(New York) They are now only three, in their fifties and evolving in a New York marked by the COVID-19 pandemic: HBO Max broadcasts from Thursday a new season of the phenomenon series Sex and the City, renamed And Just Like That.
The professional, sentimental and sexual adventures of the New York columnist Carrie Bradshaw, and her friends, had marked in the late 90s and in the 2000s the history of television series and the HBO channel, like other big hits such as Sopranos.
Glamorous chronicle of Manhattan, through the stories of professionally fulfilled women who do not seek at all costs to start a family, the six seasons, followed by two films, have made it a phenomenon: in New York, you can now visit the places emblematic of the series, whose clothing trends have also fueled fashion websites and magazines.
PHOTO CAITLIN OCHS, REUTERS
Kristin Davis plays Charlotte York
“I think what Sex and the City brought to women […] is truly a message of feminism, which talks about the importance of being independent, of being financially independent, and of seeking to become your own ‘Mr Big’ rather than seeking to marry ‘Mr Big’, ”explained to AFP American novelist and journalist Candace Bushnell, whose chronicles in the New York Observer, then the book in 1996 had inspired the series at the beginning.
This week, the author played on the boards in New York her last show, Is there still sex in the city.
In the ten new episodes airing on HBO Max starting Thursday, the four friends are down to three, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), the character of Samantha Jones ( Kim Cattrall), known for her cult lines on sex and men, having been withdrawn from the cast. The first episodes were written and directed by Michael Patrick King, who has been at work since the start of the series.
PHOTO CAITLIN OCHS, REUTERS
Cynthia Nixon plays Miranda Hobbes
According to HBO Max, “their life and their friendship are even more complicated at 50”. “We didn’t try to say, ‘Look, they’re more mature, smarter,” Sarah Jessica Parker explained in the New York Times.
A trailer shows Carrie, now a couple, hosting sex podcasts, and features new characters played by black and Latino actresses (Sarita Choudhury, Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pittman, Sara Ramirez), in “a city that reinvents itself ”.
Celebrated for its feminist message, Sex and the City had been criticized for only portraying white heroines.