The second season of And Just Like That, broadcast on Crave, continues to unleash passions. This time, Carrie dropped a line that hit like a bombshell: what if Big was a big mistake? This questioning of the relationship at the heart of the Sex and the City series (and the two films) made many fans react. For what ?
For those who have followed the Sex and the City series since its inception, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) has long searched for the man of her life. She eventually married Mister Big (Chris Noth), who died of a heart attack on the first episode of And Just Like That last year. A grieving Carrie struggles to recover from her death.
With her ex-lover (and ex-fiancé!) Aidan (John Corbett) back on the show, Carrie questions her relationships, including her relationship with the man she married. But for many fans, this questioning is a betrayal.
Cultural journalist Catherine Beauchamp is one of them. She feels like she’s wasted her time for over 20 years of Sex and the City. “It’s unbearable to say that!” Big and Carrie’s relationship was rocky, but they got married, he loved her, he cared for her, she loved him, they were happy, and that was no mistake! We can see their happiness in the first episode of the first season of And Just Like That. His millionaire lifestyle is thanks to Big Millions! “, she says. “She had a missed date with Aidan (which gets on my nerves), but she didn’t like him enough at the time, and she couldn’t see herself living with him. »
Author India Desjardins points out that in her book Mister Big or the glorification of toxic loves, she talks about the authors’ ambivalence regarding the finale of Sex and the City. Producer Michael Patrick King wanted Carrie and Mister Big to end up together, while several of the writers would have preferred Carrie to get out of the relationship.
“Basically, it’s not a very serious questioning, since from the next episode, Carrie talks about her marriage with tenderness and nostalgia,” analyzes the author.
For screenwriter Isabelle Langlois (Let go), who finds the fifties childish and vain, the mistake is to have put her two men back to back. “Aidan or Big?” Big or Aidan? It’s been so long already! It’s hot! And Big can’t get out of his grave! “, she lets go.
India Desjardins agrees. “The problem is that Carrie’s love life has always been presented as a false dilemma. Two archetypes: Big or Aidan. Destructive passion or unsatisfactory comfort. I believe Aidan is coming back to show fans what Carrie’s life would have been like with him. As if she had always had only those two choices. Aidan and Carrie do not have the same values. Aidan is more conservative. And this is what often hangs between them. In fact, we are starting to see some aspects of these differences in values show up, ”she observes.
Screenwriter Fanny Britt rather criticizes the writing of the series. “It’s not a bombshell, it’s the result of very lazy scriptwriting. This is for effect! Same as when Carrie goes out in a snowstorm with a 12ft trolling! “, says the one who can not help but watch the series despite everything.
The latter still believes that the new return of Aidan (because he was in the second film) could have been interesting.
“We find our friends in their fifties who have become (too) gentrified, but what remains of Sex and the City which was in tune with the times and which explored sexual and sentimental freedom, the quest for oneself? All that’s left are beautiful costumes and material things! It’s anti-existential! When it’s an age where there’s so much going on, kids growing up, parents getting old or dying. It’s an existential age, while the series is empty, “laments Fanny Britt.
Finally, doesn’t Carrie deserve new love? A new man in her life? “It’s too easy, this return of Aidan. This is not life, and they will find the same bugs of the time. I don’t think it will last… Why not create another character? A new love? exclaims Catherine Beauchamp.
India Desjardins agrees. “I wish I’d seen her get out of Big or Aidan!” That she encounters a third possibility: an exciting and comfortable romantic relationship. Besides, I have big doubts about the future of Carrie and Aidan. »
The last episode will be offered on Thursday and should be marked by the long-awaited appearance of Samantha Jones, who is greatly missed in the series. “She always represented the maverick, she had another way of seeing things. Despite her upstart side, she was the least bourgeois of the four and it is missing,” concludes Fannie Britt.
