【Poland】

Through the six seasons of HBO's Sex and Polandthe City, the show's lead served as both protagonist and narrator. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her voiceover were ever-present, delivering pun-laden commentary from her newspaper column that revealed the inner lives of both herself and her friends.

Full scenes could fly by with the actors just making expressions at each other, with Carrie's narration doing wonders in the background. Whether Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) was contemplating a love affair with a sandwich or Charlotte (Kristin Davis) was wondering whether her first husband was too close to his mother, Carrie was there to ground each story, sometimes even driving said story in the direction it warranted. It was a SATCstaple.

When And Just Like That...,the show's 2021 reboot, was first announced, fans wondered how much of the original — and iconic — material would come into play. The first season struggled to mimic the magic of its predecessor. Plot points were often contrived, less funny than cringe. The Samantha-less ensemble cast expanded, including characters of color in an otherwise white universe, but suffered from tokenism and overexplanation.

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SEE ALSO: And just like that, 'Sex and the City' made a mess of Diwali Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max.

Now, And Just Like That... is back for its second season and some critics have suggested that the show has more closely replicated what enthralled fans of the original show in the first place (a cocktail of sex, fashion, and friendship). Things are certainly not the same, nor would they ever be — the first season made that clear. Much of the dialogue is still questionable (some lines will make you want to fast-forward) but that almost seems to be deliberate at this point. Still, the show is funnier than before; the cast also seems to have found their footing, delivering the right emotional notes. There are plenty of sex scenes that range from awkward to heated, and more frank conversations about race that don't involve educating a middle-aged woman about diversity.

So thankfully, in this second season, some of the SATCmagic that viewers missed is here. A lot is being reprised. Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) is making a highly-anticipated comeback. Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) is also returning, presumably as Carrie's love interest. Even Carrie's former Vogueeditor Enid (Candice Bergen) emerges in a cameo.

Apart from the cast reuniting, there are other blasts from the past. In the first episode of Season 2, for instance, Carrie wears her infamous (and enviable) Vivienne Westwood wedding dress from her botched wedding to Big inSex and the City: The Movie. It feels like a sweet, requested nod to the past, which true SATCfans may just appreciate. The dynamic between Charlotte and her husband Harry (Evan Handler) holds similar value, oscillating between soothing and surprisingly comic.

Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max.

What has also returned is some of the series' signature narration, the trademark Carrie-Bradshaw commentary that bolstered each episode of Michael Patrick King's original series. In this season, each episode ends with a one-liner beginning with the titular words "And just like that...".

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One of the issues with bringing back this SATCstamp? The fill-in-the-blank that follows is hardly noteworthy. The words delivered by Parker are brief, somewhat unnecessary, and add nothing new to the story we've just followed for 42 minutes. The first episode concludes with Carrie's observation, "And just like that, I repurposed my pain." Some of these sentences sound pretty, but in a brand-new universe — with almost too many characters to keep track of — Carrie's words could mean so much more.

Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max.

King told Variety last year that the choice to eliminate Carrie's voiceover in the rebooted series had a purpose.

"I always knew there would be no voiceover, because the thesis of this show is that Carrie has no overview. She’s in it," King explained. "And the fun of Sex and the Citywas that she’s almost looking at it from above, and she’s summing it all up. There’s a writerliness to the show that was all very tidy. Even if it was an ugly moment, Carrie would have a voiceover that could lighten it and give you distance on it and make the audience feel taken care of."

Essentially, Carrie is just one component of the show this time around, King insists. But the narration in SATCaccomplished more than just centering Carrie; her monologues actually gave well-required voice, reason, and perspective to nearly every scene. The series' observations and discussions around sex in your 30s, dating in New York, and maintaining female friendships were only strengthened by the "writerliness" King refers to.

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In AJLT, there is a host of new characters and plots introduced and ongoing. There's Che Diaz (Sara Ramírez), navigating their romance with Miranda and a stand-up comedy career; there's Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), a professor whose marriage seems to be falling apart; there's Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) and her husband Herbert (Christopher Jackson) who are ambitious, wealthy, and ridden with low-stakes family problems; and finally Seema (Sarita Choudhury), a trusted companion to Carrie journeying through being single. Suffice to say: there is so much to keep track of. If anything, a voiceover would have provided welcome explanation to the patient AJLTaudience.

Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max.

This season is an enjoyable watch, sure, and gets better as the episodes progress. Substantial conversations about grief and dating are a welcome surprise, while elsewhere some laugh-out-loud moments with Lisa and Charlotte's kids offer respite. But these contours could have been made stronger with meaningful reflection, with Carrie's columnist voice an easy route to accomplishing this.

By the time each subsequent episode comes around, it's easy to forget what happened in the past, and also easy to sink into a comfortable, easy viewing experience. The many stories of Nya, Lisa, Che, and Seema — not to mention the three SATCstars — might make more sense, and appear less disjointed, if there was a guide telling us why we should care, and why it all really matters. You can almost hear the exact moments Carrie could swoop in with a quip:

"I couldn't help but wonder..."

How to watch: And Just Like That... is now streaming on Max.

Topics HBO