolted to London. Even her shoes can’t comfort her anymore. Carrie is adrift on a life raft with a leak in it.
What’s left for a middle aged 55 year old white woman left to do? In the latest episode, she opened her window to tell the youngsters on the stoop to STFU (not even that) after calling another youngster for advice on how to do it so she doesn’t look like a Karen. The whole thing has a Karen name tag on it. The best move Carrie could’ve done was to open the window and dump a bucket of water on them so she can go to sleep feeling good about addressing the issue and regain her footing on being a strong independent women. This is what women her age do in Barcelona, Paris, and Rome. Crazy is not Karen. Crazy is crazy!
We Need To Talk About Steve
This brings me to the most painful part of And Just like That: Steve. This guy has been so diminished in the reboot. From the opening scene, they have him in a pair of hearing aids looking like a man deep into the winter of his life at 55, while the remaining ladies (Samantha jumped ship) are in search of the fountain of youth. Miranda runs into her professor at the Saturday market in Brooklyn and diminishes Steve to a punchline. I like Steve and almost everyone does (except Miranda). Steve is unapologetically Steve; Brooklyn accent and Knicks loving fan to add to his street cred.
The only constant through the show is that Steve is the only guy worth marrying. Aidan is whiny, Big is avoidant, and Harry had just enough money to pay for all of Charlotte’s $20 salads for her to overlook his baldness. Does anyone know with certainty what Big did for money? Most importantly Steve loves Miranda so much. Real love has never been as popular as the pursuit of the White Whale they created for Love. Even when Miranda dumps him, Steve wants her to be happy and won’t fight for her anymore. I can’t be sad for Steve, because Steve is going to be OK. He owns a bar, which makes him the king over his domain. He just needs one good Ladies Night and he’s back in the game and I think Miranda will give him everything in the divorce. Between Big dying on a peloton and Steve getting dumped by Miranda, I don’t know who got a better deal in the end? One received eternal rest, the other his freedom.
I’m tuning in today to see what’s waiting for Miranda in her surprise visit to Cleaveland. I will be disappointed if it’s NOT the train wreck I’m hoping for. Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away a jedi is feeling a disturbance in the force. The universe has a way of correcting itself.