And just like that, we watched “And Just Like That…”!

In this subscribers-only pod, we discuss the return of sad Carrie, problematic Miranda, and boring Charlotte — and, sadly, of “she-lives-somewhere-else-now” Samantha. (This time, she isn’t going to get tired of waiting for Smith under a mountain of sushi and decide to move back to New York.) The pod is, obviously, chock-full of spoilers for the first two episodes, so read no further if you don’t want to find out what happened.

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WHY DIDN’T CARRIE CALL 911?? We ask this question, wonder if we’re being too hard on Carrie, and now conclude that we weren’t hard enough. The first episode of this series is essentially an anti-PSA: it implies that Mr. Big has a heart attack because he’s riding his Peloton (a heart-healthy activity, Peloton would very much like you to know) and then shows Carrie romantically screaming and holding him while he falls unconscious instead of calling for emergency responders and initiating CPR. He could be alive today, a cardiologist told NY Mag! He is alive today, a very savvy last-minute Peloton commercial told the world!

We also wonder where things are going with the show’s very transparent attempts to diversify and address the racial myopia of the franchise’s entire history. Four new BIPOC central cast members are being introduced — the three so far are Carrie’s podcasting boss Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), a queer nonbinary comedian; human rights professor Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), who endures Miranda’s truly horrific white-lady monologue about her braids during the first session of class; and Charlotte’s intimidatingly cool and accomplished fellow private school mom Lisa Todd Wexley, or LTW (Nicole Ari Parker).

It’s heartening that the new series wants to do better — and even, in a way, that the cast and creators are willing to show how gross and harmful the ignorance of its main characters is, rather than normalizing or even justifying the occasional overt racism they showed in previous installments. Mostly, we’re hopeful that giving these new characters their own storylines and perspectives will make them more than learning props for the original three.

Then again, so far evidence for that is limited. Our old colleague Julia Craven argued in her newsletter on the new series, “it felt like the reboot was trying too hard to make up for the social contours they failed to address in SATC—while still trekking into stereotypes—to convince the viewers that the trio has evolved with the times.” Have they evolved? Is the current political moment just making it obvious how unevolved they’ve always been? Are their new friends of color going to “fix” them? We can’t help but wonder.

All that, plus: What was with the fraught meta-conversation about why Samantha isn’t their friend anymore? What makes a funeral chic? Is Carrie terrible at podcasting, and why does she need to be employed by another podcaster when she’s inconceivably wealthy and has a successful media brand? The Manhattan School of Music, Carrie! The Manhattan School of Music!

Hope you enjoy! xo

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We’ve been watching…

“The Sex Lives Of College Girls,” Mindy Kaling’s new HBO Max show about four college freshman from very different walks of life who are thrown together as roommates, and it’s a freaking delight! I got to the end of the 10th episode of the season and was so mad that there wasn’t more. -Emma

If I’ve watched it, there’s been a pod about it — except for “12 Dates of Christmas,” the HBO dating show, and lots of Netflix holiday movies. Exactly as much mindless fun as you’d expect, except for “A Castle for Christmas,” which is excruciatingly boring. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

Sarah Jones’ essay in New York Magazine about Josh Duggar, the oldest son of the Duggar family, the Quiverfull movement-following family who gained fame on TLC through their show, “19 Kids And Counting.” (Duggar was recently convicted of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material, and faces decades in prison.) Jones explores why an extremist, ultra-conservative family found a welcome home in the living rooms of so many Americans, and what it says about all of us. "Hypocrisy and cruelty are as American as the flag,” Jones writes. “The Duggars merely took on the qualities of their environment and perfected them, all for willing audiences." -Emma

Profiles! I have always found celebrity profiles really, really dull, but this is probably a function of the fact that in this era, they’re constrained by a powerful PR industry. Michael Schulman’s recent profile of Jeremy Strong, fueled by in-depth access and lots of frank quotations from Strong’s colleagues and friends, is an exemplar of what the form could be. It’s not exactly flattering — it’s hard not to come away with the impression that, for example, Kieran Culkin loathes working with his costar — but on the other hand, it actually makes him seem interesting. There’s something there to sink your teeth into. Maybe it’s actually the smartest branding play of all.

In a similar vein, Lauren Collins’s riveting new profile of Alison Roman doesn’t sand all the rough edges off the already-controversial food writer and influencer. It astutely diagrams the components of her appeal and the type of public figure she has become, the elements of a Roman recipe, dinner party, and room decor. It follows her through her 2020 explosion of fame during Covid lockdown — and implosion after making glib comments calling Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen sell-outs for collaborating on branded product lines. I left not necessarily liking Roman more (perhaps even less) than I did before, but she was more real to me, more textured. In this day and age, not many celebrity profiles actually accomplish that. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

So much Christmas music! I may be Jewish, but I just threw a holiday party and making the playlist required a lot of very holiday-cheerful research. -Emma

The new season of “One Year,” which is about 1995! Though I was actually alive during this year, most of the stories — big news stories at the time — are completely unfamiliar to me. American students who think they’ve gotten into Oxford only to find they’ve been scammed by a low-rent school in the same city with misleading marketing materials! A popular website claiming to be the dramatic ongoing diaries of a group of hot, arty housemates in Santa Monica, which turned out to be the fictional creation of a group of aspiring screenwriters who worked at an ad agency! There’s also a heartbreaking episode on the suspicion and hostility faced by Muslim Americans in Oklahoma City after the bombing, including a man who became a suspect for no apparent reason. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

These J. Crew tapered leg plaid wool pants. I love a trouser, especially one that comes in petite sizes for us shorties. -Emma

This jewelry-cleaning brush!!! After years of trying various at-home cleaning products for my wedding set, plus occasional quick cleans at jewelry stores, I still wasn’t satisfied with any of the options. This thing is the truth. My ring actually sparkles again.

Also, I have been trying to figure out how to style mom jeans in the winter, and decided to try clog boots. Which are $400, apparently. So I got these Target ones to experiment with, and they’re great?! And hopefully durable, because I’m not sure when I’ll have $400 to spend on clogs. -Claire