‘Sex and the City’ revival show lands to mixed reviews

Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are 20 years older, and their beloved New York has been ravaged by COVID-19, but the sassy women are back — without Samantha — in HBO Max’s “Sex and the City” revival, which premiered Thursday.

The hotly anticipated “And Just Like That…” picks up long after the landmark series and two so-so movies left off, with the forever friends taking on a new phase of life — their 50s.

But the series has had mixed reception, with many reviewers ultimately seeing the series as an unsuccessful attempt to recapture what made the original so popular.

New York Magazine wrote that “nothing about the show feels organic; so much about it is painfully forced.” The Washington Post lamented that “this is a series on its back heels: defensive, reactive, terrified to offend.” The Chicago Tribune opined that “the story of Carrie & Friends is perhaps best left in the past.”

There were more positive views too, however. The Independent lauded the show as “brave, unexpected and ultimately rewarding.” The Boston Globe called it “a sometimes awkward, sometimes touching, and always soapy effort to usher the characters into their 50s and the IP into the era of Black Lives Matter and gender awareness.” USA Today said: “‘And Just Like That’ is fancifully, fittingly, frustratingly beholden to its past. But we’ll gladly follow these ladies’ stiletto heels wherever they go next.”

In the 10 new episodes, one-time sex and dating columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is married and learning to work with her podcast co-host (Sara Ramirez) — one of several new characters created to widen the cast’s diversity.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is back in school for a new Master’s degree and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is the uber power mom — a far cry from the characters’ amusing sexcapades that made the show must-see TV in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“We don’t try to make a point of: “Look, they’re mature, they’re better, they’re smarter,'” the Jewish Parker told The New York Times.

“Sex and the City” broke ground with its frank portrayal of female friendships and sexual relationships, spawned fashion trends, and generated tours of locations made famous by the show.

Michael Patrick King, who worked on the original series, returns as a writer and director for the new episodes.

But one major contributor to the success of the original is missing this time — Kim Cattrall, who played the sexed-up Samantha, announced after the second film that she would no longer portray the character.