Why HBO Max's And Just Like That Is Ending After Three Seasons - Was It Canceled?
by Nina Starner · /FilmOur long national nightmare is over. The "Sex and the City" reboot/revival "And Just Like That..." isn't coming back for a fourth season and will conclude with its third and current outing.
Creator Michael Patrick King provided a statement to outlets like Deadline confirming the news. "And just like that... the ongoing storytelling of the 'Sex and the City' universe is coming to an end," it read. "While I was writing the last episode of 'And Just Like That...' season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop." King then explained that he, executive producer and star Sarah Jessica Parker, head of HBO Max content Casey Bloys, and head of HBO Max originals Sarah Aubrey made the decision to include 12 episodes (increased from the usual 10) in the third season, with the added two serving as a two-part series finale.
"[Parker] and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn't want the word 'final' to overshadow the fun of watching the season," King then clarified. "It's with great gratitude we thank all the viewers who have let these characters into their homes and their hearts over these many years."
So, is the show canceled? Not technically. HBO Max didn't pull the plug on the series, which Is unsurprising when you consider that "Sex and the City" is one of the premium network's flagship shows. It could come back to terrorize audiences once again, but not any time soon, I guess! So, uh, what's going on in this series in the first place, and why does it deserve to go away and never come back?
What's been happening on And Just Like That... across three seasons?
Set years after the original "Sex and the City" and the two middling-to-terrible movies that followed, "And Just Like That..." reunites fans with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), minus Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones. (Cattrall refused to participate in the project aside from one presumably costly cameo in the season 2 finale.) After killing John "Mr. Big" Preston (Chris Noth) with a rogue Peloton exercise bike in the series premiere, the show watches as Carrie embraces life in New York again.
If I tried to talk about every silly and frankly incomprehensible thing that happened on "And Just Like That...," I'm afraid we'd be here all day or, honestly, maybe all week. There was the Che Diaz of it all, meaning that "Grey's Anatomy" veteran Sara Ramirez's stand-up comedian character was so thoroughly mocked by audiences that the series wrote them off after the end of season 2. Elsewhere, Charlotte's storylines range from "her beloved husband has cancer" to "she has vertigo and keeps falling over," while Miranda's sexual awakening isn't totally unsurprising — the woman wears a suit to a club in the first season of "Sex and the City," for god's sake — but it destroys her on-screen love Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) in the process and, until recently, presented her with a smorgasbord of terrible romantic options. (Her current girlfriend as of this writing, Dolly Wells' Joy, is a great match for Miranda, finally.) The show is a mess, but it's at least a fun mess.
With only two episodes left to air as of this writing, there's not much story left for "And Just Like That..." to even tell. That's fine. This show can go straight to jail without passing go or collecting $200. I'll explain.
And Just Like That... is terrible and never should have existed at all — but I'll miss it
My deep and unabiding hatred of "And Just Like That..." is well-documented at this point here on /Film (though, to be incredibly fair, I hate "Emily in Paris" a lot more). The truth is, "And Just Like That..." never had any reason to exist in the first place. The ending of "Sex and the City" is imperfect but largely fine, and even though the original series was really focused on the friendship between Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte — in a memorable moment, Charlotte asks the girls if maybe they're each other's real soulmates — the movies and "And Just Like That..." both put romantic relationships front and center in a way that feels untrue. Everyone on "And Just Like That" is either a weird caricature of their long-running character — poor Cynthia Nixon does some truly deranged nonsense as the once-sensible Miranda — or a weird caricature in general, as is the case with, I don't know, every single individual under 40. (In "Better Than Sex," a Gen Z-coded character reveals that she chose to keep an unexpected pregnancy only because the baby would be a "double Libra." Nobody has ever talked like this, but whatever.)
Weirdly, though, I'll miss this show. I'll miss settling in for a weekly hate-watch that probably sends my blood pressure through the roof. I'll miss texting my friends stuff like "Why are we talking about deodorizing armpit crystals two weeks in a row?!?!" I'll miss Carrie's bizarre sartorial choices that range from "pirate wench lost in New York" to simply "enormous hat." Again, "And Just Like That..." never had any real purpose in this world, but it led to a lot of truly wild discourse, left us with some genuinely incredible memes, and gave gleeful hate-watchers like me around the world something to really sink our teeth into. Go gently into this good night, "And Just Like That..." — and may you never, ever come back.
Oh, "And Just Like That..." is streaming on HBO Max, and the two-part finale airs on June 7 and June 14, 2025, at 9 P.M. EST.