The Most Outrageous Moments from 'And Just Like That'

When HBO Max announced the Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That, we were trepidatious, but, truthfully, we didn't know the extent of the confounding and accidentally hilarious journey on which we were about to embark. And Just Like That tells the continuing story of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) as they deal with life as 50-somethings. (Their good friend Samantha is off in London, because Kim Cattrall did not want to deal with this.) Big dies, leaving Carrie a widow; Miranda has a sexual awakening courtesy of nonbinary stand-up comedian Che Diaz; and Charlotte still strives for the perfect Upper East Side life—just one that's slightly more diverse this time around.

And Just Like That is compulsively watchable and entertaining, but also, often, very bizarre. Whereas Sex and the City did seem to reflect New York in a certain era, And Just Like That feels like it exists in a parallel universe where there is only one comedian and their name is Che Diaz, people dressed as Chucky dolls run rampant in the subways, and COVID-19 is completely over. In honor of the first—and maybe only?—season of the series coming to an end, we here at Thrillist are chronicling some of our favorite ridiculous moments.

Of the many painful Miranda moments across And Just Like That—my god, there are so many—perhaps the most painful is her Karen transformation in the pilot, where she awkwardly white-lady-babbles her way through her first class with professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman). But their relationship is salvaged when Miranda, uh, saves Nya from being mugged by a person darting around a subway station in a Chucky costume, complete with mask. Look, we've seen a lot of weird shit on the train, but I've never seen Chucky theft. Leave it to And Just Like That to make something fairly mundane just absolutely surreal. —Esther Zuckerman

It's time to go all the way back to the beginning, before we knew the true meaning of "Che Diaz." At that point, the biggest—get it?—shock of And Just Like That was Big's death by Peloton. Honestly, the Peloton death has been so complicated by various external factors at this point that it seems like a distant memory. But let's shuffle back for a second. In the And Just Like That premiere, Big smokes a cigar, takes a Peloton ride, and then collapses in the shower. Carrie walks in and finds him, but instead of immediately calling an ambulance, she just watches him die. Why does Carrie do that? Well, Big has to die so the rest of the plot can happen. Then Peloton and actor Chris Noth tried to retaliate by making a viral ad for the bike, which backfired when Chris Noth was accused by multiple women of sexual assault. In some ways, you could say that Peloton was the hero of And Just Like That. —EZ

It's the new phrase heard around the world, something not one person has ever uttered until And Just Like That premiered in December: "comedy concert." It originates when the girls go to see Che (see above) tape a Netflix special. After Carrie initially says “comedy show,” she later refers to it as “comedy concert” when inviting Miranda. This leads all of them to keep saying "comedy concert" throughout the rest of the season. This later includes Che doing a comedy concert/pride rally, which honestly may have started the apocalypse. How have these women lived in New York for decades and never seen live comedy before, let alone call it something that no one has ever called it before? It is truly baffling! Do Carrie and co. need us to recommend some comedy for them? I'm honestly not sure which of this show's creations is worse: Che Diaz or comedy concert.—KC

And Just Like That had “the most hilarious, comic, tragic” 10-episode arc planned for Stanford, according to Michael Patrick King. But when Willie Garson left the production mid-shoot and died from pancreatic cancer shortly after that, Stanford’s plotline required an understandable pivot. So what did the writers come up with? They [*checks notes*] had him divorce Anthony, abscond to Japan so he could manage his one 17-year-old TikTok client, and announce the news to Carrie by letter. Anthony and Stanford never made sense as a couple, but they had just expressed how lucky they feel to have each other when Stanford suddenly vanishes for this bizarrely impetuous and under-developed reason, never to be heard from again. It’s a clumsy send-off for one of Sex and the City’s best characters. —Matthew Jacobs

Samantha renouncing Carrie’s friendship after being fired as her publicist is a perfectly fine explanation for Kim Cattrall’s absence. Some friendships—even, or especially, long-term ones—just end, and it’s refreshing to see the show address that bittersweet reality. The fact that Samantha sent flowers to Big’s funeral also works as a tacit acknowledgement of the history they shared. But two episodes later, despite several previous texts from Carrie that went unanswered, Samantha responds when Carrie reveals that she told the story about Samantha extracting her diaphragm on X, Y, and Me. “I love that your vagina is getting air time,” she says. Maybe Samantha is feeling soft because of Big’s death, which, again—fair! But almost immediately rewriting the characters’ acrimony just feels like an attempt to lure Cattrall back, maybe in the hopes that she’ll see how buzzy And Just Like That is and have a change of heart. Otherwise, why open the door at all? —MJ

Okay, so I'm not very into "potty humor," which SATC was wont to do occasionally. I should have expected that it would work its way into And Just Like That at some point. (Remember Charlotte in Mexico?) Understandably, after Big's death, Carrie isn't really very interested in jumping back into the dating pool, but decides to go for it at the urging of her book editor, mostly because Oprah might pick her widow memoir for her book club. Which is a pretty good reason. Glammed up in classic Carrie Bradshaw garb—she goes for it with a widowed teacher and they end up having a nice time, largely because they get obliterated. Then they take it one step too far, having both Carrie and her date projectile vomit outside the chic restaurant where they've just dined. It's totally slapstick, out of nowhere, and totally disgusting. —KC

Sure, this is pretty minor compared to some of the other moments on this list, but my brain broke when Charlotte said the words "Demi Lovato." The context: Charlotte is refusing to apologize to Harry for knocking him over during tennis in Episode 7, so she quotes the singer's hit and says "sorry not sorry." Fine, whatever. But Kristin Davis makes staccato music out of the name Demi Lovato. —EZ

If only there were more of the voice-over that so perfectly characterized Sex and the City, then we might have heard something like, "While Miranda was getting fingered in my kitchen, I was making a mess of my own in the bed." Yes, as Miranda experiences the wonder that is Che Diaz, Carrie desperately attempts to urinate after her hip surgery. Since Miranda at this point is an absolutely awful friend, Carrie's cries for help go unnoticed, thus Carrie must resort to peeing into a bottle that subsequently spills onto the bed, mostly just proving how much of a jerk Miranda is being. —EZ

We have to talk about Steve. Steve, who was once my favorite SATC boyfriend. Steve, who once had undeniable chemistry with Miranda. Steve, who was once a cool bartender but now apparently does not know how to finger a woman and seems surprised that fingering even exists. What happened to Steve? In order to further the plot of Miranda's sexual awakening—and perhaps make her seem less like an asshole in the process—the writers of And Just Like That have turned Steve into an ancient, doddering fool. The character's hearing loss is meant to mimic actor David Eigenberg's own situation, but that didn't mean he had to fully morph into Old Man Yelling at Cloud. He's confused at the farmers' market. He's confused when Miranda asks him to finger her. He's confused about how conversations work. He's just generally confused. If this was developed to make Miranda more sympathetic, well, it has the opposite effect. Poor, poor, Steve. — EZ

Miranda’s whole thing has been one head-scratcher after the next, but I can accept that she, like both seasons and cities, has changed. I cannot accept that she is an alien who sometimes speaks like she spent the last 10 years in a bunker. This is best exemplified when she runs into Nya and her husband (LeRoy McClain) at a Brooklyn farmers’ market. Observing her new friends' ostensibly picture-perfect harmony, Miranda says, without a hint of irony, “If you two were a TV show, I would be streaming you.” Did the streaming service known as HBO Max make her say this? Does Miranda know that she kind of sounds like she would like to watch Nya and her husband in a porno? Does Miranda even have time to “stream” anything between her studies, her drinking, her new relationship (and impending divorce), and her white guilt? —MJ

Everyone had to know we'd get some big Che reveal in the finale. Their relationship with Miranda escalated quickly, so it needed one more turning point before the season faded to black. And how was this turning point introduced? Karaoke! More specifically, an arrangement of The Beach Boys' "California Girls" that Che performs at a cool-looking bar where they announce that "Hollywood called, bitches!" Che heading to Los Angeles for three months to film a pilot—imagine Che Diaz's pilot—is news that would surely devastate Miranda, but they somehow think this very public declaration is the still the way to go. To be fair, Sara Ramirez, a Broadway vet who won a Tony for Spamalot, has an immaculate voice, and the show is wise to put it on display. And maybe Miranda is right to follow her heart, cancel her internship, and flee to SoCal with her sweetheart. But wouldn't you be pissed if your partner told you about a cross-country move using '60s rock? Oh well, clearly it worked for Miranda in the end; she even dyed her hair red again. (Poor Steve.)—MJ

And Just Like That wraps up with Carrie's farewell to Big. She decides to dump his ashes off of the bridge in Paris where he made his big romantic gesture in the final season of Sex and the City. She's wearing a huge orange dress and pink leather gloves, and is carrying a Judith Leiber purse that resembles the Eiffel Tower. Now, when Big gave Carrie a Judith Leiber purse in the original show, she was outraged because she thought the kitschy but very expensive bags were tacky. So what gives? Is it a tribute to Big? Or has her taste really changed that much? However, there's a more significant matter at hand: Carrie put Big's ashes directly into her handbag. I'm sorry, but ew. Will she ever use that purse again? —EZ

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