TV Shows

‘And Just Like That’ Producers Speak out After Controversial Series Finale

Two of the show’s producers speak out about the negative reception to the series.

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Sarah Jessica Parker has already shared her indifference to the “hate” for the recent series finale of And Just Like That…, HBO’s sequel series to the iconic comedy hit Sex and the City.

Now, the producers are making their voices heard in a new interview with TVLine.

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For those unaware, fans and critics alike universally reviled the end of the seriesโ€”just aboutย everyย publicationย onย Earth was critical of the episode, with several claiming it was one of the worst series finales of all time. On TVLine, where the new interview is located, readers of the site gave the episode a grade of “F.”

But two of the show’s writers and executive producers, Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, see the ending as a perfect scenario for Carrie Bradshaw. In the episode, Carrie (Parker) ends the series dancing alone and embracing life on her own, instead of hitching up with a man.

The writers shared that each season, they treated the season finale like it could be the last episode, and “of all the possible endings of the three seasons, this one definitely rings the most true for me,” Zuritsky said, “as a fan of the show and as a fifty-something woman in the world.”

“I think itโ€™s sort of extra poignant and feels authentic to [Carrieโ€™s] character that she would reach this moment. Sheโ€™s metabolized her grief of being widowed. Sheโ€™s gone back, in a real way, to relationship-land,” she continued. “Sheโ€™s decided that sheโ€™d rather be on her own than in a not-ideal partnership and, like so many women we know, are really quite happy in their own space, in their own home, in their own friendships.”

Fans of the series were taken aback when HBO announced the series’ end just two weeks before the episode aired. The writers themselves didn’t even know the show was endingโ€”that decision came from showrunner Michael Patrick King.

“Michael is obviously his own person, and he has his own instrument, you know,โ€ Zuritsky said. โ€œWeโ€™re brought in on a lot of it, and then not. So I feel like he had a method to his timeline.โ€

Rottenberg couldn’t give an answer as to why there wasn’t a single scene of Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte together in the finale, saying that was “a Michael Patrick King question.” However, she said that it “felt like the most honest way to end” the show, leaving the show’s protagonist to realize that at her age, there might not be another man to come along.

“I think the strength was leaving her in a moment where she says, โ€˜There might not, and Iโ€™m OK with that.โ€™ I think thatโ€™s what we responded to, and thatโ€™s what felt like the clearest way to end, maybe the cleanest way to end,” she said. “Itโ€™s not a tragedy. Sheโ€™s got a pretty freaking great life, and she has these friends, and we felt like we were leaving her in a good place.”