And Just Like That… is the long-awaited successor to Sex and the City, itself one of the most groundbreaking works of fiction in modern history. Not only did it help alter the landscape of Hollywood for professional actresses, it remapped New York City completely.
Sex and the City was sharp, funny, often bewildering. But more than anything, its writing wasn’t just cutting edge — it literally was the whetstone that cutting edge was sharpened against. So what happened with And Just Like That…?
Editor’s note: spoilers ahead!
In the show’s latest episode episode, Lisa Todd Wexley — played by series regular Nicole Ari Parker — experienced the second death of her father. After putting her phone on silent to work with the hot new editor she’s hired for her documentary series, LTW’s husband barges in, informing her that he’d been attempting to contact her while the phone was off. Then, he delivers the news that her father had suffered a stroke and died shortly after, devastating LTW.
Over the course of the episode she butts heads with Lucille Highwater, played by the singular Jenifer Lewis, over her father’s legacy and funeral service. But one scene in particular, where she calls Charlotte to tell her the news, caught fans’ attention over a major continuity error. Watch it below:
Viewers will remember that LTW’s father was first introduced in season two, played by actor Billy Dee Williams, at a high-stakes dinner party. However, as shown in the above clip, LTW reveals in an early season one scene that her father had died the previous year. Last season, when the dinner party scene first aired, longtime Sex and the City fans made a similar fuss over the supposed continuity mistake. It seemingly wasn’t loud enough to cause this current media frenzy, however.
Entertainment Weekly confirmed with sources that the dad mentioned in season one was actually LTW’s stepfather. The father that just passed was her biological dad, bypassing the perceived continuity error pointed out by fans.
It’s not that I don’t believe the sources that spoke with EW. In fact, I find it pedantic to whine about continuity on TV shows worked over by hundreds of people. Art should be flexible, and sometimes plans change. My foremost concern is with the narrative and whether it’s one worth telling at all. Good storytelling is the ultimate goal here, and in the case of LTW’s mysterious double-dad death, the issue ultimately lies with how clumsily both were handled.
Had the original plan been to have both her step-dad and biological dad both die, why not include some dialogue that reveals her differing relationship with both? She’s in desperate need of something that reveals a facet of the character that helps audiences understand her better, outside the single-minded workaholic she’s been written as. It’s an issue that runs parallel to other bewildering plotlines this season, like Carrie’s relationship with Aiden, Miranda’s continued homelessness, the disappearance of Ché and even Charlotte’s seeming electroshock therapy in-between series.
It’s as if the writers believe the legacy of these characters are enough to carry this show, absent any of the writing that made them so dynamic in the first place. Carrie Bradshaw without the affairs and The Way We Were quotes and cigarettes and grit isn’t Carrie Bradshaw, she’s just some lady who’s friend has two dead dads.
Photo via Getty