Review: And Just Like That

 Hi Divas! And she’s back! After Covid, I’m feeling like my old self again. I did some shopping yesterday (this year I purchased gifts as I saw them) and will finish up at some point, with more gifts next week. Grandmother celebrated Christmas into January, and I do the same. 

Going back to work on Monday after being home for two weeks. I’m bored out of my mind! Movies, staying up late, sleeping late, spending nearly all day in pajamas. This was not fun at all, and the transition to early mornings will be interesting. After being bored with movies (I watched so many I could charge myself admission) I decided to watch something different. 

With mixed reviews, the spoilers, and the fans’ opinions of “And Just Like That”, I continued watching the first episode. If you didn’t know, Big died at the end of the first episode, where Carrie was heavily criticized for not calling 911. The saddest part was that the shoes she wore in their courthouse wedding, royal blue Manolos, were next to them in the shower, where Big passed away in her arms. The episode ended with “You Got The Love” by Candi Staton, which played at the end of the series finale. This was here that we learned Big’s first name was John. From the blue Manolos and Carrie’s putting everything into the wedding which brought fear to Big (who can forget Carrie being ghosted at the altar and her beating him in the street with flowers) the song really did symbolize Carrie and Big. 

Following the character’s death, Peleton had a commercial which was recently pulled due to the recent sexual misconduct allegations against Chris Noth. This only adds to more negative reviews about the show, and despite the negativity, I had to watch it.

With a darker tone compared to its light hearted, fun and younger predecessor, “And Just Like That” brings the nostalgia back from three quarters of the Fashionable Foursome, while delivering sadness. Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch, Carrie’s gay best friend, passed away while filming. For me, knowing that he passed makes it hard to continue watching the series, yet the aspect of psychology and the life changes that occur during this stage in life have me intrigued. 

Developmental psychology, which covers human development from birth to old age, teaches us about Erickson’s eight stages of development across the life span. We start our lives as infants learning to trust adults, followed by toddlerhood and autonomy with independence(this is why no is a favorite word of this age group). We then coast through childhood learning about the world and ourselves, then enter our teens with a sense of identity, followed by young adult where relationships and intimacy play a strong part in our lives. Following this stage, we enter the stage of genrativity versus stagnation, where we create families, careers, and other things while contributing to society. Here we may deal with mid life crises, realizations of who we are as a person, plus other unique situations that affect our lives as a whole. Finally, the last stage of life is where we question our lives and reflect on our accomplishments and achievements in an effort to obtain satisfaction. 

If Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte were real people, they would be in the genrativity stage as fifty somethings with adjustments: Carrie is grieving and adjusting to being a widow. Charlotte is raising two daughters, Lily and Rose, with the latter questioning her gender identity. Finally, Miranda is adjusting to a “ ‘mature’ “ seventeen year old son Brady, with a career change and other “changes” (No spoilers given here). The changes that come with this age, along with the question of what will happen moving forward piqued my interest, and if you have an interest in psychology, the show may pique your interest too. 

In college, I wrote about “Sex and the City” for developmental psychology, covering the friendships between the girls and how they relate to Erickson’s stages of development. My teacher did not watch the show, so she didn’t understand it. Once I explained it to her, she not only allowed me to rewrite the paper, she raised my grade. 

Who knew that television was so educational? After all, game shows and soap operas were “school” when we were home sick on the couch as kids in the eighties. 

With Fendi baguettes and love,

Dani