King Defends 'And Just Like That' as a Show Built to 'Age Well'
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- Michael Patrick King told The Guardian that "And Just Like That…" will "potentially age well" and achieve cult status, drawing a direct parallel to his satire "The Comeback," which was initially perceived as a failure before growing in relevance as "the world caught up."
- The three-season HBO Max requel ran from 2021 to 2025, with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon reprising their roles as Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda — a majority of the original "Sex and the City" core cast.
- King framed the show's central tension as society telling 55-year-old women they "shouldn't be wearing tulle," mirroring the original's pressure on 35-year-old women to be married — part of his stated mission to write "the individual vs. society."
- King acknowledged the show was "largely panned by critics and fans alike," though he noted that a "significant portion of viewers found delight in hate-watching."
- King said the core fan resistance came from a "particular dilemma" for revivals: "fans don't want their characters to change — they want to see them frozen in the time they fell in love with them."
- King argued it would have been a "great disaster" if "And Just Like That…" had tried to replicate "Sex and the City," saying it's "much better to come back, break it and be a new show, even though you're going to get hit with, 'We like the other show better.'"
- The third season of The Comeback, King's satire starring Lisa Kudrow, is currently airing on HBO, per the source.
Why it matters: King's defense reframes the show's critical panning as an intentional creative choice — deliberately breaking from the original rather than replicating it — even at the cost of alienating the existing fanbase. The "Comeback" comparison is a long bet: that show took years to be reevaluated, and King is now publicly betting AJLT gets the same second look from audiences.
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