Critic Reviews

It captures a lot of the heart and charm that the original did, alongside some hard emotional truths. And despite a lot of doubt on the part of viewers when this project was announced (especially sans Samantha), as of the first two episodes the show has genuinely made a case for its return.

And Just Like That… skips down the list of everything that was off, underwritten, or just plain inconceivably bad about the first season, correcting them one by one.

Overall, the toughest thing that And Just Like That has had to do is figure out how to be Sex and the City in the 21st century. (Yes, Sex and the City ran until 2004, but spiritually it never really left 1999.) Season 2 does so by fully embracing a truth most of us figure out after the age of 30: Your best friends are your best friends, that will never change, but as lives change so do friendships.

And Just Like That… gets Sex and the City back to basics. There are still guffaws and glamour – Parker, in particular, looks unsurprisingly spectacular – but it also has emotional heft. Elements here are certainly missed, from Carrie’s near-absent voiceover to the retired theme music, but these first two episodes are otherwise a return to form.

Despite its faults, there's nothing quite like seeing our old friends back in the concrete jungle. ... Miranda, Charlotte and Carrie are just as sharp, vibrant and chaotic as they ever were, and it's impossible not to get invested in their sky-high emotional stakes this go-around.

That, to me, is the most striking thing about And Just Like That. By getting away from the sex and the city of it all, in 2021, it actually feels a bit more real. ... And Just Like That marries the optimism and breathless wonder of a 1998 Carrie Bradshaw with the weariness that accompanies, as Samantha once said, decades of “lies and mutually accepted delusions.” And just like that…evolution.

Season 2 is a delightful improvement over the first season. If you loved to hate And Just Like That... Season 1, there are still enough bonkers moments to fuel your hate-tweets. And if you’re a SATC diehard, you’ll find yourself swooning (and screaming) over where the decades-long saga takes Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda next.

In its second season, it feels more content to be its own thing – a fun, frothy farce about women in their 50s navigating their lives with even more clumsiness than they did when they were in their 30s. It’s still intensely quotable, deeply meme-worthy and brilliantly watchable.

I just can’t stop loving And Just Like That… and I also could not stop binging the first six episodes that were sent to critics recently. It might not be good TV, but I firmly believe it is top tier entertainment.

In shedding so much of the clutter it, like Carrie’s studio, had been accumulating since the 20th century, AJLT finally feels less like an SATC hangover and more like its own preposterous yet generally fun thing.