And Just Like That Is Objectively Bad TV — So Why Can I Not Stop Watching?

A funny thing happened when And Just Like That... first premiered in 2021. We were sequestered in our homes amid a national, government-mandated lockdown and we were, on the whole, lonely. The best antidote for loneliness turned out to be tuning into the long-awaited and desperately yearned-for Sex and the City sequel, if the debut season's viewing figures were anything to go by — an average of 1.1 million households tuned into the show during the live-plus-three-day viewing period.

Enter hate-watching...

And Just Like That... was then commissioned again for a sophomore season and before that second series had even aired, HBO Max greenlit a third. It appeared, on the surface at least, that the show had been a hit — except, despite And Just Like That...'s proliferation, there was a bubbling consensus that the show was actually bad. Very, very bad. Criticisms were bandied around the internet that the show had become too 'woke', and that it had diluted the magic of its predecessor. The BBC called it 'awkward' and 'clumsy'. A publication called it 'painful.' It is all of these things — and will no doubt continue to be in the upcoming third season — yet I'll still be watching. Why do I keep coming back to And Just Like That..., a show that I bemoan every chance I get? The answer lies in the concept of hate-watching.

Let me explain — when I left home for university at the age of eighteen, the four Manhattanites whose stories formed the backbone of Sex and the City became my family. The way some people had Friends on a loop, I had Sex and the City and the escapades of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. We laughed together, we cried together. We grew up together (by the time I finished university, I'd finished the entire show three times over.) These women's journeys of acquiring relationships, friendships, luck and success whispered to the kind of life I was haplessly trying to carve out for myself. The show was frothy and fun, light-hearted and pithy, yet never without moments of genuine pathos peppered throughout.

When Big died while on a Peloton (possibly the worst product placement of all time), I felt it. When Miranda returned to College for a master's degree, only to spend her day assaulting her younger classmates with microaggressions, I felt it. The feeling was that the show that I loved no longer existed. The magic of Sex and the City had gone, yet these women who had bookmarked so much of my life were still here, they were still there. The women whose advice I'd gleaned while attempting to mend my own broken teenage heart, whose pearls I'd collected and ventured through my life holding near to me. And it's because of those women that I can't let go of And Just Like That..., even if I have reluctantly become a hate-watcher.

I can date my habit of hate-watching these fictional characters I've spent years loving and quoting back to 2021. Hate-watching is defined by Merriam-Webster as the activity of watching a television programme for the sake of the enjoyment derived from mocking or criticising it, and I hate that this has become the state of my parasocial relationship with these fictional characters who defined most of my 20s. Yet it is. When Big died while on a Peloton (possibly the worst product placement of all time), I felt it. When Miranda returned to College for a master's degree, only to spend her day assaulting her younger classmates with microaggressions, I felt it. The feeling was that the show that I loved no longer existed. The magic of Sex and the City had gone, yet these women who had bookmarked so much of my life were still here, they were still there. The women whose advice I'd gleaned while attempting to mend my own broken teenage heart, whose pearls I'd collected and ventured through my life holding near to me. And it's because of those women that I can't let go of And Just Like That..., even if I have reluctantly become a hate-watcher.

The third season of And Just Like That... will return to the small screen on May 29 and I, along with many others, will be tuning in. What helps to remember is that the show isn't a continuation of Sex and the City, but rather an evolution of it. Something that's different, more mature in many ways and less so in others. Yet as with most things, including our four favourite New Yorkers, where there's history, there's love, and it's for that reason that May 29 is pencilled in my diary. I've got a date with my girls, after all. Even if they do drive me mad now.

And Just Like That will premiere on HBO Max or NOW TV on May 29.

ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.

Read the original article in ELLE UK.