By Michele Yeo
“The woman wondered what she had gotten herself into” is what we see Carrie Bradshaw type into her laptop at the end of the premiere episode of season three of And Just Like That. Carrie is beginning work on a new book – her first foray into fiction. But as viewers, as we embark on yet another installment of this franchise, one can’t help but wonder if we know what we’re getting ourselves into.
The third season picks up shortly after season two wraps: having sold her original – and iconic – studio apartment, Carrie is now living in her massive new, and largely empty, Gramercy Park home while Aidan continues to deal with his problem child back home in Virginia. Miranda, meanwhile, reveals she and Steve have sold their Brooklyn brownstone and he and Brady are living in a loft while she’s camped out in an AirBnB in the Village. Charlotte and Harry continue to balance two super annoying teenagers and their respective careers. Anthony and his Italian hot fella Guissepe are still going strong. Seema, the Temu version of Samantha, is still doing the long distance thing with her filmmaker boyfriend while he’s working in Egypt, and Lisa (LTW) continues to slay all day. Mercifully, the world’s unfunniest comedian, Che Diaz, is nowhere to be found, presumably avoiding being tried at The Hague for their various crimes against humanity that were previously passed off as “jokes.” Professor Nya Wallace is also MIA as actor Karen Pittman found herself too booked and busy with Apple TV’s The Morning Show and the Netflix series Forever to return.
Just as Carrie has been moving through the five stages of grief following the death of Big in season one, viewers of And Just Like That may also find themselves navigating denial, anger, bargaining, and acceptance. And, as we settle in for another 12 episodes of this fever dream, the key may just be reaching that final stage: acceptance. Accepting that the old Sex and The City, much like Big, really is dead, accepting that And Just Like That will never truly be as good nor as groundbreaking as its predecessor (the two movies, especially that second one, don’t count as canon.) If you’re able to accept these truths rather than holding out hope AJLT will magically improve or begin to resemble its source material, you may be able to sit back and just enjoy the ride.
It’s a ride that sees Carrie and Aidan still living a state of flux as they navigate living in two different States for the next five years (!!) while Aidan attends to his We Need to Talk About Kevin vibes-giving son, Wyatt, who is even more annoying than Harry and Charlotte’s kids. Seriously, look for that kid on some kind of watchlist in the future. An episode of the original Sex and the City series (episode one of season five for the real SATC scholars out there) saw Charlotte introduce the theory that we’re all given only “two great loves” in our lifetime. Carrie surmises that for her, those loves must have been Big and Aidan. One can’t help but wonder if she’s still clinging to that theory because the more she and Aidan share screen time in this third season, the more it’s obvious these two are undeniably ill-suited for each other. A phone sex scene that can only be described as deeply unsettling only reinforces this. One episode sees Carrie cosplaying Laura Ingalls from Little House on Prairie while visiting Aidan and his brood in Virginia. Some scenes are so awkward it makes Carrie, in retrospect, seem like she was positively right at home years ago at Aidan’s rustic cabin in Suffern, NY (if you know, you know, OG SATC heads.)
Miranda, meanwhile is exploring her new life as a freshly-divorced gay woman which brings some comedy, inevitable misunderstandings, fresh humiliation, and an interesting cameo by Rosie O’Donnell. Also look for cameos from the brilliant Cher Oteri and Jennifer Lewis, by the way. Any appearance, by either woman, no matter how small, is always welcomed. Charlotte, however, is given so little to do in the first four episodes – a whole storyline involving her dog will have you wondering if the writers forgot Kristin Davis was part of the cast and they scrambled for something, anything for her – it will make you thankful Big died and Miranda and Steve divorced because clearly the writers don’t know what to do with a longtime married couple. Although, signs do point to at least some drama coming their way mid-season.
That said, with all its shortcomings, for the diehard Sex and the City fans, for those on whom that show left an indelible mark, And Just Like That still likely has enough gravitational pull to lure you in for a third go round. A true testament to the original works if ever there was one. It’s not a spoiler to reveal that a post-it note makes a reappearance at some point in AJLT and while this time it doesn’t say “I’m Sorry. I Can’t. Don’t Hate Me,” when it comes to having the power to resist this sometimes inexplicable and frivolous reboot, the message might as well say, “We’re Sorry. You Can’t. Don’t Hate Yourself.”
And Just Like That season three begins streaming Thursday May 29, 2025 on Crave in Canada, with new episodes every Thursday.
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