Latest news with #Aidan
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
And Just Like That season three review – finally! The Sex and the City spin off hits its stride
It all fell into place for me around the shoe montage. Roughly halfway through the third season of And Just Like That, there is an on-screen procession of footwear, strident and unapologetically far too long. Carrie has been accused by her downstairs neighbour of walking too loudly on the floor above his bed. A parade of sandals, boots and mules strut back and forth across a polished and expensive wooden floor. I watched this march of the stilettos and began to suspect that the storyline had been retrofitted to the idea of simply showing off the shoes. And I realised that, even if that is the case, I don't mind at all, because And Just Like That has found its feet. It took a while for it to get there, but finally, the Sex and the City spin-off feels comfortable in its own skin. If the first two seasons were fondly received but sometimes excruciating exercises in attempting to squeeze its characters into the modern age, then this feels like a loosening of the belt. The leads are no longer trying to be anything other than themselves: absurdly rich New Yorkers in their 50s, troubled mostly by the burdens of making sure they spend enough time with their friends. Life's primary emotional entanglements – love, work, family – are present, sure, but they hum away lightly, like ambient noise, any sharp corners dulled by vast riches. Having sold her single-girl apartment, Carrie is now living in a sparsely furnished, absolutely massive Gramercy Park townhouse. She is still with Aidan, though he remains in Virginia, taking care of his troubled teenage son. It is a long distance relationship, with the emphasis on distance. Charlotte is still a happily married mother of two teenagers, with a successful art-dealing business, though early in the season, her dog gets cancelled. Lisa is trying to get her documentary about pioneering Black women off the ground, but the stress of it means she is sleep-talking, so her husband, Herbert, has to move to the spare room. Seema, the not entirely convincing Samantha replacement, is trying to assert her worth in the workplace. Miranda is dating again, and looking for an apartment, and is a human rights lawyer, very much in that order of importance. You make a choice, with And Just Like That, of how to consume it. You can look at it and see its Nero-like qualities, stark and vivid. You could accuse its fluorescent fairytales of fiddling while Trump's America burns. Much of Carrie's ennui comes from whether or not she will buy a dining table that costs almost $7,000, so that she can begin to fill her still-empty mansion. The show scoffs at tourists in New York, rural life, the countryside, items of clothing that cost less than an average month's rent. Yet I find myself sinking into And Just Like That as if it is made of marshmallows and air. It is funny, warm, and self-aware enough to just about get away with it. Miranda's ex, Che, has departed from the women's lives and in the six episodes released to critics, they aren't mentioned at all. Che was And Just Like That trying too hard, and in their absence, there is a sense that it has stopped putting on a front. Now, it has a kind of gauzy acceptance that these women are fully ensconced in the rarefied world of Manhattan's wealthy, middle-aged elite. The hardest they have to try is when endlessly discussing what emojis in text messages are really meant to say. It should be unbearable. But the show's devotion to the fantasy of dedicated, lifelong, rock-solid friendship is what gives it a heart, and in turn, that gives its more egregious vulgarities a free pass. Most Sex and the City fans have been following the lives of Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda since 1998, and there is a specific comfort in seeing them (without Samantha, of course) operating as a unit, 27 years later. Every episode rolls on, as each minor drama softly bumps into another minor drama, with stakes so low that you have to crouch to see them. It is all so steady, so frictionless, as smooth as the foreheads of the Upper East Side. I have no idea if it is good or not. I truly, genuinely, don't know. It remains filled with Samantha-esque quips and puns that, like the shoe montage, appear to have been worked backwards, as if the gags come first, and the plots are created to fit them. But if there was a reluctant fondness that came when watching the first two seasons, then that fondness now appears much more readily. Their concerns are so gentle, their worries so slight, that to watch it is to be lulled into a state of easy comfort. The stilettos march on, as they always did. And Just Like That season three aired on Sky Comedy and is available on NOW.
Graziadaily
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
We Need To Talk About Carrie And Aidan's Phone Sex Scene In And Just Like That
Keeping the spark alive - and staying intimate - in a long-distance relationship can be challenging; sometimes nudes, FaceTime and phone sex are all you've got. However, as common as the latter may be, it's not something we particularly expected Carrie Bradshaw to partake in. In the first episode of season three of And Just Like That , Carrie and Aidan pick up where they left off: in relationship limbo. Quick recap: at the end of season two, Carrie had just sold her iconic apartment and purchased a four-bedroom pad in Gramercy Park so that she could host Aidan and his three sons on a regular basis. However, after 15 year old Wyatt got into an accident while on drugs, Aidan decided he needs to stay home in Virginia and be there for Wyatt until he's safely out of his troubled teenage years. So Carrie and Aidan agreed to park their relationship for five years . At the beginning of the new season, they are still on 'no contact' terms but send each other blank post cards to let the other know they are thinking of them. That quickly snowballs into texts, phone calls and, eventually, phone sex. When Carrie is awoken from a deep slumber by Aidan's call, they are on very different pages. She's tucked up in bed in immaculate pyjamas and he's sat in a parked truck outside his family home with a beer and a clear agenda. 'I miss you so much,' he tells her, before admitting their no contact rule 'went out the window' after his third drink. The only pre-amble we see is a little chatter about Aidan's son Wyatt who has addiction issues. 'I don't want to waste this buzz on him,' Aidan interrupts. 'I want to talk about you. I ache for you.' Aidan then instructs Carrie to touch herself before undoing his own trousers and accidentally honking his horn (not a euphemism) with his knee, puncturing the sensual vibes just a touch, before saying 'I think I shit my pants a little'. Miraculously, it takes Aidan approximately ten seconds to finish, while Carrie, starring at the kitten at the end of her bed, fakes it instead. This is not exactly a how to guide or the makings of a great porno, but it is a stark reminder that phone sex is not always easy to execute. It's sometimes hard to meet each other in the moment. When Carrie calls Aidan back later in the episode to try again, he's lying next to his sleeping teenage son. Embarrassed, she swiftly ends the call and then her faulty house alarm goes off. In their defence, can phone sex ever really be sexy? For a lot of millennials, the idea of a phone call is alien, let alone phone sex. 'It feels like something pop culture has convinced us is real,' offers Ella*. 'Millennials don't pick up the phone, so we're never getting ourselves into this situation. We're sexting, we're sending nudes, but we are not having phone sex.' Beth* has other ideas. 'With my current partner the communication around sex was already open and comfortable before we ever had phone sex which made the phone sex much less cringe and sexier.' 'I've never faked it,' she adds, 'but I haven't always finished when it's more visual heavy rather than verbal heavy because that works better for me. It can be hard to be on the same page but also if you haven't had IRL sex in a long time that can make it even better because you want it more.' However, Grace* thinks Carrie and Aidan's rendezvous rang true to real life. 'I am convinced that nearly all phone sex involves one party faking it like Carrie, to some extent. And that's ok – sometimes even IRL, one of you is more into it than the other. As long as everything is still consensual and unpressured, there's no harm in letting your partner enjoy the moment over the phone, while you perhaps 'exaggerate' your own pleasure, particularly if you are using phone sex as a way to stay intimate in a long-distance situation.' Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
Elle
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Carrie Bradshaw In 'And Just Like That' Is Right — Modern Dating Really Is Ruinous
Carrie Bradshaw, the doyenne of dating, has spoken: modern dating is absolutely, painstakingly, heartwrenchingly ruinous. If the latest series of the Sex and the City spin-off, And Just Like That..., is anything to go by, dating will never be the same again. When Sex and the City exploded onto the small screen in 1998 positing a new, liberated way of living for modern women who wanted to break free of the machinery of domesticity their mothers had been trapped in, it was an instant success. The show's winning formula was foolproof for modern women who had bucked the trend of marrying young and procreating as soon as was humanly possible; here was a generation of women truly living. A generation of women who were trying their hand at living like single men have for generations, with wreckless abandon, with frivolity and fun as the beating heart of their lives. FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE In so many ways, the Sex and the City spin-off has maintained its winning DNA. And Just Like That... focuses on our favourite Manhattanittes in their fifties after death, divorce and heartbreak. They're proof that life goes on, and only gets more fabulous in so many ways. Yet, another facet of And Just Like That... has its finger firmly on the pulse of is the reality of modern dating. Sex and the City fans can attest to the fact that so much of the magic of the show lay in the fact that Carrie et al met partners out in the wild; the real, wild old world that so many of us have lost a connection to. In the first episode of the currently-airing third season, we find our titular character trapped in the straightjacket of a long-distance relationship with Aidan (John Corbett). The core tenet of long-distance love is digital communication, which once upon a time would have been unfathomable for Carrie and co. Carrie, the once intensely romantic and frothy romantic, would have balked at the possibility of being trapped mining emoji replies for real meaning. She'd have scoffed at the mere thought of dictating digital messages to her phone to send to Aidan. This was a couple that threw themselves fecklessly into the throes of young and unadulterated love, who would have thought that fate would have twisted their arm to abandon their in-person adoration for virtual ellipses and 'read' signs. It's nothing that And Just Like That... could help. The saddest reality (sadder than Carrie faking an orgasm while having phone sex with Aidan) is that this is the real world for single people today, who dedicate hours of their lives to scrolling, messaging and hoping desperately that at some point the virtual will graduate into the tangible. I hoped that Carrie wouldn't fall victim to the pitfalls of modern dating but then again, this is the world that we — Carrie included — are living in. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
Graziadaily
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
How Can Carrie Bradshaw Afford Her New Townhouse In And Just Like That? We've Done The Maths
One of the long-standing gripes with Sex and the City and now And Just Like That is how Carrie Bradshaw can afford to waltz around New York City in head-to-toe designer clothes and own an apartment in Manhattan on a journalist's salary. The fact it's a fictional TV show, or that she's a best-selling author from publishing's heyday, often gets lost in the discourse. Now that season three of And Just Like That is finally here and Carrie has moved into her ludicrously capacious Gramercy Park West townhouse with palatial ceilings, bedrooms galore, enough ground floor space to host a wedding, and a disproportionately modest kitchen, the discourse has been sparked up again. Loyal AJLT fans will remember that Carrie sold her iconic studio flat and purchased her new home with a view to host Aidan and his three sons on a regular basis. However, Aidan's youngest son Wyatt, who struggles with substance abuse and was in an accident at the end of the last season, had other ideas. Aidan and Carrie made the decision to put their relationship on pause for five years so that he can focus on parenting, which meant she has been left with a huge, immaculate family home all to herself (and her cat, Shoes). How does Carrie afford to live such a life of luxury? Where is her new townhouse? And how much does it cost in real life? Here's the lowdown. Carrie's new home is 3 Gramercy Park West, which is in an affluent private area of Manhattan in New York City. It's bounded by East 14th Street to the south, East 23rd street to the north, Park Avenue South to the west, and First Avenue to the east. The area also features a fenced-in private park that is only available to residents who have the keys. Her old brownstone was located at 245 East 73rd Street, but the exteriors were filmed outside 66 Perry Street in the West Village. Earlier this year, the real resident of Carrie's old apartment confronted a group of tourists waiting outside the steps to his house. 'You can't just take over the street because you like a TV show,' he called down to them. 'I try not to do this but sometimes people cross the line. Thank you for understanding. And remember, this is not empty, it's a private home. And it's not Carrie's, it's mine.' If the property porn in And Just Like That (of which there is *plenty* in season three) has you wondering what Carrie's new pad costs, the answer is a lot. A one bedroom apartment in that area costs anything between $500,000 (£371k) to upwards of $1.5 million (£1.1m). To rent a four bedroom apartment in Gramercy Park like Carrie's costs between $9,000 (£6.6k) and $28,000 (£20k) per month. However, to buy a home of that size can cost between $6,995,000 (£5.1m) and $13,995,000 (£10.3m). According to real estate listings, Carrie's townhouse sold for $4.49 million (£3.34m) in 2019, then for $5.7 million (£4.23m) later that year, before changing hands again for $5 million (£3.7) in 2022. Zillow currently estimates its value at $4.29 million (£3.1m). We know that Carrie's former flat was rent-controlled at $700 (£520) per month – a blind bargain by today's standards. When her building went co-op during SATC Aidan bought it for them as a couple, but after their breakup, Charlotte (reluctantly) offered Carrie her engagement ring from her marriage to Trey to help buy it back. Then while she was married to Mr. Big, Carrie lived in their luxurious Fifth Avenue penthouse at 1010 Fifth Avenue, but rented out her brownstone for safekeeping. After Big's death at the start of season one of And Just Like That, Carrie went back to the place she knows and loves. It's likely that her East 73rd Street apartment sold for between $600-700k (£445-520k), so we have to assume Carrie had a lot of savings to afford her new £3m home. But lest we forget that she inherited Big's estate when he died. It's implied that she received a substantial sum of money, possibly including his assets in Manhattan and the Hamptons. The fact Big left his ex-wife Natasha $1m (£740k) suggests Carrie got multiple millions herself too. Then there's Carrie's salary as a journalist and an author, which would likely be between £80-100k. In season three, we also see her turn her hand at fiction writing, which she would have received a sizeable advance for too given her status as a celebrity writer. So, relax everyone! Her new house is huge but she can comfortably afford it (as well as a last minute landscape gardener). As die hard fans can attest, it is possible to visit the exterior of all Carrie's homes in Sex and the City and And Just Like That. Gramercy Park West is indeed a real place so if you're a tourist or a New York resident, you can pay the street a visit and pretend to be Carrie for the day. Don't forget your heels. Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
The Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Carrie Bradshaw returns for And Just Like That season 3 – here's how to watch episode 2
Sex and the City fans, rejoice – the hit spin-off series, And Just Like That, has returned to our screens, with season three set during one searingly hot summer in New York. The prequel follows Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte, as well as Seema and Lisa, but minus Mr Big (RIP) and Samantha (though Kim Cattrall did make a small cameo at the end of season two). The season three trailer says that there's 'nothing like summer in New York City' and sees Carrie turning her hand to fiction writing ('romantasy', perhaps?), tackling a rat infestation in her home and, of course, dealing with the twists and turns of her love life (will Carrie and Aidan revisit their relationship?) The long-awaited new season officially landed on our screens late last night (30 May). Here's where to watch season three, and how to catch up on the first two series of And Just Like That. Where to watch 'And Just Like That' season three in the UK The new season of The Sex and the City spin-off premiered on Thursday, 29 May 2025, on Sky TV and Now. New episodes will air weekly until 13 August. The next episode of And Just Like That will air on 6 June. In the UK, episodes are available to stream at 2:05am and are repeated on Sky Comedy at 9pm. If you aren't a Sky customer, you can get a Sky Stream box (£15 per month, which comes with a Sky TV entertainment package and a free subscription to Netflix's standard plan with ads, as well as a free subscription to Discovery+ (the home of Eurosport). If you don't want to buy the Sky Stream box, but still want to watch And Just Like That, you can stream it on the Sky-owned Now streaming service (formerly Now TV). You'll need an entertainment membership to watch the show (£9.99 per month, Watch the 'And Just Like That' season three trailer The And Just Like That trailer sees the return of Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte navigating life in New York City during the summer. While little is revealed about what's to come, it's set to be another great season – we learn of Carrie's latest project, see her deal with new challenges (rat infestations), and, of course, there is a cameo from Aidan.
