Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell breaks silence over divisive And Just Like That
Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon filming And Just Like That. (Getty)
Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell has revealed she was “startled” by creative decisions made in the reboot series, And Just Like That….
The best-selling author, who wrote the newspaper column and Sex and the City novels that inspired the iconic TV franchise, admitted she was left puzzled by some of the plot choices made in the divisive HBO Max program.
The revival series reunited fans with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) as they navigate their fifties. However, it soon left fans and critics lamenting over storylines such as Miranda’ exploration of her sexuality leading to the breakdown other marriage.
Sharing her thoughts in a new interview with The New Yorker, the 63-year-old writer stated: “I’m really startled by a lot of the decisions made in the reboot.
Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell in April 2021. (William Thomas Cain/Getty)
“You know, it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past.”
Bushnell continued: “HBO decided to put this franchise back into their hands for a variety of reasons, and this is what they came up with.”
When asked if she still related to the characters in the series, the writer admitted that she hadn’t felt connected to the main ladies in a while.
“Not at all. I mean, Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story, or any of my friends’ stories,” she explained. “But TV has its own logic.”
Bushnell added: “I’ve said this, but when the character of Carrie sleeps with Mr Big after he’s married to somebody else – that’s when I felt like the character’s becoming something other [than myself].”
Elsewhere in the chat, the Sex and the City author did praise the racial diversity within the cast of the revival series as she noted that the original series was lacking due to the fact “that was how people cast things then”.
She stated: “It was the way that people in TV were… I don’t think anyone was consciously trying to be nasty about it; they just really didn’t think.”
The first season of And Just Like That… premiered in December 2021 to a mixed response from viewers.
Some labelled its attempts to introduce issues of race as ham-fisted and tone-deaf, while others struggled to watch the “cringe” sex scenes and lamented over the fact the fun nature of the series seemed to be missing.
