A short list of things nobody asked for in 2021: coronavirus clusters, the storming of Capitol Hill and, quite possibly, a new Sex and the City series. But when the trailer for it dropped on Tuesday, that’s exactly what we got.
And Just Like That, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, who all promoted it on their Instagram feeds, drew a hefty amount of cynicism, not least because one of its four original characters, Samantha Jones, (Kim Cattrall) would not be appearing. Then, there were derisive murmurs about how a show centring on the petty grievances of three very privileged, very wealthy, middle-aged white ladies could stir the excitement of viewers when the country it is set in has, to date, suffered 385,000 deaths from the worst pandemic in a century.
Sex and the City’s original cast: Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes and Kristin Davis as Charlotte York.
Filming will reportedly begin in the northern spring – that’s March. So will creators of the show that spawned one mediocre, and one appalling sequel, simply pretend coronavirus doesn’t exist? What about the biggest civil rights protest of our time, Black Lives Matter? Will that get a mention beyond a bad pun? Celebrity commentator, Lainey Lui has said that this instalment is for no one except the “Karens” – those middle-aged, self-important, suburban women, who once knocked back Cosmopolitans like water and now complain about having to wear a face covering.
But… I couldn’t help but wonder… is there a way to save Sex and the City? Is it possible to make what was once a taboo-busting show about the nocturnal lives of witty sophisticates as cool as it was when it hit HBO in 1998?
