With the same joy and nostalgic tachycardia that the reunion with an old friend causes us, this is how we embrace the return of Sex in New York. Because yes, it is official, its protagonists have returned. All but one. Three of the stars of the late 90s smash hit (Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte, without Samantha) They arrive ready to show that 17 years after the end of the series, nothing and nobody can stop them when it comes to continuing to share stories from the Big Apple. And much less the passage of time.
And is that And just like that … harbors a surprise for its longtime fans, one more special than we could have imagined. Because beyond returning to the sweetened stories supported by the privilege that surrounds each of its protagonists, the reboot bet on teaching a lesson to social stereotypes, age phobics and Hollywood itself. Unlike the special of Friends and the distorted crash of time passing that provoked more than one of us when we saw them older or with excessive aesthetic retouching, this reboot opens the doors to the era of gray hair, wrinkles and age without complexes. And as an aging human being like everyone else, I couldn’t be more grateful.
The first episode of And just like that … It only lasts 42 minutes but they are enough to give reason for its existence. Basically because it makes it clear that it is not a reboot that comes to express nostalgia and remove past stories out of pure commercial whim. No, those responsible for the series know who it is directed to, without forcing stories to attract other generations and being faithful to that audience of the late 90s and viewers who have been joining the phenomenon over the last two decades. In other words, an audience that has also grown and matured under the unbeatable yoke of time. But nevertheless, The most important thing is that the series is faithful above all to its protagonists: women of its era, without mincing words and independent, who, just as they were female roles empowered in their individuality in their 30s and 40s, now do so after 55 .
Because in this continuation Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are the roles that most represent those viewers who met them back in 1998 and who, like them, have also witnessed the inevitable consequences of getting older. Thus, the series does not hide when talking about gray hair and wrinkles, but neither of the generational mismatch, highlighting the discomfort that palpitates after a certain age in the face of the fear of saying the wrong thing and falling into cancellation in full motion woke, as well as the differences between generations when exposing sexual individuality under labels.
From the start of the series, they immediately put the points on the i’s before the most obvious issues: explaining the absence of Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and covering their mouths before the physical appearance of their actresses. For the first they have resorted to borrowing reality, rivaling Samantha with her friends by explaining that she got angry when Carrie fired her as her publicist. Carrie assures that she has written to him, that she has tried to close differences, but Samantha does not respond. More or less the same that was broadcast in the press before Kim Cattrall’s refusal to return to the series, antagonizing Sarah Jessica Parker through statements while the protagonist made kind comments. For the second, they have simply opted for a bath of reality: that gray hair and wrinkles are as real as life itself, that there is no reason to hide or cover them under excessive touch-ups and makeup.
In this way, we see Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) sporting a gray mane, reflecting the stereotype of female beauty according to social labels by questioning whether she should be dyed before starting a master’s at university, where she will surround herself with students much younger than her. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) points out that gray hair makes her look older and that is why she should give them some color (something that the vast majority of women do, either for pleasure or to avoid having a mirror of our age in our heads), to later place Carrie as the voice of empowerment, by making it clear that this is how it is, “Fabulous.”
They laugh at their age, they emphasize that they are all over 55 and they do not hide by leaving the number they have reached in the air (Sarah Jessica Parker turned 56 this year). It is true that they all seem to have some touch-up on their forehead and that Kristin Davis is the one who appears to have undergone the most obvious treatments, but not for that reason they appear less age but they are aesthetic touches that do not force a youthful appearance. In any case, they normalize that there is no reason to stigmatize some other retouching or treatment if, in the end, it makes everyone feel good. They talk about their wrinkles like real-life women and laugh at the passage of time, living as always, not stopping their lives just to get older. They turn their backs, completely, to appearances and what they will say.
Watching the premiere I could not avoid the comparison remembering the visual shock that many viewers felt when watching the special episode of Friends, where the first impact was to see those perennial actors older and excessively retouched because of a series that is still present in our lives under the portrait of each one’s youth. In this continuation of Sex in New York the series invites us to take the witness with the greatest dose of reality possible, speaking of the pandemic and the social changes it imposed, also embracing the physical consequences of simply being alive.
And that embrace of life itself, the passage of time, the naturalness of living as we are, without letting labels judge us -especially women who, like them, have also grown with our wrinkles and gray hair. incipient- It gave me the warmest feeling I have felt in this year of series that is about to end. Because seeing them wrapping age with charisma and a dose of truth serves to feel even more represented, even among the glamor and visual exaggeration with shoes and designer clothes that surround them. That reality of what it means to grow up with friends, with gray hair and wrinkles, feeling unique and fabulous.
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The return of ‘Sex and the City’ and its lesson in how to deal with gray hair and wrinkles