Edel Coffey: Will the return of Kim Cattrall give And Just Like That... the kickstart it needs?

And Just Like That: doesn't quite capture the SATC magic, by all accounts

Kim Cattrall is a bit like the Yoko Ono of Sex and the City (SATC). It’s all down to her that the band broke up. Never mind the fact that Kim was actually in the band, the narrative still says that it’s her fault that there was no third SATC movie, her fault that And Just Like That... was missing the va-va-voom of its predecessor.

The reasons why the band broke up were put down to Cattrall’s ‘feud’ with fellow-SATC star Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP), despite the fact that Cattrall regularly spoke about other issues, like her disappointment with how Samantha’s storyline for the third movie was shaping up (it centred on her becoming a desperate rather than empowered ‘cougar’) or the fact that she felt the working environment was toxic and bullying. 

Cattrall firmly and unambiguously shut the door on the possibility of playing Samantha Jones ever again and the remaining three stars returned instead with And Just Like That..., where Samantha appeared only as disembodied text messages on Carrie’s phone. They had to get several new actresses to try to fill the hole left by Samantha and still they didn’t quite manage.

Fans knew the chances of getting the band back together were slim to none, particularly after Cattrall said it was never going to happen. 

But the news we thought we’d never hear came through the internet grapevine earlier this month. The final horcrux had been located — Kim Cattrall was returning to the SATC fold after years of refusing. Samantha Jones was back and would appear in a single scene of the And Just Like That... season two finale. 

And she had even brought original stylist and now Emily In Paris super-stylist Patricia Field along with her for the ride. 

These things aren’t mended overnight, of course. According to reports Cattrall recorded her dialogue without any interaction with the other stars, or the showrunner Michael Patrick King, and it will likely be just a teaser at the end of the season, but still, she’s back. And I for one have missed her.

I watched And Just Like That..., like most SATC fans, and cringed at so many lines and scenes. I also noticed how the show tried to reanimate a version of Samantha in the varying guises of new characters. But Samantha’s voice remains inimitable.

Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Twenty-five years on, it’s hard to overstate how fresh the programme was when it first aired in 1998 and how fresh she was. I only started watching it a little later but I remember loving everything about it. 

The characters, the lifestyles, the hustle, the snappy dialogue, the comic set-pieces, the aspirational tone, the message that you could be whatever kind of woman you wanted to be, not to mention the beautiful clothes and shoes. I’ve yet to find an all-female TV show that I’ve enjoyed as much.

But while Carrie was undoubtedly the dramatic centre of SATC, Samantha remains the iconic, sex-positive, and determinedly independent woman that the show promoted itself as being about. 

Samantha was also the comic heart of the show, often stating what we were all thinking, calling out hypocrisies and even sacrificing her dignity for comic punchlines long after SJP’s character had grown poe-faced and prudish. While the other three second-guessed themselves in their search for Mr Right, Samantha always stayed true to herself and did exactly as she pleased.

Somehow amongst the glitzy films, the off-key reboot and the gossip about feuds, the legacy of SATC has been diminished. The show is unashamedly feminine. It appeals to women. And most importantly, we like it. But instead of the seriously ground-breaking show that it was, it is often thought of as a frothy show about clothes and shoes. But let’s not forget, nobody in Ireland knew what a Cosmopolitan cocktail was before Sex and the City, never mind a rampant rabbit. 

And for the first time on a mainstream television show, young women were shown versions of how to live a fulfilled, happy, free, creative, independent, romantic, and adventurous life with or without a partner and with or without children. All you really needed was friends. 

Many of the show’s viewers felt betrayed by the final episode of SATC, by the fact that Carrie was ultimately ‘rescued’ by Big, when the show’s message all along had been that every woman can be her own knight in Manolo Blahniks. For me, And Just Like That... is the show’s way of rewriting this original fairytale ending. A way of answering all of the different ‘What Ifs?’ we have about the many paths not taken by the characters. 

By killing off Big in the first episode of the first season, the show was getting back to the basics of its original — what’s it like to be single in a world where we’re told we need to partner up?

In season two, which debuted earlier this week, Carrie’s other big love, Aidan, makes a return. I presume Carrie will try that alternative ending on for size too. One thing I know for sure — I’ll be holding out for season three, when I hope Samantha Jones will get her alternative ending and fans will finally get the fairytale ending of the band being back together at last.