Sex and the City: Samantha-Less Revival Eyes HBO Max Series Order

[TMC]

https://tvline.com/2020/12/22/sex-an...-kim-cattrall/

That long-gestating third Sex and the City movie may finally be coming to fruition — as a series (and sans a key player).

HBO Max is reportedly near a deal to revive the iconic comedy franchise as a limited series, with leads Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon set to reprise their signature roles as Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda, respectively. Meanwhile, Kim Cattrall — who has been very public about her desire to put the franchise, her co-stars and her character of Samantha, behind her — is not expected to be involved in the quasi-seventh season.

The New York Post first broke the news.

In an October 2017 interview with Piers Morgan, Cattrall implored SATC‘s creative team — who have previously been taken to task for the series’ poor track record on diversity — to recast the role of Samantha with a non-white actress. “It’s a great part,” she said at the time. “I played it past the finish line and then some, and I loved it. And another actress should play it. Maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones, or a Hispanic Samantha Jones.”

Please don't bring back Sex and the City: There is nothing more to say and the show doesn't work without Samantha

News that HBO Max may, as Sarah Jessica Parker puts it, "revisit" her iconic HBO comedy as a limited series doesn't make sense without Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones, says Megan Reynolds. "Even though Samantha Jones was an irritating caricature of a woman’s libido, she is an intrinsic part of the iconic quartet and her absence will be felt in whatever reboot Darren Star manages to throw together. Furthermore, I have no idea what else there is to say or do with these women in the first place? How will they explain Samantha’s absence? Should the reboot open with the women in mourning dress genuflecting in front of a statue of Samantha’s naked body as she appeared in her nude photos from the 2001 episode 'The Real Me' that also found Carrie tripping on her own feet on the runway only to be declared 'fashion roadkill,' then sure, that’s fine. But that’s morbid and dark in a way that a Star production is not, so my guess is that Samantha’s absence will be a footnote, or, even worse, not mentioned at all."

[TMC]

Sex and the City revival won't work without acknowledging why Samantha Jones was so important

Kim Cattrall's character's "explicit, shame-free sexuality is far more routine for women characters today than it was in 1998, when Samantha’s refusal to censor or restrain herself when it came to sex was a deliberate shock to TV’s system — and for Sex and the City, a crucial cornerstone to the series’ success," says Caroline Framke. That's why Framke worries that the lack of Samantha Jones in the HBO Max revival "will be an insurmountable obstacle to recapturing what made the original show work," adding that "Samantha’s defiantly open, down for anything sex life provides a necessary counterbalance to the other three women who are way more uptight than they often care to admit." Without Samantha, Framke says, "Sex and the City just won’t have the pulse of enthusiastic sexual energy that made for some of its best moments. If Cattrall remains out of the picture, as seems likely, And Just Like That will have to do more than just catch up with Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte in order to recapture the series’ original spark. It will either have to undergo a shift in narrative focus, as is perhaps inevitable given the characters’ advancing age and more settled lives, or replace Samantha’s singular voice in a way that feels authentic. Maybe this comes in the form of a new character — preferably one in her sixties, as Cattrall is and Samantha would be — or else one of the remaining women evolving into more progressive views (which, frankly, would feel more unrealistic than Samantha’s sudden absence). No matter what, though, the worst thing the revival could do would be to dismiss Samantha like one of the show’s countless exes and move on without acknowledging why she was so important in the first place. Carrie Bradshaw may have made a name for herself by saying she 'knows good sex,' but it was Samantha Jones whose raison d’être was having it."

ALSO:

• Sex and the City reboot will have to avoid being out of touch in wake of the pandemic: "This is not a great moment for a series about three upper-middle-class, white, post-feminist women partying their way through a city even they shouldn’t be able afford—amid an economic climate where the conspicuous consumption of thousand-dollar shoes calls to mind the excesses of Marie Antoinette, to say nothing of the damage our current global health crisis has done to the sex lives of single New Yorkers," says Judy Berman. "To have any chance of relevance in 2021, Sex and the City would need to lean hard on 60-year-old Samantha Jones as she navigated the increasingly app-based, gender-fluid, kink-savvy dating scene she helped to bring about. Better still, the show’s producers could have heeded some of their character’s wisest words: 'What happened was in the past. Leave it there.'"
• There's only one way to bring back Sex and the City sans Samantha and have it recapture the spirit of the original: "Here’s my pitch: We open on Samantha’s funeral. Not a huge shock there, since she had breast cancer late in the series, and it wouldn’t make sense for Samantha to be alive and not be a part of this continuation," says Dave Nemetz, adding: "Her death rocks her three closest friends to the core, forcing them to take a hard look at where they are in life. Have they become too stale and set in their ways? Could they use a little more Samantha Jones-style spice in their lives? So Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte make a pact to honor Samantha by… ditching their husbands for a trial period and reentering the dating pool, single and ready to mingle."
• The big question is can it still be Sex and the City if no one's having sex because the kids won't go to bed: "Goodness knows, without Samantha in it, there's bound to be much less sex and many more judgmental monologues," says Mikki Kendall. "Worse yet for viewers is that Carrie's story and those of her friends are fundamentally about white women's extreme privilege in an economically stratified, racially segregated city."
• Carrie Bradshaw’s world no longer exists, nor does her sexual landscape: The Sex and the City revival will only highlight the show's flaws, says Princess Weekes. "When I look at the fact that Gossip Girl, Dexter, True Blood, Pretty Little Liars, The Sopranos, and Sex and the City are all coming back, it just feels so utterly disappointing," says Weekes. "We have worked so hard to create organizations and production companies that are trying to make new, inclusive content, and we are just making … the same things. We already watched how Netflix’s Gilmore Girls revival only served to highlight issues that the show had with race, body issues, sexuality, class, etc., because despite the love people have for the series, it doesn’t need to continue or have a place today."
• Sarah Jessica Parker says there will be no fourth lead: “We’re not looking to create a fourth character,” she said Wednesday. “We have New York City as a great character. There will be lots of interesting new characters that we’re excited about.”
• A Sex and the City reboot is the only shot at redemption for the two terrible movies
• Sex and the City fans can bet on how Samantha's absence will be explained
• PETA urges Parker to make the SATC reboot fur-free
• SATC author Candace Bushnell says the revival can work without Cattrall

[TMC]

HBO Max boss hints at how Sex and the City revival will explain Samantha's absence, says it isn't trying to "re-do" the original series

“They’re not trying to say that these characters are reliving their 30s," HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys said at the TV press tour. "It is very much a story about women in their 50s, and they are dealing with things that people deal with in their 50s.” Bloys also hinted that Kim Cattrall's character will likely not be the only original Sex and the City cast member missing from the reboot, adding that "just as in real life, people come into your life, people leave...Friendships fade, and new friendships start. So I think it is all very indicative of the real stages, the actual stages of life… They’re trying to tell an honest story about being a woman in her 50s in New York. So it should all feel somewhat organic, and the friends that you have when you’re 30, you may not have when you’re 50.”

[TMC]

Sex and the City's HBO Max revival is adding three women of color to its cast

The And Just Like That reboot previously announced it would have a writers' room that is half minorities. The diversity will be represented on screen as well with three minority actresses who will be full-fledged series regulars, according to TVLine, which adds: "The fresh blood will help fill the void left by Kim Cattrall’s Samantha, whose absence is expected to be explained in the opening episode."

[Babalu]

Don't make shows good. Just make them black.

[TMC]

Jason Lewis won't return for HBO Max's Sex and the City revival

"I have not (been approached), but I would be the last to know! As much as I appreciate the flattery, the conversation is about the girls," the Smith Jerrod actor, who played Samantha Jones' boyfriend, recent told the Daily Front Row.

[TMC]

Sex and the City revival sets the return of Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Willie Garson and Evan Handler

They'll reprise their respective roles as Anthony Marentino, Steve Brady, Stanford Blatch and Harry Goldenblatt on the And Just Like That sequel series. “Everyone at And Just Like That is thrilled to be able to continue the storylines of these beloved Sex and the City characters with the actors who made them so lovable,” said executive producer Michael Patrick King.

As it begins production, Sex and the City reboot must remember to have Samantha's spirit

The And Just Like That HBO Max sequel series is expected to begin filming any day now. As Sonia Saraiya points out, Kim Cattrall's Samantha was an essential part of the original series and movies. "If Sex and the City crossed any boundaries or broke any barriers, it used Samantha to do it while the other characters looked on dumbfounded: She dated a woman, fell for a Black man, got Botox, sneered at marriage, complained about children, and most importantly, lived like a horny teenager well into her 40s, even through the breast cancer treatment she got in the last season," says Saraiya. "She was New York’s femme id, a crusader whose superpower was ****. In a neat package that evaded intra-feminist argument, her desire didn’t embarrass or degrade her, it simply turned her on. In season five, when her friends judged her sex life, she retorted: 'I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want as long as I can breathe and kneel.' It’s not just hard to imagine the show without her, it’s also hard to imagine Sex and the City thumbing its nose at aging without Samantha in a starring role. But it’s possible. After all, an inevitable part of aging is being forced to say goodbye to people you love. Maybe Cattrall’s absence will be explained away by suggesting that Samantha died in the intervening decades? If And Just Like That… can’t have her, I hope it will have her spirit. Too many of these revivals are a warmed-over rehash of what the originals served hot, with a few jokes about Twitter or Trump thrown in. Samantha would never look back with nostalgia. Intent on making a splash and seizing the day, she’d have her eyes fixed on the horizon." ALSO: Sarah Jessica Parker visits Carrie Bradshaw's apartment ahead of filming.

Sarah Jessica Parker posts a "together again" photo with Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon after Sex and the City revival's table read

“Together again,” Parker captioned her Instagram photo, adding that they just read through the first new episodes “alongside all the fellas and our newest cast members. Like an ice cream sundae.” Parker also posted an image of the script cover.

[TMC]

‘Sex and the City’ Author Candace Bushnell Doesn’t Care That Samantha Is Missing from the HBO Reboot

“Honestly, I really don’t understand that kind of fandom where people are like, ‘Oh my God [Samantha’s gone],’ it’s so anathema to me,” Bushnell continues. “I don’t have that personality, so I don’t actually even understand it. I don’t understand why people are even interested in celebrities. It mystifies me.”