Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
And Just Like That… is Lucy with the football, and I am Charlie Brown. How many times is this show (including its predecessor in Sex And The City) going to set up happiness for Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Aidan (John Corbett) only to rip it away? At least 20-plus years ago, it was for reasons that made emotional sense.
I was prepared to mentally block the experience of watching Aidan aggressively and horribly initiate phone sex in his truck. But now it seems that wasn’t a one-off, and the show is going out of its way to give us the ick for Aidan. He’s not communicating. He doesn’t tell the boys Carrie is coming to stay so he stashes her in his guest house. He refers to himself as a goober, “a hillbilly Uber.” How much of this can we be expected to take?
Carrie’s entire plotline this week is that her agent suggests some speaking opportunities (SXSW, Google), but it’s the one in Williamsburg, Virginia, that catches her interest because then she can just casually set up a lunch with Aidan. “Easy breezy,” Carrie says while explaining this concept to her friends, asking one of them to come with her to make the whole thing even more casual. “I can’t; I’m already flying to Helsinki next week for a snack,” Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) quips.
Seema (Sarita Choudhury) first says she can’t even be bothered to go to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but changes her tune once her boss announces his retirement. Seema had been under the impression that the plan was for her to buy him out in a couple years, but instead he’s leaving now and a new man is stepping in over her. Seema needs to get away, so she signs on for shenanigans with Carrie. This show is full of insanity, but maybe its most unbelievable component is that Seema would tolerate Carrie’s endless bullshit. Seema is too cool for Carrie!
There is not much more to this story. Carrie is desperate for Aidan to ask her to stay but doesn’t come out and ask him. Simultaneously, she’s going to give him a key to the house (which she constantly refers to as “our house,” making my ears bleed). Girl, you can’t ask him to sleep over but you’re referring to your property as joint? When she and Seema accidentally pop the tires of their rental car, he comes to pick her up and finally asks her to stay (in the guest house). The vibes are so bad.
Seema wants to strike out on her own as the Patel Group rather than be a man’s No. 2 again. I wish her well with this, if only for more interesting storylines for her during the rest of the season. She also asks about Carrie’s new garden architect, who I will be referring to as “Baby Aidan” moving forward. But I’m not fooled by this misdirect. That guy is 100 percent Carrie’s mistake to make.
Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker), our fabulous working mom, is struggling this week because the editor of her documentary project is quitting to go work for Academy Award winner Steve McQueen. Lisa is petulant—bordering on psychopathic—about this until Herbert (Chris Jackson) sets her straight. I found the sharp confrontation between Lisa and her editor to be potentially the only authentic moment of the episode. (“It took longer because I have children,” she says. The reply: “And I don’t. My work is my life.”) These are differences and challenges that women actually have to navigate—not what to do if your dog is wrongly accused of assault.
That’s basically the problem with this episode—and, more broadly, the show. Storylines feel disjointed, both in development and tone. Lisa and Seema are dealing with legitimate career crises. Meanwhile, Charlotte (Kristen Davis) is upset that her younger colleagues are selling more paintings at late-night after-parties. “I am too busy here being Mom!” she whines to her family, and they once again roll their eyes because what exactly is she doing for her children that they couldn’t handle on their own? When Charlotte tries to hang, Harry (Evan Handler) tags along in young-person pants that he can’t get off fast enough to go to the bathroom so he…pees his pants? Is that what we’re going with? There are no stakes to speak of, but plenty of cringe.
I want more from this show. Lisa and Seema are carrying the weight of complexity, while our original three characters flail around as cartoon characters.
Stray observations
- • Miranda goes on a date with Joy, the woman from the BBC, and they do some very sexually charged breathing exercises in the middle of the bar. We’ll check in with you two later when you get more screen time.
- • A very strange development from the episode: Aidan’s ex-wife (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) calls Carrie and awkwardly asks her to track down some Adderall in New York to bring for Wyatt because there’s a nationwide shortage. First of all, why wouldn’t Aidan be asking this? Naturally, Charlotte has the connect (“Art influencer, influencer, drug kingpin—what can’t she do?”), but when Carrie shows up in Virginia with the baggie, Aidan pulls a face. What gives? We’re devoting so much time to Wyatt. This better pay off eventually. For a second, I thought Charlotte was going to develop an Adderall addiction to stay up for the after-parties.
- • I’m sorry, there’s no way Seema would deign to eat KFC.
- • Anthony (Anthony Marantino) when he finds one of his Hot Fellas asleep in the bakery: “Ripped Van Winkle.” My notes: “I hate this show.”
