Rich, White and Dumb

The clunky “diversity” of And Just Like That… is making me miss Sex and the City’s blithe Caucasity.

Kristin Davis, Nicole Ari Parker, and Pat Bowie in And Just Like That… (Photo: HBO Max)

Bea Arthur and the back of a Black man in Maude (Photo: CBS)

I’ve got to hand it to the writers of And Just Like That…, HBO Max’s new revival of Sex and the City: When they lean into a topic as loaded and potentially disruptive as race in the city, boy, do they commit. Unfortunately for this viewer, every time an episode of AJLT leans into the intricacies of Black and White, it topples over.

And so it goes — once more — with episode four. The good news: Miranda seems to have overcome her White liberal guilt from the first two episodes, and she’s acting like herself again. The conversation she has with Dr. Nya Wallace, her Black college professor, about juggling kids and career is the best writing of the reboot series so far — and not once do they broach the subject of race. Miranda reveals that she still fantasizes about becoming a judge and going home to an empty house, but those unfulfilled dreams cease to matter the moment she sees her son. And just like that, Miranda reclaims her status as my favorite SATC character.