By now, you have surely heard that the creators of the new Sex and the City series, And Just Like That…, have taken the coward’s way out. In January, when news broke that the new limited series would begin shooting this spring for HBO Max, one enormous question lingered above all others: does Carrie still think everyone you email can see you through your computer? But a second, less-pressing question also rang out in our collective hearts: how could HBO reboot SATC without Samantha Jones, given Kim Cattrall's well-documented disinterest in reprising the role of Samantha Jones? How would one of TV’s few genuine ensembles work without one-quarter or its team? You’re gonna reunite the Beatles without George? (For the record, Carrie is John, Miranda is Paul, and Charlotte is Ringo, because she just thinks the world would be nicer if more people were willing to sing fun little songs about octopi.)
Last week, we finally got our thoroughly underwhelming answer to how the show will broach the notable absence: Samantha will be written off the show, with the explanation that the character just… stopped being friends with everyone. As HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys explained in an interview with TVLine:
Just like in real life, people come into your life, people leave. Friendships fade, and new friendships start… the friends that you have when you’re 30, you may not have when you’re 50.
This is nonsense, and not just because it is a scientific fact that if you stop being friends with someone in New York City, you will run into them literally everywhere, including your own bathroom. It’s also a tragic and underwhelming end for an American icon. Samantha Jones taught us about freedom, sexual independence, and also sex swings! She showed us it was okay to have your own values instead of being shamed by society! Yes, she said “Lawrence of my Labia,” but I think she was probably just jet-lagged and didn’t mean to! And she deserves more. And we, the people who have loved her, deserve more, too.