‘If i had tried to duplicate the memory everyone had, it would have been dead on arrival,’ Michael Patrick King tells Grazia emphatically as we begin our discussion about And Just Like That and its expansive response from viewers. ‘Big wouldn’t be the only thing that was dead; the show would have been dead.’
The AJLT showrunner was a writer on the original Sex And The City, responsible for almost every season premiere and finale and more in-between. No one knows Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte better – but that doesn’t mean it was easy to bring them back to life, 17 years after the series ended, for AJLT. Like slipping on a pair of Manolos after a lockdown year in trainers, it took serious strength and tenacity from King and his team to create new characters, new situations and a heartbreak the likes of which these women had never seen.
‘I wanted the show to be familiar but bold,’ says King, speaking from his home in LA – hence the change of name, something that was very important to him. Let other people call this Sex And The City; he wanted a new title to show that this is a new chapter in their lives. In the writers’ room, King looked for the suggestions that caused strong feelings, even explosions, and then tapped into that. He knew that people would be upset about his decision to kill off Big, about the state of Miranda and Steve’s relationship, about Samantha’s absence – but he ran towards those flashpoints.
Remarkably, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis started from the same place. ‘Nobody wanted to repeat,’ as King puts it. They wanted to introduce new characters, with their own arcs and their own concerns, not just glorified cameos while the original three still carried the main story. And SJP knew, from the moment King pitched her on the death of Big, that that would be an ‘earth shaking’ change. ‘She was, as an actress, incredibly challenged and thrilled to be challenged.’ But even King was surprised to realise how moving Big’s death was to shoot, with Carrie holding her husband’s body on the floor of their bathroom. ‘It was like I was having a cold shower. In theory, it’s poetry. Actually filming it, it’s struggle.’
In a show based on friendships, the absence of Kim Cattrall’s Samantha loomed. King never wanted to kill her off (‘I love Samantha!’) but he liked the idea of the remaining trio dealing with the pain of a friend break-up, without seeking to replace her. So initially there’s an empty chair when the ladies go out to lunch – and then a rotating cast of mates, like Anthony (Mario Cantone), Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) and Seema (Saritha Choudhury). By the time Seema dropped in for cocktails and dating chat in episode seven, with Carrie back at her window typing, you might think we were back to SATC business as usual – but we’ve seen how much has changed since.
It’s one of the reasons that King is thrilled that the show is dropping weekly rather than in an all-you-can-view binge: you get a sense of time passing after Big’s death. ‘It’s so elegant to be able to parse it out a little bit’ – and allow people to talk about it, and argue about it, week to week. Arguing is the key word: King says that people were ‘storming the fort with pitchforks’ after Big’s death. ‘All I can say is, maybe they should get in a support group with the women who reacted when we took Aidan away. It’s not reality!’ He reassures us that the team received no literal death threats and takes comfort that the original show didn’t achieve universal acclaim either – and that people are fired up. ‘It’s a great luxury where the audience cares, rather than just let something wash over them on TV.’
So what can we expect in the last episodes? ‘I never say what’s coming!’ teases King. ‘But I like something to be finished and yet left open. So will Carrie date? What’s going to happen with Miranda and Che, with Charlotte, Rock and Harry? Will Seema find someone? Hopefully there will be something that makes you feel satisfied.’
Could we see Carrie and co going and going, into their sixties and seventies? King laughs uproariously. ‘Do I see it going into 55? In my mind, they’ll never stop walking around New York City. Whether we’ll get to see them or not remains to be seen.’
‘And Just Like That…’ is on Thursdays on Sky Comedy and available to stream on NOW