For the Love of NYC: Gotham's Valentine’s Day shoot for And Just Like That...

Aging. Self-reinvention. Changing one’s name. These are Gotham-relevant themes that course through And Just Like That…, the MAX show billed as a “new chapter of Sex and the City,” which transformed our room one day last February.

The resultant scene aired on Thursday, July 27, about halfway through Episode 7 of Season 2, tellingly titled “February 14th.” To prepare for the less than two-minute scene, 12th Street was closed while inside an army of grips hung from our ceiling, the kitchen cooked dishes that would never be seen, and Gotham was Valentined to the hilt with wall-to-wall extras, outsized rose bouquets, and even the requisite snooty host!

Replace the roses with sustainable arrangements by Soursop Farms and the rude host with our door team of real-life sweethearts, and the scene provides an accurate glimpse of Gotham today. It goes without saying that we were thrilled to share this taste of our own “sequel” with viewers who mightn’t know that we are still here. That we are back. That we too have made ourselves new.

Having only seen a handful of the SITC originals (no TV for me in those years), on a recent AJLT binge in anticipation of the Gotham episode, I appreciated choices that some have criticized. Intent on being as bold for today’s much less shockable era as it was for 1998 audiences, And Just Like That… succeeds at carving out new territory indeed, leaning into complex material that reflects a breadth of contemporary life. It also tackles hot topics at a pace that some critics are calling out for being “woke” (apparently unable to do better than that rampant word). According to Michael Patrick King, Season 2 openly endeavored to “lighten up,” but it also doubled down on the sex at the heart of the city, and the graphic content—much of it comedic in nature—has drawn new detractors. It’s easy to be a critic.

Drew as herself and Mario Cantone as Anthony have an unforgettable reaction to a big entrance on The Drew Barrymore Show.

I’d rather focus on the tight ensemble work, still-excellent dialogue, and rewarding wordplay (watch this brilliant example from our episode), all anchored by Parker’s understated, pitch-perfect performance—her range of chops on full display—as well as some wonderfully cathartic screwball comedy. The humor at times reaches genuine hilarity, including a scene on the Drew Barrymore show in our Gotham episode that’s fall-off-the-couch worthy. If at times absurd, I’d say the show is fully self-aware, conscious both of its implausible fabulousness and unlikely foibles; it’s woke with a wink. And as a New Yorker, I commend the creators for reflecting our propensity to take on too much, for “containing multitudes,” as Whitman had it. To bite off more apple than we can chew might well be a badge of living here.

Perhaps most notably, in a deft move that avoided the obvious pitfalls of attempting to recast the impossible with a “new Samantha”—in lieu of Kim Cattrall who is notoriously absent—they have replaced her with three stunning new additions: Sarita Choudhury, Nikki Parker, and Karen Pittman, whose individual and collective fabulousness bathes the original trio in flattering light. As Carrie’s boss and Cynthia’s love interest, comedian Sara Ramirez is a force unto herself. Not only does their diversity more accurately reflect NYC friendships today, it distracts from comparisons to Cattrall/Samantha, whose character remains indelible. (The writers have also handled her conspicuous absence well.) I wonder if the voices who have accused these vital additions of being “token” have ever awoken in NYC.

From one NYC institution to another, as Gotham prepares to enter its 40th year (!), we can relate to the projects of endurance, self-re-creation, and comebacks that stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis—who are also this iteration’s executive producers alongside Michael Patrick King—have clearly had in mind. Sex and the City turned 25 this summer and, while And Just Like That… resumes Carrie’s, Miranda’s, and Charlotte’s storylines, it is also a reflection of its heroes’ personal journeys in the interim: Parker’s graceful aging, Nixon’s sexuality, and Davis’s alcoholism—in her case played out through moderate Charlotte’s policing of increasingly lushy Miranda.

More universally, the actors are stand-ins for starlets d’un certain age or even all women to whom, according to a plastic surgeon that Carrie inadvertently sees, “Instagram and nature are less kind than to men.” One gets the impression that the veteran performers, armed with a wealth of new life experience, had unfinished business for their most famous characters. And conscious of their influence in TV, fashion, friendship, sex, and beyond, And Just Like That… seems to feel a responsibility to New York and to culture today—to want to push the needle now.

On Gotham’s new entrance wall reads:

“The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.”

—E.B. White

The brainchild of owner Bret Csencsitz and original architect James Biber, who returned to oversee our renovation in 2021, White’s quote strikes a chord. Since reopening, it’s been hinted that we too might be trying to do or be too much. Now filled with books and art, offering music nights and theatre dinners alongside a reinvented culinary menu, we are proud to “contain multitudes” and, in the quest to mean even more than a meal, must constantly examine what we really exist and want to be known for. Might not beautiful food, service, and ambiance be enough? It could be. But the new Gotham is also a reflection of the family behind it now, its own “executive producers” who had to re-cast themselves to retain roles in NYC after the pandemic almost called it curtains for us.

While hindsight is not yet 20/20, it's an honor to still be here and in the company of all those—like Sarah Jessica Parker whose values and undiminished love of NYC is celebrated in this Air Mail podcast—who believe in the greatness of our city’s legacy, the value of longevity with integrity, and the worthiness of fighting for New York’s enduring poetry in the face of change. These are challenging times, and change is both exciting and uncomfortable. Our narrative? Most change can be for the better, if we work together to make it so.

Come see how Gotham has changed, and don’t miss our rich program of culinary and cultural experiences this fall!