There’s a moment in the third episode of Just like thatThe new Sex and the CityThis revival offers a glimpse of the original franchise’s iconic spirit. Emboldened after watching the (frankly, terrible) Netflix stand-up special taping of Carrie’s podcast co-host Che (played by Sara Ramirez), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) follows Che to the afterparty, where she comes across them at the bar smoking weed. After Miranda spews some guilty white-lady nonsense all over Che (which has, sadly, become a hallmark of Miranda’s character in the reboot), Che asks Miranda if she would like a hit off her joint to relax. Miranda initially denies that Che can shotgun it. But Che eventually gets her to relent.
The scene shifts into slo-mo as Che breathes the smoke into Miranda’s mouth, the sultry outro to Alabama Shakes’ “Hold On”In the background, mewling. Miranda’s eyes light up, the camera capturing the frisson of early sexual tension; something within her has shifted slightly. No longer will she settle for going back to eating chia seed-topped fro-yo with her puppyish husband Steve (David Eigenberg), or sit idly by while her teenage son’s girlfriend pads around her kitchen in a T-shirt throwing ageist micro-aggressions in her direction. It’s clear that a twinge of something dormant in her has reawakened, and now that it has, she simply can’t ignore it.
The scene, which appears to be the culmination of decades of LGBTQ fan-fic about the clearly queer-coded Miranda, is a little cringe, in part because Che effectively peer-pressures Miranda into taking a hit off the joint; and in part because the character of Che has been read as a reflection of the writers’ inability to evolve along with the times, signaling wokeness by writing a nonbinary and queer character without actually making them a fully realized individual. It is also not funny that Che, who is supposed be a successful comedian, is actually not very funny. But it’s also significant in that, for the sequel to a show that broke boundaries surrounding sex, it’s the only actually sexy moment in the entirety of the first four episodes.
What these early installments of the series do offer is a lot of awkward dialogue on race and several mentions of a prominent at-home fitness brand — but, so far, no actual sex. This lack of pelvis-bumping is largely due to Samantha, the wildly sexy cougar played by Kim Cattrall with great skill. Samantha’s chilly relationship with the cast led to her leaving the reboot. The truth is that Samantha provided a healthy dose of sensuality to the cast. Sex and the CityThere were many relatable stories about the NC-17 women that featured other women. Charlotte (Kristin) was the famous performer. tuchus lingusTrey was distracted by Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), while Carrie briefly considered whether to engage in urophilia.
While none of the above three storylines would be considered especially groundbreaking in today’s prestige-TV landscape (on The White LotusFor instance, the ass-eating scene was barely mentioned in most show write-ups. They were controversial at the time. Sex and the Cityfirst aired. Which is why the absence of any sexual content in the show’s early going has been so glaring. While Sex and the CityNever was it so important “about” sex as it was about the female friendships at its center, the show’s refusal to respect traditional sex-on-TV boundaries was so braided in its DNA that it seems odd that Just like thatWould be less horny than the average Folger’s ad.
The show’s lack of explicit sex makes sense to a certain extent.Just like thatis focused on three heterosexual women — two of them mothers of tweens and teens — navigating the vicissitudes of middle age, and as our lives expand to include myriad obligations stacking atop each other like Pringles in a can, it’s true that sex can become less of a priority. In my thirties as a working mom, I find it far easier to worry about things such multiple orgasms, eating, and getting my son to school on time.
But the producers ofJust like thatalso have a unique opportunity to shatter an entirely new set of boundaries by depicting an experience that’s rarely shown in most media: what it’s actually like for couples in their fifties and sixties to fuck.Despite the fact that the act is the same for both older and younger hots, the sex lives AARP-eligible individuals are almost ignored by popular culture. This may be because they are not considered marketable content by the men who run networks and studios. However, marketability is not an important factor. Just like thatThis sequel is a popular franchise with a loyal following and a budget. The show has free rein to take risks — and if there was one thing the original Sex and the Citywas not, it was risk-averse.
Some indications are that the new series will embrace its NSFW roots a little more. In the debut episode, there’s a brief scene where Carrie asks Big (Chris Noth) to let her watch him masturbate, though this moment is undercut by the absurdity that two married people who’ve been having intercourse together for twenty-odd years — one of whom, let’s not forget, is a working sex columnist — You would have never had a conversation about jacking up before. The scene is also more serious now that three women have made disturbing sexual assault claims against Noth. He has denied these allegations. And with Big out of the picture and a new sassy real-estate broker friend (Sarita Choudhury) in her contacts, it’s likely that Carrie will soon start exploring the over-55 dating scene. (The show has also teased many close-ups of a hunky, grey-bearded podcast producer in Carrie’s orbit, though we know little about this dude thus far, other than that he shares Carrie’s inexplicable hatred of Citibike.)
Even though Just like that‘s project of centering the lives of three middle-aged women (albeit white, highly privileged ones) is somewhat subversive in itself, its reluctance to go much further than showing Carrie giggling primly at lame masturbation jokes during a podcast taping makes it not the Sex and the Citythat fans fell in love with. Let the women ofSex and the City have, well, sex. Ignoring that crucial aspect of its DNA doesn’t do anyone any favors — least of all older women who watch the show and have aged alongside the protagonists. Considering that women are essentially told they become sexually invisible the moment they hit their forties, imagine how powerful it would be for the show to prove otherwise by showing middle-aged women actually having — and even enjoying — sex. Miranda will be able to discuss the logistics of strapping on sex with her partner. This would be a much better scene than one where Miranda says something inadvertently racist.