Ida Giancola, a 32-year-old fashion influencer from Chicago, thinks “And Just Like That …,” the sequel to “Sex and the City,” is an awful television show.
Among the issues, besides the cringe dialogue, overacting, and plots that come and go with no discernible reason: The nonsensical predicament Carrie has fallen into, reuniting with ex-fiancé Aidan, who says they need to “wait” five years to truly be together, but in the meantime what even is their relationship supposed to be? Charlotte has the children she always dreamed of, but the bratty teens get far more screen time than they should. Then there’s Miranda’s one-night stand with a virgin nun — guest star Rosie O’Donnell! — that she may have engineered mostly for the sake of having a bed for the night, since the former partner in a top New York law firm is inexplicably homeless.
“It’s like a surrealistic art piece,” Giancola said. “Like a ‘how bad can it get?’ sort of thing,”
And yet, she’s excited to watch every week. She chats about the show with her friends. She listens to podcasts that analyze and mock each episode. She and her sister talk on the phone about the ridiculous storylines.
“It’s a completely crazy, topsy-turvy version of something that I love,” said Giancola, whose mom let her rent DVDs of the original series from Blockbuster and now shares her thoughts about the sequel with 136,000 followers on TikTok.
Some might call what Giancola does “hate-watching,” a well-chronicled phenomenon since the new series debuted in 2021. (Viewers nearly revolted against the insufferable Che Diaz — Miranda’s first queer partner, played by Sara Ramirez — who referred to a stand-up comedy act as a “comedy concert.”) But in the middle of its third season, “And Just Like That …,” which airs on HBO Max on Thursdays, appears to have transcended the hate-watch concept to become something akin to a social experiment.
Specifically: What if you take one of the most beloved TV shows in history — a groundbreaking portrayal of four single women in their 30s that helped millions of young viewers shape their identities and ideas about relationships and friendship — and twist it into something unrecognizable?
Will they keep tuning in? For years?