“Sex And The City” Author Candace Bushnell Was “Startled” By HBO Max’s “And Just Like That…”

Sex and the City‘s author Candace Bushnell, says she was “startled” by a lot of the decisions of the reboot series, And Just Like That… She says in a new interview with The New Yorker that the series is definitely not what she would have expected it to be, calling it a “television product” where Carrie Bradshaw ended up a “quirky girl who married a rich guy.” BLOOP! I mean… I couldn’t help but wonder… was Candace right?

Candace wrote the original columns in The Observer titled Sex and the City which was turned into a book of essays before it became an HBO series. The show and columns are pretty vastly different originally, so this new social-justicey AJLT… must be making Candace’s head spin. Before the show came out, Candace commented on Kim Cattrall‘s absence, saying that Kim is a “grown woman” and can make her own choices. And when talking about Michael Patrick King‘s revival series, Candace says that the show is not her story at all, via Us Weekly:

“I’m really startled by a lot of the decisions made in the reboot,” she told The New Yorker in an interview published on Wednesday, February 16. “You know, it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past. HBO decided to put this franchise back into their hands for a variety of reasons, and this is what they came up with.”

Bushnell continued: “I mean, Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story, or any of my friends’ stories. But TV has its own logic.”

But if you’d ask Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, of course, what she thinks about Candace’s thoughts, she’d probably say she doesn’t care. Because when asked by Vogue about the backlash to the revival, Cynthia said, “If you’re looking for Sex and the City, you should watch the reruns. This is a new show for this moment and for the moment in these original characters’ lives.”

Candace also mentioned her SATC sequel book as well as writing a pilot based on that book:

Bushnell, for her part, returned to her original SATC characters in her 2019 book, Is There Still Sex in the City? She even penned a pilot based on the book, which explored the ups and downs of starting over after divorce at age 50.

“I sold it right at the end of 2018. If they’d done it really quickly, it would’ve been so right for the pandemic: it was about women who’d moved out of the city, who were dating–younger guys, but also someone who says he’s 75 but is actually 87, which is a real thing that happened,” she told The New Yorker. “The pandemic happened, and the project fell apart. But I’m going to retool it. I have all these ideas, being back in the city, meeting people of all ages.”

Cut to fallen actor Chris Noth who lost it all after he was accused by multiple women of sexual assault, texting Candace like: “Hey, yeah, I thought that show was dumb too. Remember my Peloton thing? Crazy. Anyway, if you need someone to play a dapper man in your next series? I’m very available!”

Pic: Dave Allocca/StarPix