TV Review: And Just Like That... is one of the best shows about friendship I’ve ever seen. We could nearly grow old together
You don’t have to be a 50-something woman in New York to get something out of And Just Like That, says Pat Fitzpatrick.
was a slow burn for me.
My wife watched it while I pointedly did something else, because I thought it was about shopping. But it seeped into my brain because, i n the end, it was about friendship. The friends here were four 30-something women living well in New York and spending a fortune on clothes. But I could relate to them because the writing and the honesty were that good.
I presumed they’d never pull off the same trick in the sequel, ... (Sky Comedy and the NOWTV app.)
I presumed wrong. I can still relate to the characters, 50-something women now, with their lives in various shades of disarray. It helps that they killed off Mr Big in the first episode, because he was the one character that didn’t make any sense. I don’t miss Samantha either, she was too shouty and obvious.
The other three — Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte — still do some of the things they got up to in their 30s, but with the volume turned way down. (That’s almost the definition of being in your 50s .)
Most of the shopping happens off-screen now, as does a lot of the sex. The exception here is Miranda, who has sex in Carrie’s kitchen with Che, a non-binary, pansexual podcast host and comedian. I liked the way Miranda was supposed to be looking after Carrie and her bad back, and instead decided to have a knee-trembler with her boss. (Che is Carrie’s boss.)
It’s also well-written and believable. You sense that Miranda and Che are hot for each other. It makes sense, even if it’s hard on Miranda’s husband Steve. (I’m told he cheated on her in a movie, so what goes around comes around.)
does a top job portraying how confusing the gender identity revolution can be for people past 50. There was some noise online complaining that Che is a cliched notion of a non-binary person; there were further rumbles after Charlotte and her husband, Harry, used the wrong pronouns when their daughter started to identify as a non-binary person called Rock.
Jesus, we’re learning here! The lingo around gender identity is a new language for people on the wrong side of 45. I’m not sure if Rock can be described as a daughter anymore, and neither is her father Harry.
You don’t have to be a 50-something woman in New York to get something out of It’s funny too, and as brutally honest as ever, like when Charlotte takes a break from mourning Mr Big to remind us that he treated his wife like a prick.
This is the last week of Season 1. Reading between the lines, it looks like HBO will go for season 2. I’ll watch it if they do. This is one of the best shows about friendship I’ve ever seen. We could nearly grow old together.
