Why the ‘Sex and the City’ Spinoff ‘And Just Like That’ Is So Woke

There’s “woke” television that promotes diversity, equality, and depicts characters reflecting today’s society, and then there’s television that’s just too “woke.” In the latest third season of And Just Like That…, the already woke show is taking the direction to new, overly woke heights.

From the ridiculous storylines to the overly exaggerated characters, it seems like the Sex and the City sequel series is simply throwing every woke concept at the screen and hoping that some of them stick. It started with Season 1’s storyline of Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) discovering her sexuality, introducing the controversial character Che (Sara Ramirez). But it has since morphed into so much more.

Miranda Has Become a Shell of Her Former Self

There was nothing wrong with the story shifting Miranda’s character to having a sexual awakening and realizing that she was a lesbian. However, her journey soon turned into a desperate quest to find her match, as if that were the only source of her happiness. Her dependence on Che throughout Season 2 was often uncomfortable to watch. Fans were delighted that Che was written out of the show for Season 3. Yet Miranda’s lonely desperation and appetite for love only got worse from there.

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Miranda spends every night trying to meet someone at gay bars, accidentally sleeps with a nun (played by Rosie O’Donnell in a cameo), and then falls for her colleague, BBC producer Joy (Dolly Wells). It all feels cliché. It’s fine for her to want to find companionship, but odd for her to be so fixated on it, as though she has no identity beyond that.

What makes it worse is that Miranda was once portrayed as a smart, powerful, independent businesswoman. Instead, this series has reduced her to a caricature of the person she once was. While it’s admirable that she decided to pursue a career that would be more fulfilling and wouldn’t consume her life, the show makes it seem as though as soon as she discovered that she was gay, being gay was all that defined her.

Carrie and Aidan’s Modern-Day Romance Is Insulting

The situation doesn’t get much better with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker). It’s one thing to embrace unusual relationships. Relationships of all kinds are common nowadays. But Carrie and Aidan’s (John Corbett) relationship gets more ridiculous by the minute. First, they decide to do long distance because of Aidan’s responsibility for his son, who is suffering from mental health challenges.

It’s admirable that Carrie supports him in this. However, Aidan’s request for Carrie to wait five years until Wyatt (Logan Souza) becomes a legal adult is not only insulting to Carrie but also to Wyatt. Aidan is effectively saying that once his son is a legal adult, he’s no longer his responsibility. Does this mean he will simply no longer care and can run off into the New York sunset with his girlfriend? As the relationship becomes even weirder, with Carrie’s Little House on the Prairie-like visit to Virginia and Aidan’s ridiculous “throw a pebble at the window” to summon his love (a bonehead move), it’s downright cringy.

The icing on the cake is when Aidan confesses to Carrie that he slept with his ex-wife, Kathy (Rosemarie DeWitt), after they had an especially difficult day with Wyatt. Does Carrie get angry or upset? No. She shrugs it off, saying she understands. Sure, it’s a challenging situation, and they’re older, wiser, and more logical. But in attempting to make Carrie come across as a progressive woman who isn’t threatened by this meaningless blunder, she comes off as cold and manipulated instead.

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The reasoning given is even more head-scratching. Carrie advises that she and Aidan never really discussed not sleeping with anyone else for the duration of those five years anyway. Even suggesting that could be possible is downright ridiculous. So, she had no plans to remain faithful to him during that time either?

Anyone who watched Carrie and Aiden discuss the situation once they came back together would have assumed this was indeed their plan. They would be together, but not physically together. After all, why give him a key to what she calls “their” house? Imagine Aidan walking in to surprise her, only to find her with another man.

Considering they are both in their 50s, the smart thing to do would be to cut bait, and if it’s meant to be, they’ll find their way back to one another when he’s in a better place in his life. However, the show insists on portraying a modern, strong, mature woman angle that backfires, making Carrie appear more like a sucker than a boss, and Aidan more like a manipulator than a knight in shining armor.

The Kids Aren’t Alright in ‘And Just Like That’

The storylines with the kids have gotten out of hand, too. In Season 1, arguably the worst season of the show, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Harry (Evan Handler) deal with their child Rose (Alexa Swinton) coming out as non-binary and asking to go by the name Rock. They embrace this, showing a positive storyline about parental acceptance, and that’s wonderful. As Rock continues to embrace their identity through Season 3 of the show, it proves this wasn’t a storyline meant to imply it was just a phase, but this is truly the person Rock is. That’s great.

But then the story goes into further “woke” territory with Lily (Cathy Ang) and her infatuation with a male student. After they begin dating, and he’s invited over for dinner, the family learns that he is not only bisexual but also a polygamist who has a boyfriend as well. This is something Lily approaches nonchalantly, an effort to depict the more open views today’s youth have towards sexuality and relationships. But it becomes too much when every “woke” idea under the sun is thrown into viewers’ faces.

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This continues with Wyatt, who suffers from mental health challenges. Kathy asks Carrie to bring Adderall for Wyatt to treat his ADHD, and she obliges, unaware that Aidan disagrees with his son using this medication. Once again, the show is trying hard to depict every possible scenario with this one group of friends. Despite how many others deal with similar scenarios, it comes across as forced instead of relatable.

Other Silly Storylines in ‘And Just Like That’ Become Cliché

The storylines overall have gotten either completely silly or downright soapy. There’s the mean woman on the street claiming Charlotte’s dog attacked her dog in what appears to be a desperate attempt to find interesting storylines for Charlotte. There’s Seema (Sarita Choudhury), seemingly just giving up and quitting when her boss retires and hands the company over to someone else. Instead of fighting for what was rightfully hers, as any fan who has watched the show and knows her personality predicts she would have done, she decides to leave and start over, leaving everything she has worked for behind.

There’s Lisa’s (Nicole Ari Parker) “woke” documentary and the ironic work “crush” she has on her new editor, Marion (Mehcad Brooks). Despite her rock-solid marriage with her husband, Herbert (Chris Jackson), the hints that her feelings could turn into an affair cheapen one of the more secure, admirable relationships on the show. Also worth mentioning is the plot hole with the sudden death of her father in Season 3, despite Lisa’s father supposedly having died earlier in the series. The show explains the sudden death of her father in Season 3 by revealing that the “dad” she mentioned in Season 1 was actually her stepdad.

Let’s not forget Anthony’s (Mario Cantone) bakery, ridiculously called Hot Fellas, which not only objectifies men but does so intentionally. Combined with the perpetuated stereotype of the older gay man dating the hot, young Italian stallion Giuseppe (Sebastiano Pigazzi), it’s like a page out of a sleazy novel. Anthony uses Giuseppe to draw women to the store, encouraging them to gawk at his boyfriend’s… well, package. It’s embarrassing. A show that is supposed to be so progressive about women shouldn’t have to reduce itself to sexualizing men to accomplish its goal.

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The biggest issue is that while Sex and the City was about powerful women who owned their sexuality, were successful, and never let anyone walk over them, And Just Like That… has reduced the lead characters to sad versions of themselves. It suggests that as they get older, they get weaker and downright more unlikable.

Even those who are happy to embrace “woke” storylines and the positive things they bring to otherwise outdated shows have had enough of the wokeness in And Just Like That… Some thought that once Che was gone, the wokeness would die down, or at least plateau at a level that made sense to accomplish the intention. But it seems they were simply a symptom of the show’s larger problem. Stream And Just Like That… on HBO Max.