This article contains spoilers
Series one of Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That… was all about exits. The most prominent being that of Carrie Bradshaw’s megabucks hubby, Mr Big, killed off when he had a heart attack on his exercise bike.
That bombshell was followed by the sacking of actor Chris Noth, who had been due to return as Big in a flashback scene in the season finale but who was let go amid sexual misconduct allegations. There was a sadder farewell for actor Willie Garson, who played Carrie’s gay bestie Stanford and whose death from pancreatic cancer was overshadowed by the Noth controversy.
But in its second season (coming to Sky Comedy, Thursday, 8am), the show is staking its hopes on several high-profile returns. Kim Cattrall is coming back as Carrie’s pal Samantha Jones – though only in a cameo. We’ll also be seeing more of Aidan Shaw (John Corbett), Carrie’s sweet but naive boyfriend from Sex and the City (when she sabotaged the relationship by having a fling with Mr Big).
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All of that is in the future, though, as the series kicks off with an episode that barely has any plot and which instead gives a crash course on why this reboot of the popular 1990s dramedy remains so redundant. It starts, as it often used to, with Carrie canoodling with a new beau – but unsure where the relationship is leading.
The scenario is complicated – again, quelle surprise – by the fact that her new squeeze is a colleague from her thoroughly 21st century job as a podcast relationship expert. Carrie is worried about where the relationship is going and has to deal with the bonus drama of arranging a dress for the Met Ball, the annual fashionista conflagration, which she and her pals are attending.
Poor little rich girl Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is a steadier place as the only one of the original quartet to have had a romantic happy ending (she’s still hitched to kindly Harry). Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who discovered she was queer last season, is meanwhile on holiday with her partner Che (Sara Ramirez), who drops a bombshell about being on a diet. We also catch up with new characters, including Seema (Sarita Choudhury), who are uniformly more well-adjusted than the gang from the 1990s.
There are a lot of costumes, some mild relationship angst and an excruciating scene where Carrie explains to her new boyfriend why she never learned to cook (she was 30 and had things to do). It finishes with Carrie experiencing a fashion crisis in New York and retrieving an old gown for the Met. She goes to the ball – but even diehard Sex and the City fans may wonder if it’s time the lights went out on a franchise that feels like a 1990s relic extended beyond its natural lifespan.
