SATC fave’s nightmare wardrobe accident

The latest episode of the Sex And The City reboot sees demure Charlotte experiencing an unfortunate wardrobe mishap while wearing white overalls in a situation that’s almost more unwelcome than an invitation to a Che Diaz comedy concert.

It’s the penultimate episode of And Just Like That. It feels like so much has happened and also nothing at all. Will next week’s finale set us up with solid foundations for a second season? If not, maybe we could just do a prequel about ageing New York City party girl Lexi Featherston, with the series following her colourful life in the ‘90s up until she fell outta that window in the final season of the original Sex And The City.

JAMES WEIR RECAPS: Read all the recaps here

And Just Like That continues to be built on lies.

“I’m obsessed with your podcast,” Carrie’s young, hip downstairs neighbour Lisette says of Che Diaz’s insufferable audio offering, X, Y and Me.

My response to this is exactly the same as the one I had to Finding Nemo: That is just unrealistic.

In the And Just Like That universe, most things don’t need a reason.

Exhibit A: Charlotte invites her gay best friend Anthony over for dinner with his new boyfriend, who no one has ever met. It’s a Friday night, which — in the York Goldenblatt residence — means it’s Shabbat.

“Oh! Is this a Jewish dinner?” the boyfriend says upon meeting Charlotte and Harry. “You know, the Holocaust is a hoax, right?”

“Get out!” Anthony screams at the ceiling.

The boyfriend disappears and the moment is never referred to again but that’s OK because we have to run to the bathroom and watch a montage of Charlotte teaching her daughter Lily how to insert a tampon.

Remember in the first SATC movie, when there was that fun wardrobe montage of Carrie cleaning out her closet and trying on all those different outfits while RUN DMC’s Walk This Way played in the background? Yeah, the tampon montage isn’t like that.

Speaking of periods, Charlotte makes an announcement about her own.

“Remember how I was still getting my period very regularly after you guys had stopped getting yours? she tells the gals over brunch.

Carrie raises an eyebrow. “It has been so long since we’ve heard from Smug Charlotte.”

“Well, I think I’m done,” Charlotte says decisively, in the same tone she used when she declared she would stop working at the art gallery full-time.

“I haven’t gotten my period in four months — so, I think I’m finally in menopause! It’s funny … I haven’t gotten any hot flashes or breast tenderness or brain fog — or any of those awful symptoms you guys had.”

Uh-oh. We all know what that means. In the And Just Like That universe, if you make a proud declaration like that, it will come back to bite you by episode’s end.

But before the writers embarrass Charlotte, they want to humiliate Miranda first. So they make her show up at Che’s unannounced, armed with cookies and terrible dialogue.

“I was studyin’ at the library and was cravin’ me some Che,” she says with sexy confidence.

But, it seems, Che’s not cravin’ them some Miranda. They’re busy writing more *ahem* comedy *ahem* and wasn’t prepared for a visitor.

Miranda runs off down the hall, cursing herself with words I’ve often said to myself.

“I’m so f**king stupid. Who am I, Meg Ryan? F**k!”

All these scenes are a build up to the main event of the episode: a volunteer day at a women’s shelter in Brooklyn where Miranda has recruited her pals to help paint walls.

Charlotte rolls up in a limousine.

Of course, Carrie dresses inappropriately and destroys expensive shoes.

A subplot of this episode is Carrie getting comfortable with the idea of not wearing her wedding ring. It’s thoughtful and important, but overshadowed when we start wondering why AJLT is not just a 10 episode series of Seema sitting on sidewalks while smoking and brushing off the advances of hot men who drive convertibles.

And with five minutes left of the episode, it feels like the writers are about to have Mrs York Goldenblatt’s smug brunch comments come back to bite her.

In five, four, three, two …

“I think you got a flash period,” Miranda tells Charlotte as they all huddle around her and cover her behind with a jacket. “It happened to me once, months after I thought I was done. I was arguing a case in court and the opposing counsel literally signalled me to look at my ass.”

And just like that, Charlotte goes home to soak her white overalls, and Seema cuts the line at a hot Brooklyn club where she continues to be the true star of the show.

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Originally published as James Weir recaps And Just Like That episode 9