Fifty-Plus and Fabulous? Carrie and Co Have Been Reduced to Shadows of Their Former Selves

Then there’s Miranda, the ballsy lawyer who could identify a “he’s just not that into you” scenario a mile off, but who is now so fearful of asking her partner, Che, what’s bothering them that she convinces herself their relationship is nothing more than sex. Who can’t make her mind up about whether to get a robot tattoo, and is pathetically grateful to the owner of the parlor for having the most cursory of salesman-like conversations with her.

And what about Charlotte, who is too nervous to tell her own husband, Harry—a man not known for taking offense over anything much—that he’s not her date to the Met Ball. We’re supposed to believe that these two have been married for 17 years, yet they can’t seem to untangle the simplest of crossed wires?

The characters in the original series regularly lacked self-awareness, but they were less inhibited and clumsy than this. And even their messiest moments were handled with humor. I know that people can evolve as they get older, but Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte seem to have devolved.

Of course, there are moments in life—whatever age you are—when your confidence deserts you, your certainty wavers and you do care very much what other people think of you. Arguably some of those are being explored onscreen, from grief to sexuality to being on the brink of an empty nest. Not to mention that the characters are presumably menopausal.

The more years that roll by, the more of such rough patches you will have experienced. That stuff teaches you how to survive, but also strips you of patience—meaning you basically have less time to tolerate other people’s nonsense. It’s why friendships can fracture, when those people on whom you thought you could rely simply don’t show up in the hard moments, or make your crisis all about them.

As the author of a book on female friendship, I spoke to dozens of women in their 50s, 60s, 70s… even 90s, and I know that friendships can suffer from miscommunication at any stage of life. In fact, the only realistic cause for self-doubt among the characters of *And Just Like That—*the group’s failed friendship with Samantha—is not explored, or even mentioned, in the first few episodes of the new season.