And Just Like That season finale review

Okay, let's talk about what can only be described as the worst series finale that I have ever watched - the And Just Like That series finale, which was a spin off of Sex and the City.

I didn't watch Sex and the City during the original run between 1998 and 2004. I only began watching after a group of friends dragged me kicking and screaming to the Sex and the City movie, which was fantastic. I then got into the TV show and identify as a Samantha. When the second movie came out in 2010, despite negative reviews I liked it. I thought it stayed true to all the characters.

Now fast forward to 2022 and we have And Just Like That. Obviously the social climate is different than things were back in 2010. People now expect diverse casts even if the diversity is at the expense of the stories.

That's exactly what happened with And Just Like That. There was a lot of controversy around the character Che played by Sara Ramirez, who had a relationship with Miranda who had been married to Steve. Those who watched the original Sex and the City would also know that she was not lesbian as established very early on in season 1. That was one of the many issues. After season 2, Che was written out to the delight of fans.  I didn't mind Che personally. I thought the character was okay.

I liked the introduction of Seema. She was the closest thing to Samantha's replacement we got, however we never really got to see her interact with Miranda and Charlotte. It was always Carrie. We did see her have flings before getting involved with Adam the gardener at the end of seaason 3. 

I did however have an issue with killing Big off in the first episode of the reboot and I did have an issue with all the storylines that made it out like the characters were old and past their use by date.  I found that to be offensive.

I also had an issue with the way the series tried to have obese people, gay people, trans people etc. Basically they tried to tick every box they could. Now I don't have an issue with those communities, but I do have an issue with that type of stuff being rammed down our faces, especially in a non-realistic way, which is what it was. I also had a major issue with the way Aidan completely disrespected Carrie in season 3. Eventually they broke up towards the end of the series to everyone's pleasure. Some people have said that Aidan was ruined in the spin off and I would have to disagree. Aidan always had an issue with Carrie. Right from their first meeting he wanted her to change. When he found out she was a smoker he said he couldn't date a smoker. He never got over his trust issues when she cheated with Big.

That's not my issue though. My issue comes with the last three episodes of the series. 

In the 10th episode there were so many new storylines set up - Harry got diagnosed with Cancer, Miranda was possibly relapsing back into alcoholism, Charlotte was having vertigo issues, Seema got involved with Adam, Lisa Todd Wexley was going to have an affair with her editor, Marion and Brady ended up getting Mia pregnant, yet none of those stories gets any type of resolution. I also had an issue with what happened to Carrie's old apartment. While it's true you can never go back and the writers probably wanted us to say goodby to the apartment that was not the right way to say goodbye.

Those aren't my biggest issues though.

My biggest issue is the way the final episode was handled. 

Did we really need to have charactures at a Thanksgiving dinner with more airtime than the main girls? Did we really need to have scenes of men literally peeing and did we need to have a toilet mishap scene? It was just distasteful and showed the writers didn't care about the characters or have any knowledge of the original series and that they did not respect the audience - those scenes should have been cut immediately and not even made it past the original script writing process.

It also showed that Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Patrick King did not intend to end the series at the end of season 3 and that there were plans to produce a season 4. Season 3 had been the best season out of all of them in the reboot. 

I didn't mind the final scene where Carrie was dancing and content with being alone but not lonely.

If it had been up to me to write the episode I would have done the Thanksgiving episode with EVERYONE there, including Anthony and Guiseppe, Miranda and Joy, Charlotte, Harry and their kids, Brady, Steve and Miranda (not the awful crew that had more airtime than the main characters), Lisa Todd Wexley and her family; and of course Seema and Adam.

Then I would have cut to a final scene the next day of Charlotte, Miranda, Carrie and Seema having coffee at their usual coffee shop and a text from Samantha saying she was sorry she couldn't make Thanksgiving and that she's flying out tomorrow.

The finale of And Just Like That forgot what the original premise of the series was which is: Men may come and go but your friends are always there, no matter what happens.

All of this said, I hope that by some miracle another network picks it up for season 4 so that isn't the actual finale of a show that was once great.