Sarah Jessica Parker brushed off all the backlash over her latest show and believes Carrie Bradshaw, the character she first brought to life nearly three decades ago, got the ending she deserved.
The 60-year-old actress said she doesn’t “care” about the criticism over And Just Like That, which aired its season finale this month on HBO Max.
“It was the worst series ever,” critics said about the show.
Sarah Jessica Parker responded after her series And Just Like That received a wave of backlash
Sarah revived her role of Carrie Bradshaw for And Just Like That—the revival and sequel series to the widely popular Sex and the City.
The original cast, minus Kim Cattrall (who played Samantha Jones), was brought together in 2021 for And Just Like That.
The show became HBO Max’s most-watched series debut upon release. However, the viewership dwindled over the span of three seasons. Showrunner Michael Patrick King announced that the show wouldn’t return for a fourth season.
After the season finale came out this month, Sarah was asked whether she knew about fans describing the show as a “hate watch.”
“I don’t think I have the constitution to have spent a lot of time thinking about that,” she said during a New York Times interview.
“We always worked incredibly hard to tell stories that were interesting or real,” she continued. “I guess I don’t really care.”
“I guess I don’t really care,” the 6x Golden Globe winner said about the hate
“The reason I don’t care is because it has been so enormously successful, and the connections it has made with audiences have been very meaningful,” she added.
Sarah, an Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award winner, was also asked about why the show was ending now.
“Because that’s where the story ended,” she replied.
“We could have gone on doing coffee shops. There’s a million ways to do it that are easy and familiar and fun, but feel exploitative to us,” she continued. “We felt this was the honorable thing to do.”
She said it would have been “easy to stay” because it’s a place “[they’re] all happy” with.
“But you have to be principled when you make these very difficult, agonizing decisions because there’s a lot of people who are affected,” she added.
Sarah said she never scrolled through Instagram to check out fan reactions to the show
The 6x Golden Globe winner said she “never” scrolled through social media to check out fan reactions to the show.
“I don’t have the constitution for that, because I think you’re going to perhaps read things or hear things that don’t always feel great,” she told People ahead of the finale.
She said viewers would certainly have “a lot of feelings” when they are part of such a community.
“It doesn’t mean that a feeling can’t change, it’s a reaction,” she said. “We want very much for people to have all those feelings, and it’s not for us to police or try to correct them.”
“So I’m a very inexperienced troller or a sneaker around-er, because I think that conversation is better left not in any way witnessed or babysat by me,” she added.
After nearly three decades, the character of Carrie Bradshaw was laid down to rest
Sex and the City ran on HBO from June 1998 to February 2004, telling the story of Carrie and her friends Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.
The show gave rise to two feature films and a CW series, The Carrie Diaries, which briefly ran from 2013 to 2014.
The sequel series And Just Like That was “all joy, adventure, the greatest kind of hard work alongside the most extraordinary talent of 380,” Sarah said in a recent Instagram post.
She wrote a lengthy tribute to Carrie Bradshaw as she laid the character down to rest.
“Carrie Bradshaw has dominated my professional heartbeat for 27 years. I think I have loved her most of all,” she wrote. “I know others have loved her just as I have. Been frustrated, condemned and rooted for her.”
Some viewers were extremely salty about And Just Like That and particularly had issues with the finale episode, which featured an overflowing toilet.
“Why am I saying farewell to some of my favorite TV characters of all time and seeing a toilet overflow on my screen?” one fan wrote on X about the gag-inducing scene.
Another said, “It’s a choice to make the series finale have 3 scenes involving sh** and piss… the writers def hate us.”
Viewers were horrified by the scene of an overflowing toilet in the season finale
Showrunner Michael Patrick King defended the scene and said, “We cannot take ourselves too seriously.”
“For the gorgeousness of Carrie’s pink, sparkly top and tulle skirt — that’s the high—the low is a toilet filled up with sh**. Because guess what?” he told Variety this month.
“Being single, there’s a lot of sh**, and relationships are a lot of sh**. It’s the comedy, with the drama, with the romance, with the fairy tale. I guess it’s a response to the fairy tale,” he added.
Critics called And Just Like That the “worst show ever” while fans staunchly defended it
Bethenny Frankel, former Real Housewives of New York City star, called And Just Like That the “worst show ever.”
“Honestly, this is from hero to zero. It’s just so forced. Every second, someone is wearing the most ridiculously outlandish [outfit],” she said.
Some agreed with her, saying: “They ruined it … they really really destroyed something iconic.”
“I agree,” said another. “The show is sadly, awful! I wanted to like it so badly but I couldn’t suffer through it.”
But fans defended the show and disagreed with Bethenny’s sentiments.
“This show allowed us to fan out a little while longer. It was a nice way to mentally escape for 45 min every week to see something light, funny and fashionable,” one said. “Sad to see it end.”
“You have ruined the legacy of the original series,” one commented online, while a fan said, “haters gonna hate”
