And just like that… we’re back in the saddle with Carrie & Co.

Carrie is experiencing the instability of the podcasting industry, Miranda is in Los Angeles with Che (yes, Che Diaz is still around), Charlotte is grappling with her role as a mom now that her children are bonafide emo teens, and Samantha is still absent (but going to make a one-scene appearance!) Our new leads are finding their footing: Nya is estranged from her musician husband after telling him she doesn’t want to have a baby, Che is filming their ill-fated pilot, Lisa is trying to do it all and have it all, and Seema is being utterly fabulous at practically all times.

Also… they’re all going to the Met Gala for some reason. And boning to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” (except for Nya), in an opening montage so gratuitous one has to assume that it was written as an explicit answer to critics’ concerns that season 1 was oddly sexless for a “Sex And The City” show.

In short, season two of AJLT is both totally deranged and also enjoyable — though its first two episodes, which dropped on June 22, are among the weakest of the seven that were shared with press.

In this episode, we dig into the insanity of those first two episodes — Anna Wintour obviously has to approve Met Gala +1s!!!!! — and also look ahead at what this season of AJLT might promise. Because despite our critiques, of which there are many, there are delights to look forward to: The return of Carrie’s former Vogue editor Enid Frick (Candice Bergen), a Gloria Steinem cameo, some attempts at humanizing Che, and — finally! blessedly! — some sex that’s bad and embarrassing and comedic and brief. The kind of sex that drove much of what made SATC such a fun and special romp each and every episode.

AJLT will never be SATC. It simply can’t be. Too much time has passed, the world has changed too much, the show remains too Samantha-less, and the writers still don’t seem to know what they are trying to say about these women in this stage of their lives. It’s all over the place — “mesmerizing in that wobbliness,” as Vulture’s Jackson McHenry put it. But for those of us who loved the original, there are glimmers of hope in this second season amongst the boatloads of cringe.

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