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The ‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 teaser is out & we dissected every absurd moment

Sarah Jessica Parker in And Just Like That...
Sarah Jessica Parker in And Just Like That... Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

It has been a little over 24 hours since HBO Max released the first official teaser trailer for the upcoming second season of And Just Like That…, and like noted thought leader Carrie Bradshaw-Preston, we have some thoughts.

First, a little refresher on the Sex and the City reboot—or is it a sequel? The highly anticipated series premiered in late 2021 and despite being almost universally mocked, was a big hit for the streamer. Even die-hard fans were vocal about the fact that the show was pretty ridiculous, taking beloved characters in infuriating directions, clumsily shoe-horning people of color into the original show’s very white cast, and being generally clueless about…the world.

But that didn’t stop fans from devouring every episode and clambering for more. While critics wrote off the show, the reaction to the series from fans pretty much boiled down to something along the lines of “This show is terrible, but I would watch 100 million episodes of it!”

Now, more than a year since the first season ended, HBO Max has announced that And Just Like That… will return in June, and while set photos have been popping up all over the internet for months, revealing notable guest stars and, perhaps more importantly, outfits, the new teaser represents our most extensive look yet at what the new season has in store.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

From the top, we get a voiceover from star and executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker delivering a classic Carrie Bradshaw bromide about friendships or whatever. Notably, Season 1 of And Just Like That… largely eschewed the character’s ubiquitous narration. Could the presence of Parker’s voiceover in the teaser be an indication that the show is bringing it back in Season 2?

The trailer is also stacked with classic Sex and the City scenes of all the characters out to lunch or dinner at fancy restaurants. So, like, unsurprisingly the new season is continuing to propagate the fantasy that grown-ass adults with families, jobs, etc. who all live in different New York City neighborhoods are just magically able to coordinate weekly meals together. Which, honestly, feels toxic. Like, what would I not give for just one scene of Carrie texting all her friends asking them to hang out and they’re all like, “Can’t sorry,” or “Maybe in three months,” or just fully not responding.

But interestingly, it looks like these group outings are going to feature more varied configurations of the new show’s characters than in even the previous season. In Sex and the City, Carrie, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) were an insular little clique who never even invited their gay besties to their brunches.

In Season 1 of And Just Like That…, the remaining trio (Cattrall famously refused to return for the reboot) occasionally branched out, including Mario Cantone’s Anthony or one of the core group’s new non-white friends in their four-tops. But the show’s women of color — Sarita Choudhury’s Seema, Nicole Ari Parker’s Lisa Todd Wexley, and Karen Pittman’s Dr. Nya Wallace — were largely siloed off into their own or one of the three leads’ storylines. The trailer seems to suggest that these three characters are going to be much more integrated into the group.

Which could make for some interesting dynamics. Choudhury and SJP had great chemistry in Season 1, but she hasn’t yet been given a chance to really mix it up with the rest of the cast. Nicole Ari Parker meanwhile brings a ton of effervescent energy to the show, and judging from a scene in the teaser in which she and Charlotte explain a “MILF list” circulating at their kids’ school, she fits right in with these ladies. Pittman, on the other hand, brings a quieter energy to her character, and it remains to be seen how her more reserved character bounces off the others.

And then there’s the Che Diaz of it all. Sarah Ramírez’s nonbinary character is one of the new series’ most controversial additions, with fans objecting to their affair with Miranda and finding them just generally off-putting. It’s telling that Che is barely in this teaser, with Nixon’s character (triumphantly once again a redhead!) simply mentioning a “big step” for the two of them.

Also, who is this?

A male character in And Just Like That

That’s not Bradley Cooper, surely. Maybe it’s…Jackson Maine? Like, does And Just Like That occur in the same cinematic universe as A Star is Born. And…Cooper’s character has been…raised from the dead? No, none of that is right. Who knows!

What else? Carrie, now a podcaster, has apparently been having “exit out of grief sex” with her producer, who she randomly smooched at the end of Season 1. Which, you know, good for her? But the smart money is probably on that guy, like, barely being a character. Like, what even is his name? Odds are he gets phased out pretty quickly — leaving Carrie producer-less and maybe with a workplace harassment suit to deal with? — because, oh god, this show is determined to revisit Carrie’s cursed relationship with toxic “nice guy” Aiden (John Corbett).

(Sidebar: Doesn’t Aiden, like, have a kid or something? Carrie Bradshaw hates kids! Can you imagine being like, “Meet your new step-mommy, Carrie Bradshaw! She will surely bankrupt us buying shoes!”)

That’s the big “reveal” at the end of the teaser: Aiden’s back, so that’s something we’ll all have to deal with when And Just Like That… returns in June. Don’t worry, though. We’ll all get through it together! And, God help us, we may even enjoy it.

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