The ongoing polarized reception to HBO Max’s Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That has taken another strange and unexpected turn. A new report suggests that while HBO Max is keen for another season, the creative minds behind the show may not be sold on the idea.
TVLine reports that head writer Michael Patrick King and star Sarah Jessica Parker have not yet agreed to another season of the show, and that no plans for a Season 2 can begin until they do.
“It’s honestly Michael and Sarah Jessica[‘s] decision,” HBO Max’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys told the outlet. “They need to make sure they want to keep going.”
“I believe they will. They came to us with this idea of Big dying as a way to get into a story about women in their 50s. I think they want to make sure they have something they’re equally excited by… They’re talking about story. I believe they’re going to come to us with something they’re excited about.
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Bloys added that And Just Like That scored the biggest ratings for any HBO Max show to date, so execs are “excited” about its future, “but we’re just letting them have their process and think about the show and what they want to do.”
TVLine also reports the busy schedule of the show’s actors also poses a major hurdle. Most notably, actress Cynthia Nixon also has commitments to a lead role in the new hit The Gilded Age, as well as a future second season of Ratched.
And Just Like That has left audiences divided. Longtime fans of Sex and the City have groused over the absence of the character of Samantha Jones, as actress Kim Cattrall refused to return for the new show. The decision to kill off Carrie’s (Parker) longtime beau Big (Chris Noth) also ignited hot criticism and later charges of sexual assault against the actor did little to help the show’s positive public relations. And the inclusion of the new character Che Diaz (Sara Ramierez) and the character Miranda (Nixon) coming out as a lesbian have also invited major backlash, with right-wing viewers attacking the show for “wokeness” and more apolitical viewers attacking their storyline as forced.
Frankly, we can’t help wonder: maybe HBO Max is better off quitting while they’re ahead?
Related: All the backstage drama that made us wonder, is ‘And Just Like That’ actually cursed?
babbab
Hi David (author), Did you mean Cynthia Nixon is committed to a lead role in the new hit “The Gilded Age” (not “The Golden Age”)?
Heywood Jablowme
Yep, The Gilded Age is yet another show for Queerty to ignore. It only has two gay male characters, fabulous costumes, and Cynthia Nixon. I’m hoping the show makes a derogatory reference to NYC real estate developers (in 1882) which will cause Eric tRump to tweet about it, and then Queerty will pretty much HAVE to mention it. That’s the only way!
BigJohnSF
It also has Christine Baranski – we love her. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to watch it yet, after the reviews.
Heywood Jablowme
@BigJohnSF: Go ahead, you’ll like it. It starts off a bit slow (but still gorgeous), heats up in the 3rd episode, and yes a great role for Baranski.
Caine
@BigJohnSF – I have only watched the first episode and decided to wait to binge the whole thing at once. Ep 1 is slow, but the COSTUMES alone are worth watching it for… The cast is great!
cuteguy
This iteration absolutely sucked. They should quit while they’re behind
inbama
This turkey is the highest rated show on HBO/Max?
Sad.
cuteguy
This streaming service just started less than two years ago, so that’s not exactly a bragging point. Kim Cattrall was the smart one to avoid this disaster
RUEuphoric
Love it or hate it they are of course making another season (if not multiple). People don’t seem to get just how many others kept watching every single episode. It is now HBOMAX all time highest rated/most watched original series of all time. That translates to money, & just because MpK & SJP haven’t given the official go ahead yet they have both said as recently as this month that they were looking forward to season 2.
cuteguy
This streaming service has been in service for LESS than two years!!! It’s not Netflix. And HBO MAX is FREE with almost all cable subscription packages, unlike having to pay solely for Netflix. Being “#1” on a start up FREE subscription service is not exactly bragging rights. And there is absolutely NO LOVE for this garbage except for the tasteless few that enjoy a plot less program. The show is an industry joke. Porn is popular and is not exactly revered. SATC was a cultural zeitgeist and this garbage will only be remembered for the waste it is. Just like the flash period this show grossly promoted, it will soon be forgotten by the majority
Ronbo
Such hate and vitrol from cuteguy about a TV SHOW… why? Take a moment and shake off your Cam personality. Cute doesn’t translate well with “garbage… tasteless… joke… garbage… waste… etc….
Come back to us as a cuteguy. The over-the-top eruption of nonsense hate over a TV show – indicates you might need professional help and mood stabilizers.
You know that you can just turn off the TV, right?
Caine
Oh @cuteguy we get it – you hate it – don’t let the door hit you on the way out – I LOVED IT, so don’t generalize and speak for the rest of us. I cannot wait for Season 2!
miamirunner
I used to love the show and saw the 2 movies…but hated episode one of the new series so I stopped altogether. Not interested in watching it without Samantha. She was the main course…the others were just salads and appetizers.
Canadiancub
Ya sure. Only right wingers thought that the unbearable Che Diaz was too woke.
clrouse
Sex and City was great for the time it was created.
Just like that! Is celebrating the 50 something female. We face a lot of changes may it be gray hair, lost marriage or a loved one. We have lived half a century trying to prove ourselves in a society that is so strange now it it’s day and age.
I personally love the show even though premise is quirky at best. But folks are forgetting it’s entertainment not real life. I hope they keep the show on.
Brian
Go away! This show had multiple seasons + 3 movies + a prequel TV show + a reboot! Hollywood desperately needs some originality.
I made the same complaint about the “live action” Lion King in which literally nothing was live action. Fuller House made my ears bleed. Indiana Jones fighting space aliens was absurd. Hire some decent writers, please!
Yooper
The only “…ongoing polarized reception…” seems to be on Queerty. It’s a TV show, some people like, some people don’t. Pretty much like most shows on TV. For me, I can say I’m not a fan of reboots in general, and I haven’t watched the SATC reboot, so I have no opinion on it.
HankHarris
It was a rocky road and not everything – or most of it – didn’t work but I do like they tried? Maybe they’ll learn from this season. 50-something women in NYC is interesting but they need a complete change in the writers room.
LilMesican
And just like that, I would love to see a second season.
I don’t miss Samantha, she was fun to watch when I was in my 30s. Using her one-liners. Like the characters, I grew up and some friends moved away.
I have several folks in my circle of friends that came out late in life so Miranda’s story is true for many.
At 51 I’ve had folks close to me die so watching Carrie doing her best to move forward hits close.
It is not supposed to be the show we watched it’s a new version.
BigJohnSF
It will be a challenge to write the first episode of season 2 – Carrie and Samantha made a date for drinks in Paris the next evening. Without the elderly Kim Cattrall appearing, how will they handle that? Che has moved to LA – Miranda just has to come home. I love these characters, and would love to see more of them.
carllonghorn
If it is true right-wingers think it is too “woke” to have Nixon play a lesbian, I have to assume they are completely clueless as to this lady’s real life in which she actually is a lesbian and is married to, yes, another woman. Not sure I give a shite what right-wingers think about much of anything really.
Caine
I would like to thank Kim Cattrall. If she had not turned down the movie, we would not have this wonderful 10 episode version (now she can go back to being a self centered POS and slip off into oblivion. As many of you have said – if you are anywhere near their age, you relate to everything. As a New Yorker then and now, I love it.