"And Just Like That"

(***SPOILER ALERT***) There’s a lot to hate about “And Just Like That …”, starting with trying to care about the problems of rich, entitled white women who are utterly clueless about the world outside of their privilege.  As many have mentioned, the attempt to diversify this show is cringeworthy at times.  How anyone, in this day and age, can be so inept at dealing with the racial and gender issues which abound in the modern world is just stunning.  And there is the aging, or lack thereof, of the leads.  Yes, it is 16 or so years later and for two of the three women, it looks like 16 years later.  That’s not a bad thing.  We’ve all aged, and the world has changed since these happy-go-lucky characters danced across 5^th Avenue in their ridiculous heels.  What is harder to watch is Kristin Davis, who has been vocal about people picking on her looks but given that this was always a series about looks, I say you reap what you sow.  That Ms. Davis has fallen into the addictive hole of face fillers is not a surprise in a business where young women, like Lady Gaga, can’t walk away from the temptation, but it is a serious challenge to watch her performance and be distracted by a face that doesn’t move and a lisp created by some weird frozen upper lip.  And, of course, there is the much-discussed issue of Big’s death.  Everyone is upset that Carrie’s first action isn’t to call 911.  If I read the filming correctly, it wasn’t meant to be literal.  First, Big is alive and looking at Carrie.  The water from the shower is off.  Then, he’s dead and the water is on.  Flashes – he’s gone, he’s not, eyes closed, eyes open.  I ~think~ it was meant to be a way of envisioning the surreal quality of finding a loved one dead, unexpectedly.  It just wasn’t done that well.  Honestly, Joss Whedon did it much better in “Buffy” with the episode “The Body.”  

All that being said, much like the original series, there is something here.  Underneath.  Something which has you coming back.  Peel away the self-obsession and stupidity (wearing four-inch heels to paint rooms in a women’s shelter?  Really???) there is a theme which hits home, albeit slowly.  You get to a certain point in life, and you think, “this is it … this is the target … this is where my life will be …”  And then.  Then, someone dies, or something shifts, and “just like that” the comfort zone you are in goes out of the window.  This isn’t a series about women looking for love.  It’s about mature women who have found and lost love, and are trying to navigate a terrain they never imagined for themselves.  And that is what got me to watch it.  FYI, shout out to Sara Ramirez, who is mesmerizing in their performance as Che – they breathe new life into the familiar.