HBO
It’s days before the surprise And Just Like That… series finale and the fans on the bus to the Hamptons with me were in a nostalgic mood. When asked to recall their first memory of Sex and the City, almost everyone had an immediate answer.
Depending on their age, their first viewing experience varied. One person sheepishly admitted she was old enough to rent the first season at Blockbuster while on a trip with high school girlfriends, another yelled out that she had actually rented the DVDs from Netflix when that was still a thing.
But no matter if you watched the show live or decades later on streaming, everyone who has loved Sex and the City for the past nearly 30 years has an answer on how the series made them feel. It wasn’t just the catchphrases, fashion, or key moments that made the show so iconic; it was the core four women at its center—Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha—and how they inspired us each in their own way.
Right now, though, it’s a bittersweet time to be a Sex and the City fan. Last week, star Sarah Jessica Parker and showrunner Michael Patrick King announced the third season of the show’s spinoff would be its last, with the surprise And Just Like That… series finale airing Thursday, August 14. Immediately, questions and gossip swirled around the show’s sudden end, with many fans speculating that the controversial and often-mocked spinoff had actually been abruptly cancelled by HBO.
For many, it felt like an unsatisfying end to such a legendary franchise and the characters at its core. Many couldn’t help but wonder, Is this the end of Carrie Bradshaw forever?
“I have learned not to say goodbye, but to say farewell,” said Parker, at an intimate Hamptons brunch and Q&A for fans on Monday hosted by Threads. “There’s a distinction, right?”
She continued, “If you love something, you know where to leave it sometimes. But…I wouldn’t have said four years ago or five years ago, Michael [Patrick King] and I would get on the phone—because we talked about it previously and it just didn’t feel right—but on that call…it was so apparent to both of us that it felt right. So who knows?”
The idea that Parker isn’t completely closing the door on Carrie forever is a bit of a balm to fans who feel that her story isn’t being wrapped up in the way she deserves.
Ever since the end of the show was announced, a somewhat ironic sentiment has percolated online among those who watched. While the majority of fans complained about the spinoff’s often ridiculous storylines, the strange or out-of-character choices of the women, and the overall feeling that it was adrift in a way that the original series never was, they are heartbroken that it will no longer be on their screens. Yes, they may have rolled their eyes at the show or even hate-watched it, but they didn’t want it to stop.
Lindy Segal, a journalist, Glamour contributor, and author of the Substack “Gatekeeping,” tells me that despite its many flaws, she’s devastated that And Just Like That… is ending.
“The writing is painful, the plotlines are nonsensical, and the fashion is contrived—but there’s something perfect about how bad it is,” she says. “Something fully shifted around the midpoint of season three, and I started to love it unironically. All the flaws remain, but I can’t name another show I watch with a big, dumb smile on my face the whole time.”
In fact, some fans say that the show’s weird moments were what made it actually good—even if some people didn’t get it.
“I was drawn to the show’s willingness to keep us entertained, no matter how controversial the plotline or embarrassing the arc might be for the character,” says Anna Moeslein, Glamour’s deputy editor. “Through a mix of the absurd and the banal, AJLT managed to capture the wonderful, messy, horrible, hilarious things that come with being a person in this world in a way no other series has come close to doing for me.”
No matter what you felt about the show, it seems everyone can agree on one thing. If And Just Like That… had to end, it deserved a more celebratory send-off. On social media sites like Reddit, Threads, and Instagram, fans mourning the show sighed that they weren’t hating on the series because they wanted it to be cancelled, but because they wanted it to improve.
In both her statement following the announcement and at the brunch, Parker said that ultimately it was her and King’s decision to walk away, even if it confused viewers.
“You arrive at this decision, and it’s incredibly hard to be definitive and to say it, and really it makes no sense to a lot of people, which I understand,” she said. “Why would you stop doing something that’s successful and that is successful at this moment? But I think it’s because of the profound affection for the job and for the show…the respect and the affection that we feel for the experience in totality that leads you to a decision like this. It’s such an extraordinary job, and you have to honor it.”
But even if her decision may not make sense to fans, it’s clear that Parker takes her role as steward of Carrie and her legacy seriously. At the brunch, she was visibly moved by fans’ declaration of love and devotion to the series.
“The way that people know the show, and I mean, not just their procedural knowledge of the show, but they know lines and the stories,” she said. “The way they know the show, all of it, is enormously touching.”
And now that it’s ending, fans are reflecting on what it was about And Just Like That… that made them come back week after week. As one person wrote on Threads, being able to immerse themselves in a familiar world with characters they’ve loved for decades is a balm in our increasingly chaotic times, no matter how silly the plot points may be.
“And Just Like That… lives in a world where nothing ever results in catastrophe,” they wrote. “It’s like watching your favorite movie over and over. It’s not really exciting anymore, but it’s comforting and we know nothing bad is really going to happen to our favorite characters.”
Moeslein agrees.
“The point of And Just Like That… was never to be sleek or cool or even sexy,” she says. “It’s just life, in all shades. I’ll miss it.”
Originally Appeared on Glamour
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