The highly-publicized SEX AND THE CITY reboot premieres on December 9th on HBO Max. By now, the ladies who lunched are older. One or more may have received a birthday greeting from AARP. The reboot is called AND JUST LIKE THAT... When, months ago, I first read that a reboot was in the works, my immediate thought was "I bet Carrie Bradshaw finally discovers that there are sophisticated Black and Latino people in Manhattan who are also worthy of a fancy lunch."
I watched SEX AND THE CITY when it was new on HBO. By the third season, my weekly devotion to it started to wane. First of all, in the 25 years I lived in New York, I had female friends who were newspaper or magazine columnists. There were several times when I got a call from one -- or more -- of them and heard "I need to reschedule our dinner for tonight, I'm on deadline and working on a story." I totally understood and we rescheduled. Did Carrie ever have that kind of typical New York City journalist occupational drama? Did she ever do more than one draft of an article she was writing?
I knew that my NYC gay membership card stood a good chance of being revoked but, when gay White buddies were raving about the most recent fabulous episode, I found myself asking "Do those ladies have parents? Siblings? Other relatives? If they do, why don't we hear about or see them?"
Then came the big question I'd started to ask about WILL & GRACE, a sitcom set in a downtown New York City apartment. Will lived just a few blocks from my apartment. The question: "Do they have any Black or Brown friends? They're in New York City!" I encountered Black, Brown, Asian and White people every week of my Manhattan life just leaving my apartment building to go around the corner and grab a bite at the diner. Sitting in the diner, I saw more Black, Brown, Asian and White people.
Did you see the WILL & GRACE reboot? It was as racially diverse as the audience at a Janet Jackson concert.
We didn't see lots of Black and Brown New Yorkers as Carrie's buddies and upscale party guest dates on SEX AND THE CITY. Here's a trailer for AND JUST LIKE THAT... starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis.
A new -- and apparently colorful -- chapter begins December 9th on HBO MAX.
One last thing. Kim Cattrall, who played sexy and sex-loving Samantha in the original quartet of lead ladies, is not in the reboot. Cattrall went on to do some of the best acting of her career in a 2014 to 2016 HBO Canada series called SENSITIVE SKIN. Cattrall was fantastic showing her dramatic depth as the sophisticated, wry former model who is now dealing with being 50, a middle-aged wife and the mother of a grown son, Cattrall was such a revelation and so stunning in SENSITIVE SKIN that I felt for her to return to playing Samantha would be like asking Sally Field to appear in a reboot of GIDGET. She'd outgrown the role.
If you can find episodes of the mature, smart, well-written and racially inclusive SENSITIVE SKIN on Acorn TV (with Prime Video Channels) or on Amazon Prime Video, I enthusiastically urge you to watch Kim Cattrall at her best. Here's a trailer. Broadway Tony winner Joanna Gleason is terrific as the conservative sister to Cattrall's character.
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