Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) are back along with their ragtag group of both old and new friends. And Just Like That returns for its second season after its first picked up more than 10 years since we last saw the ladies in 2010’s Sex and the City 2. The first season carried on the story without the comical genius of Kim Cattrall as the incomparable Samantha Jones and did a fairly decent job of bringing everyone’s favorite ’00s group into the modern world of gender fluidity, dick pics, and death by Peloton. The first season relied mainly on its novelty, powered through by the nostalgia and excitement of seeing the lives of characters that had been left to the post-credits imagination.
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This season picks up right where the first left off. Carrie is still grieving the loss of Big to a Peloton (which will never not be funny) and is now sleeping with her podcast producer, Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez). Miranda ditches her academic dreams to follow Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) to LA, and Charlotte is still just making her way through the chaos of being a mother to two very modern young people.

RELATED: ‘And Just Like That’ Season 2: Release Date, Who’s Returning & What to Expect

‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Has No Cohesive Plot
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The only way to describe this season is that it’s Saturday Night Live for Gen X white women and gays. While the original Sex and the City did jump from scene to scene, from one embarrassing or comical tidbit to the next, it always found a throughline, typed out and narrated by Carrie for that week’s column. The four main ladies might have had very different experiences throughout each episode, but their conversations over brunch or cocktails always reminded the audience that what they were going through had a universal element. Whether it was moving on from a breakup, giving a second chance to the past, or discovering a new kink in the bedroom, the witty and sharp script always brought it back to a common anxiety or thought that not only touched every single character but the audience too.

And Just Like That Season 2 does not achieve this same effect. Instead, it feels like a compilation of sketches that should be titled “What crazy things did these Gen X rich people get up to today!?” There’s no common thread between any of these interactions. The script is constantly picking up and throwing down random plot points all for the sake of one (usually poorly-written) joke. Miranda orders a spicy curry just so Che can quip about “currylingus,” Charlotte goes on a mission so her husband Harry (Evan Handler) can ejaculate on her. And despite how invested we are in Carrie’s love life, the show seems to go out of its way to take away any substantial plot point and move on to the next before we’ve had any time to invest.

‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Offers No Character Growth or Development
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The weakness of the second season is mostly seen in the characterization. Miranda went on a rollercoaster of personal growth in the first, leaving Steve for Che and exploring her sexuality. This season we see her in a series of embarrassing events, always bumbling and apologizing for cramping Che’s style. The show makes it so easy to forget that Miranda used to be one of the most cynical yet hilarious and caring characters on television — and even though this complete character 180 was noticed and disliked by fans in the first season, there’s no course correction here. Charlotte gets it worse as she’s constantly a visitor in the lives of others. This may change in the last few episodes (this writer has only seen up to seven) but Charlotte deserves better than training Harry in Kegels and running through blizzards to buy condoms for her daughter.

The first few Season 2 episodes drag and feature a string of gimmicky scenes where these crazy cats find themselves in even crazier situations! An anniversary party is only attended by a handful of people because someone didn’t send out the invites! Aw, shucks! We, for some reason, spend what feels like hours with Miranda as she loses her phone. Charlotte spends a whole episode trying to get a Chanel dress back that Lily sold to a website, and for what? To learn that she needs to let Lily grow on her own. There’s no continuity whatsoever, so what’s the point in investing? We know that any emotional moment or any sign of a real story is just going to be undercut by a dated joke in the next scene. So much time is devoted to tiny plotlines with no weight and even less payoff. There’s no weekly column for Carrie to take all the episode’s interactions and tie them in a neat little bow.

While widening the scope to new characters worked to keep things fresh in the first season, Season 2 asks too much of the audience to invest in the admittedly boring domestic lives of characters we don’t know that well. While Sarita Choudhury is an enjoyable girlboss to watch, Karen Pittman attempts to add depth to Nya, and Nicole Ari Parker does her best to make Lisa a compelling character with more hopes and ambitions than a lot of the others, it’s difficult to care about the very minor particulars of their private lives. Due to its constant jumping from character to character, it becomes confusing as to who this story is really about. It’s an overpacked subway with no room for nuance, a decent joke, or any sort of life lesson.

Has the ‘Sex and the City’ Universe Run Its Course?
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As a devout Sex and the City fan, it does feel that this franchise has run its course — and maybe that isn’t a bad thing. The original Sex and the City is one of the most rewatchable shows on the planet. Throw on any episode, and you’ll be met by familiar friends in a world that can only inspire warm nostalgia, and that isn’t a feeling that gets old quickly. As stated, the first season got by on novelty alone, and the introduction of new characters was exciting, particularly Carrie’s new badass BFF Seema (a perfectly cast Choudhury), who does her best to fill the Samantha-filled hole — but that hole has never felt more present than in this season. Among all the unoriginal one-liners and vanilla humor, I was yearning for Samantha to come in and start waxing poetic about the taste of spunk. This season lacks any sort of groundedness and operates on this level high in the clouds with all gag and no real consequence.

As a lot of people reading this will know, Kim Cattrall, in a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan’s hand, is returning in a cameo role for the second season. And while screener allowance did not permit me to see this for myself, if it’s just a cameo, it’s not going to save this season. The original Sex and the City spoke to a higher concept and had a cohesive story that always came back around to what the show was always about — not just Carrie, not just the humor, and certainly not just the affluence. No, it was the friendship between these four deeply loving and caring women. We don’t even get a scene with only Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda in AJLT Season 2. The reason so many people love the original show couldn’t feel further away.

And Just Like That Season 2 reduces some of the greatest characters in television to a punchline only worthy of a Christmas cracker. It strips Carrie of her charm, Charlotte of her earnestness, and Miranda of her sarcastic wit, and puts them through gag after gag without offering any real growth. While the return of Aidan (John Corbett) may satisfy nostalgia-hungry viewers, along with the unexpected Cattrall cameo, Season 2 does a disservice to the legacy of one of the greatest comedy shows of all time.

Rating: D+

Season 2 of And Just Like That premieres June 22 on HBO and Max.