James Weir recaps And Just Like That season two: episode one and two

The new season of And Just Like That has finally dropped. And writers have addressed one thing that angered fans around the world. James Weir recaps.

And just like that … Che’s no longer annoying. Source: Binge/Max

SPOILERS AHEAD

It was the great American scholar Caroline Bradshaw who once said: Seasons change. So do cities.

And, apparently, so does TV’s most hated character.

The second season of And Just Like That premieres Thursday night on BINGE and while fans of Sex And The City’s sorta-reboot will be terrified to know it involves automatic entry into more of Che Diaz’s comedy concerts, viewers can breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Let’s just say, later that night, we got to thinking … and maybe Che Diaz isn’t so bad. At least not in the first two episodes that are available to stream right now.

JAMES WEIR RECAPS:AJLT season one finale

We pick up three weeks after the first season’s finale that ended with Carrie pashing her podcast producer Franklyn. Episode one opens with both of them in bed. Carrie’s sharing her dreams of being Egg Girl. Egg Girl? Yeah. Forget about The Cool Girl – she’s so 2014. Now, it’s all about being Egg Girl.

“Many years ago, I thought I would start poaching eggs,” she says romantically. “I like the idea of eating them in the morning on little toast points, like royalty. But, yeah, didn’t follow through.”

“I support that poached egg dream,” Franklyn replies. “It’s not too late.”

He won’t be so supportive if she starts eating them in bed, like she did with oranges at Big’s joint. Source: Binge/Max

It seems Charlotte has entered her Unannounced House Visits era and, the next morning, busts Carrie poaching eggs with a half-naked Franklyn, who dashes out the door to tend to a podcast emergency. Charlotte clutches her pearls, figuratively and literally. The moment ends with us being gifted the first bit of Carrie Bradshaw wordplay for the season.

“Life’s too short not to try something new… Like poaching an egg,” she tells her surprised friend.

This is what we love most about the Sex And The City episodes of yore: Carrie drawing long bows and attempting to link completely unrelated life events for sentimental purposes. Sure, this egg/Franklyn line is a little weak. Certainly not her best. She could’ve ditched the eggs completely and instead committed to a podcast theme: “Charlotte, men are like podcasts. Sometimes you just wanna listen to one or two episodes before jumping straight in and subscribing.”

If Samantha Jones were here, she’d have zinged it up by saying something like, “Oh, honey, he’s your podcast producer? So, you spend your day talking into his microphone before going home and … talking into his microphone?”

But this is only the first episode and everyone’s still warming up.

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Like an egg, Charlotte’s left scrambled. Source: Binge/Max

Meanwhile, Miranda’s in LA while her lover Che, who uses they/them singular pronouns, films their TV pilot. The AJLT writers are clearly hoping to avoid the debacle of the first season where entire think pieces were being written about why Che Diaz is, well, “the worst character on TV”, as The Daily Beast declared.

The AJLT writers saw the countless memes. They heard us viewers loud and clear. You think Che’s annoying? Noted! We have a solution! The solution: surrounding Che with people who are even more annoying.

Prepare to get annoyed by BD. Source: Binge/Max

BD, the head writer of Che’s sitcom, is just one of these new annoying people. How annoying is BD? Super annoying. Did you not see the blue hair? When put in the same scene together, Che provides relief — tolerable simply by association. With Che visibly annoyed by these new annoying people, we the viewers relate to Che and revel in shared annoyance. It’s basic workplace psychology: nothing unites people like a shared enemy to hate.

As part of the quest to stop audiences hating a fictional character, the AJLT writers have also dumped Che’s infamous “woke moment” button. And they’ve improved the character’s dialogue, so it no longer sounds like ChatGTP is doing a jolty impersonation of a queer person. Most importantly, the word “Rambo” isn’t uttered once.

But the final trick to make us all change our minds about Che? The writers give the character body insecurities.

There’s a scene in bed where Miranda tries to hug Che. Che pulls away and cries.

“I didn’t wanna tell you because of how you’ll feel about me after. I’m on a diet. The costume department told me my belly hangs over my jeans. And that’s why I keep pushing your arms away,” Che says. “I was afraid to tell you because I didn’t want you to think of me as this person.”

They break down. Miranda hugs them. We feel bad for hating Che the past 12 months.

And just like that … Che’s no longer annoying. Source: Binge/Max

Back in Manhattan, Carrie and the girls are going to the Met Gala. Don’t ask. We have zero answers as to how or why they’re all invited. Cue the drama when Carrie’s dress doesn’t fit. But she has bigger problems to deal with: like having to read lame ads about vaginal odour products on her podcast.

She spends hours workshopping the terrible script with Franklyn but it’s no use. The ad still isn’t quite right. Then, in scenes reminiscent of her column writing days in the original Sex And The City series, Carrie perches herself at the desk in the window of her brownstone and pulls an all-nighter, penning three paragraphs for a podcast commercial about vagina cleanser.

‘Later that night, I got to thinking about vaginal odours.’ Source: Binge/Max

She’s on top of the world. Until the next day, when her show gets axed and she single-handedly destroys the entire podcast network. But she can keep hooking up with her hot podcast producer Franklyn … right? No. He unsubscribes from Carrie’s podcast and their fling.

In the Sex And The City episodes of yore, this is when Carrie would’ve sermonised about the break-up in a wistful voiceover filled with more jumbled analogies — probably linking back to eggs.

We’ll take over that duty for her.

Because relationships are like eggs. Some go off before you get a chance to enjoy them. Other times, you wind up with yolk on your face. They can leave your heart cracked, like a shell. Or even scrambled. But, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a good egg. One that inspires you to go out and live your life, free range.

Twitter, Facebook: @hellojamesweir

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New episodes of And Just Like That drop each Thursday at 5pm on Binge.

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