(美国有线电视新闻网)在一个成功的系列和两部不太好的电影（最后一部是在
2010 年上映）之后，“就像那样......”重振了“欲望都市”，减去了它的四部电影中的一部，剩下的三部进入一个新的生活阶段，带来新的挑战。这个名字肯定有很多股权，但就像电影一样，这个 HBO Max 节目收益递减。
最初的几集不应该被宠坏，但由于金卡特罗尔的离开是众所周知的，出于多种原因，这是一个很好的起点。撇开屏幕外的戏剧不谈，该系列剧通过报道她搬到伦敦来解释萨曼莎的缺席，这相当于告诉孩子们家里的宠物已经搬到北部的农场生活。
这个角色的缺席也让演员的妆容发生了变化，增加了几位有色人种女性（妮可·阿里·帕克、萨拉·拉米雷斯、萨丽塔·乔杜里、凯伦·皮特曼）以及种族和性别认同问题，但值得注意的是，阶级差异.
将更大的多样性引入他们的轨道是受欢迎的，正如制片人兼编剧兼导演迈克尔·帕特里克·金所设计的那样，这些关系是为了尴尬。
然而，即使考虑到这一点，编写令人畏缩的场景也是一门艺术，而且节目对它们的处理方式通常让人感觉笨拙。同样，在夏洛特（克里斯汀戴维斯）和米兰达（辛西娅尼克松）的情况下，与养育大孩子有关的并发症也是如此，他们基本上接近了善意的自由主义者的陈词滥调，他们经常说错话。
至于嘉莉（莎拉杰西卡帕克饰），她最近的职业障碍是将她的性专栏作家信誉带到播客世界，尽管她不太知道如何应对直言不讳的联合主持人（“实习医生格蕾”拉米雷斯）。
也许不可避免地，新角色最初的存在是为了引起反应并展示中心三人组的不同方面，他们——即使有他们扩大的家人和朋友圈子，其中包括已故威利加森扮演的嘉莉的朋友斯坦福——都在哪里节目的重点在于。
的确，“就像那样……”的吸引力的很大一部分涉及大胆关注 50 多岁的女性，这一人群在电视迷中以吸引年轻观众的人数不足而臭名昭著。要是角色们不一直公布自己的年龄，就好像是在提醒那些大概和他们一起变老的观众，这部剧已经进入中年了。
原作首播23年，生活发生了预期的变化，担心养育取代约会，还有一丝自我药疗。它还在流媒体服务 HBO Max 上开辟了一个新场地，在那里，如此引人注目的头衔显然是一项资产，尽管不如最近关于女性四重奏的其他系列“女大学生的性生活”令人满意。
新系列确实承担了一些重大的创作风险，剧集运行时间更长（最北 40 分钟），反映了更戏剧性的偏差。
“我们不能只是保持原来的样子，”米兰达说。
但他们可以。因为当谈到“欲望都市”时，事情变化得越多，它们就越倾向于保持不变。从这个意义上说，“就像那样……”是一个可以理解的标题，但也可以很容易地替换为“生活还在继续……”
“就像那样......”于 12 月 9 日在 HBO Max 首播，HBO Max 与 CNN 一样，是 WarnerMedia 的一个部门。
'And Just Like That...' shifts 'Sex and the City' into a new phase and home on HBO Max
(CNN)After a successful series and two not-so-great movies (the last coming in 2010), "And Just Like That..." revives "Sex and the City" minus one of its fab four, with the remaining trio entering a new phase of life that brings fresh challenges. The name surely carries plenty of equity, but like the movies, this HBO Max show yields diminishing returns.
A few things shouldn't be spoiled about the initial episodes, but since Kim Cattrall's departure is well known, that's a good place to start for multiple reasons. Setting aside the off-screen drama, the series explains Samantha's absence by reporting that she's moved to London, which is the TV equivalent of telling kids that the family pet has gone to live on a farm upstate.
That character's absence also allows for shaking up the cast's makeup, adding several women of color (Nicole Ari Parker, Sara Ramirez, Sarita Choudhury, Karen Pittman) as well as issues of race and gender identity, but not, it's worth noting, class distinctions.
The introduction of greater diversity into their orbit is welcome, and as devised by producer-writer-director Michael Patrick King, those relationships are intended to be awkward.
Yet even allowing for that, there's an art to writing cringe-inducing scenes, and the show's approach to them generally feels clunky. Ditto for the complications related to parenting older kids in the case of Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who basically approximate the cliché of well-intentioned liberals who constantly say the wrong things.
As for Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), her latest professional hurdle involves taking her sex-columnist cred to the world of podcasting, though she doesn't know quite how to handle her outspoken co-host ("Grey's Anatomy's" Ramirez).
Perhaps inevitably, the new characters initially exist to elicit reactions and bring out different sides of the central trio, who -- even with their extended circle of family and friends, among them Carrie's pal Stanford, played by the late Willie Garson -- are where the show's focus lies.
Indeed, a big part of "And Just Like That...'s" appeal involves the audacity to focus on women in their 50s, a demographic notoriously underrepresented in TV's crush to attract younger audiences. If only the characters didn't keep announcing their ages, as if to remind viewers, who presumably have aged along with them, that the show has entered middle age.
The 23 years since the original premiered have brought expected life changes, with concerns about parenting supplanting dating, and a touch of self-medication. It also lands on a new venue in streaming service HBO Max, where such a high-profile title is an obvious asset, if less satisfying than its other recent series about a female quartet, "The Sex Lives of College Girls."
The new series does take some significant creative risks, and the episodes run a bit longer (most north of 40 minutes), reflecting a more dramatic skew.
"We can't just stay who we were," Miranda says.
But they sort of can. Because when it comes to "Sex and the City," the more things change, the more they tend to stay the same. In that sense, "And Just Like That..." is an understandable title but could just as easily be replaced by "And Life Goes On..."
"And Just Like That..." premieres Dec. 9 on HBO Max, which, like CNN, is a unit of WarnerMedia.
