"It's the shit I keep coming back to," said Alison Herman in Variety of one memorable scene in the finale of "And Just Like That...", yet her words could also reflect the withering reviews the series' final episode has drawn.
The much-maligned "Sex and the City" reboot had already seen one character seemingly killed off twice and another wet the bed, but several reviewers felt the finale plumbed unforeseen new lows.
'Moronic and confusing'
After a rocky start, "And Just Like That..." morphed into something decent, offering a "warm, absurd escapism" that "slipped down like a classic Cosmopolitan", said Hannah J. Davies in The Guardian. But "how, dear God, do you wrap it all up"? Messily, it seems. The "crescendo" moment is a toilet overflowing with "lots and lots of poo". Can a "faecally charged party" really be the "intended finale" to the whole franchise?
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The "explosion of actual poop" invited parallels with the reboot's "shitty storylines", and was relatively apt, said David Opie on Radio Times. The end was a "rushed, stunted mess" that upped the ante for how bad the series has been at times, but at least it's over, so liberating "the cast and us alike" from "what can only be described as a legal form of torture".
The finale was "abominable", and a "mortifying last stand for a franchise that many of us once adored", said Adam White in The Independent. "By turns moronic and confusing, unfunny and hateful", it could have been "edited with a hacksaw". But having now said goodbye to Carrie Bradshaw and co – for all of those who loved you, "you deserved better".
'Bold and refreshing'
Perhaps it was fitting that the show ended in the "offbeat, uncanny way it began", said Herman in Variety, even if it meant that characters we've known for more than a quarter of a century got a "somewhat abrupt goodbye". At least the series stayed true to the very last.
The finale "dared" to give Carrie the ending that "Sex and the City" didn’t, said Alex Abad-Santos on Vox. The climax of the original betrayed the show's "heart and soul" by ditching its positive philosophy that our best friends are "the true matches we should be so lucky to find in this world". Instead, the "four soulmates" all ended up married or "exclusively committed" to men, who were "nowhere near as magical as they are".
But at the end of "And Just Like That...", Carrie "finally stumbled upon the realisation" that she "never needed marriage, romantic love, or maybe even sex", for her life to be "fabulously beautiful". The ending was what she and her friends had over the years told us to believe in.
In 2025, single women are "still treated like broken parts that need to be put back together", said Olivia Petter in British Vogue, particularly if they dare to age beyond their late 20s. So, ending the show with Carrie single feels "a bold and deeply refreshing choice".
After a slice of pumpkin pie and "a turn on the karaoke machine she once resented", Carrie found happiness, said Opie on Radio Times, and with it the realisation it doesn't "come from being loved" but rather "from loving yourself, and that's true no matter how old you might be or where you are in life".
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