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‘And Just Like That’ stars respond to Meghan McCain’s damning review

Meghan McCain
Meghan McCain (Photo: Shutterstock)

When And Just Like That dropped its first two episodes last December, former co-host of The View, Meghan McCain, penned a scathing review in her Daily Mail column. She attacked the “misguided, woke reboot of ‘Sex and the City’”, saying it was humorless and left her “simultaneously disappointed and depressed.”

She highlighted what she perceived as a “clumsy attempt to reformat the show into the woke and puritanical times we are living in.” This included lead character Carrie being on a podcast with someone who is, “of course—queer and nonbinary. Because it’s so boring and un-evolved to be a straight white woman.”

“The supporting cast exhibits commendable racial and identity diversity, but we don’t learn much about their characters.

“It’s almost if they were written into the script to satisfy the PC censors.”

McCain concluded, “It is wokeness superficially shoved down your throat to make a point about wealthy white liberal women ‘evolving’ into the political climate of 2021.”


The reboot has divided opinion, but many fans of the show—which has now ended its run—are eagerly hoping it’s recommissioned for a second season.

Related: Sarah Jessica Parker talks about Samantha Jones to Andy Cohen

Last week, on his Sirius XM podcast, Andy Cohen asked the leading cast members specifically about McCain’s criticism that the show had become “too PC”.

Nicole Ari Parker, who plays Lisa Todd Wexley, said, “What’s too much? Maybe in your living room or when you step outside, it looks the same as inside, and you go to the grocery store and it’s the same. Maybe it is too much for you. For these characters in New York City, it’s not.”

Kristen Davis, who plays Charlotte, agreed, adding that they’d done something with the show that had not been tried before.

​​“We took our characters, we put them in a different show with a different name, we brought in new people,” she explained. “I can’t think of another situation where someone has done that with a show. … People don’t know how to think about it.”

Related: Bad news for all you ‘And Just Like That’ hate watchers

Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, said that people forget that the early episodes of Sex And The City proved very divisive, with some people reacting badly to its portrayal of women.

“People forget how incendiary the show was, and how… not just only because of the sexual frankness and conversations, but how revolutionary this was to show four women having a lot of sex with a lot of different partners,” she said.

“I remember so well the initial chatter about the show, at least the first couple of seasons, [people saying] these are not really women, women don’t really have sex like this, women don’t talk like this, these are not women, these are gay men in drag.”

Nixon concluded, “This is a show that has always pushed every kind of boundary, and I think that’s what’s so magnificent about the new show.

“We don’t want to see these characters … comfortable. We want to see them out of their comfort zones.”

Nixon said the original, “beloved” Sex And The City was now “enshrined in nostalgia,” suggesting some people will always react to any tinkering of its formula or change in the characters.

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