And just like that… I might just have changed my mind.
Last year, I wrote that I was done with Sex and The City – or rather, the much-panned HBO reboot And Just Like That.
The new script was terrible. It had lost all its energy. It’s zip and zest. It’s sex!
Worst of all, the franchise I’d loved so dearly as a young woman had descended into a woke-fest disaster! I couldn’t bear to watch it.
A large part of this was due to the fact fan-fave character Samantha – played impeccably by Kim Cattrall – had failed to return.
Samantha was outrageous, glamourous, hilarious. She put sizzling sex into the city. And with her departure came an inevitable slump into dullness.
So how thrilled I was to hear the shock announcement this week that Samantha will soon be back on our screens – returning for the second series of And Just Like That.
Do I dare tune back in?
How thrilled I was to hear the shock announcement this week that Samantha (played by Kim Cattrall) will soon be back on our screens – returning for the second series of And Just Like That.
Last year, I wrote that I was done with the HBO reboot. The new script was terrible. It had lost all its energy. It’s zip and zest. It’s sex! A large part of this was due to the fact Samantha had failed to return. (Pictured: Sex and the City friends Miranda, Carrie, Samantha and Charlotte).
As far as we know, it’s not a full-on reprise of the role. Samantha will only appear in one scene – having a phone call with Sarah Jessica Parker’s lead character Carrie Bradshaw.
So I’m not holding my breath for any radical improvements. But fans everywhere are already going wild over this welcome news.
Perhaps the HBO execs and hapless showrunners finally realized the error of their ways. Perhaps this time it will be better.
Because the first series really was awful.
It was one assault on the senses after the other.
Not only was the plot unimaginative and tired – just like Carrie’s husband Mr Big, who was inexplicably killed off from a heart-attack brought on by a vigorous Peloton session – it was also packed full of achingly modern clichés.
Of course, we had the obligatory non-binary character, ‘Che Diaz’ (Sara Ramirez), a queer podcaster who strikes up an affair with married Miranda (Cynthia Nixon).
We also had Carrie’s woke awakening as she talks of herself as a ‘cisgender woman’.
Oh, and there was the confected race row, when a worthy history professor lectures Miranda on her unconscious bias and we learn about ‘white savior complexes’.
Think I’m just a grumpy hater? I certainly wasn’t alone in my dislike. The first series garnered a pathetic ‘audience score’ of just 29 per cent on rating-website Rotten Tomatoes.
What a mess!
This was a global-hit show that used to revel in its rebelliousness – always most apparent in Samantha, who dropped the F-word every other sentence, called women ‘b**ches’ and memorably once remarked: ‘I’m a try-sexual. I’ll try anything once.’
The woke-police of today would have her indicted!
The first series really was awful. It was one assault on the senses after the other.
What a mess! This was a global-hit show that used to revel in its rebelliousness – always most apparent in Samantha, who dropped the F-word every other sentence, called women ‘b**ches’ and memorably once remarked: ‘I’m a try-sexual. I’ll try anything once.’
This was also a show that had quite literally defined my youth – now utterly ruined.
After launching in 1998, the original series – about four friends navigating life, love and work in busy New York – hit its height of fame just as I was coming into my formative years while studying at Columbia University in the very same city.
It taught me so much about female friendships, what it meant be a young woman, navigating singledom – and eventually relationships. And – yes – sex!
So many women felt the same.
This was the early Noughties, when such topics were still fairly taboo. Then suddenly, here was this show unashamedly talking about orgasms, anal sex and vibrators!
This was ground-breaking, culture-resetting stuff.
So it’s little wonder producers have reportedly pulled out the big bucks to get Cattrall back.
And I’m sure it’s a sizeable paycheque! After all, Cattrall had all but cut ties entirely.
She told interviewers firmly ‘that’s a no’ when asked if she would be appearing in the first series.
For her part, Parker stated that Cattrall hadn’t even been invited to return. ‘It no longer felt comfortable for us’, she said last year, following a reported decades-long feud between the pair, which Kim once described as ‘toxic’.
According to an exclusive DailyMail.com report, Cattrall was tempted back with the promise of a ‘nice career boost and great payday’ by ‘dear friend’ and producer Darren Star.
So it’s little wonder producers have reportedly pulled out the big bucks to get Cattrall back. And I’m sure it’s a sizeable paycheque! After all, Cattrall had all but cut ties entirely. (Pictured: Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker).
For her part, Parker stated that Cattrall hadn’t even been invited to return. ‘It no longer felt comfortable for us’, she said last year, following a reported decades-long feud between the pair, which Kim once described as ‘toxic’.
It’s also been said that her cameo has already been filmed, ‘without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series’. Ouch!
But really – do we care if Kim and Sarah aren’t sleep-over buddies? Clearly, they’re both professionals doing what they can to make the best of it.
And I’m only too grateful.
Let’s all just hope the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Cattrall’s return acts as a lesson to TV writers everywhere: woke DOESN’T work!
Give us what we want on screen, and maybe we’ll all soon be quoting another despised sequel, The Godfather Part III: ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!’
