I love what you say about sex, but I’m obsessed with AJ LT. “The lines Sarah reads in voiceover are so achingly vacant, AI would sue you for suggesting an algorithm had written them.” You nailed it! My husband can’t understand why I so devotedly watch a show I hate so much. But I keep watching, despite the hats. Despite the heels. The entitlement. The shallowness. The embarrassing lines.
ha, the way you write about AJLT—those excerpts from her novel(“the woman” oy!)—almost makes me want to hate watch it too! the zoom with margo and elizabeth was fab. and everything you wrote about sexualizing violence is 🎯: “The problem with adding the word sexual is that the emphasis shifted from the violence part to the sexual part, and what people do inside the category of sex is a private matter.” AMEN
Since I don't watch television I have no familiarity with And Just Like That. However, this excerpt from this essay made me laugh. A chuckle I needed after reading the TPM Morning Memo today.
This passage makes a serious point about the hypothetical 'women's point of view' that is a key component of the gender narrative. The narrative which insists that women are 'essentially' preoccupied with the silly and superficial (hats?) when not busy with babies and boyfriends.
'They are two brilliances, meeting on the gravel driveway of their castle in Banalia—just outside the town of Umbrage. Duncan asks Carrie for notes on “the woman’s point of view,” since Margaret, the dead Conservative Prime Minister, is presumed to have been a female underneath her disastrous social policies.'
Wow: This entry was jam-packed in all the good ways, with all good things. I'll stick to the fun part: The analysis of "And Just Like That...". I haven't watched yet this season but you nailed my feelings about seasons past, e.g. our discomfort and annoyance with those characters who, despite "having it all," seem so vacuous and unfocused: Ironically, far less so than they seemed 20 years ago (perhaps the reason Samantha's still in London is because she's outgrown her former buds). And yet it IS like watching a train wreck, or maybe we're all tuned in for the schadenfreude and weird outfits that we can't afford and wouldn't be caught dead in even if we could.
Thanks for doing the hard work of watching this. I only saw a few episodes of the original and was depressed and a little angry about its conflation of consumer fetishism and feminism. For a while I thought it had changed New York for the worse, or that it changed the way people arrived to NYC. I mean we all come for fun, for sex, for life, for putting ourselves on display, but the drunken tottering around on stilettos -- that were either cheap and ugly or bought on credit (or, most likely, both) -- looked like obeisance to the misogyny (I still love using that word where it might sound a bit dramatic) that doesn't care about our comfort or our stability, literally or figuratively. I really didn't watch it enough to have all these opinions, but that's never stopped me. Then I forgot about it -- and now I'll forget about it again. Until your next post. x.
Yep, watching AJLT - starting with the vacuous title - is like watching a train wreck. And yet, I can’t look away and like you, Laurie, I’ve watched every episode of all the seasons - and just like that, the woman (this woman) is perplexed: why am I watching this dreck? (Another commenter said Carrie’s clothes are like the stuff you’d cut and hang on paper dolls - exactly.) Partly I watch because of my affection for *Sex and the City*, which was often funny. AJLT lacks the edgy humor and unapologetic Samantha. But I still don’t know why I’m hooked on the vacuousness.
Also agree 100% about calling violence against women what it is with no gendered qualifier: it’s just plain violence.
I love reading your take on AJLT and the hats and the writing and can only imagine what you would be able to do if you were asked to write / edit Carrie's example novel. The show actually has so much wasted potential! But maybe it can squeak by without reaching it since we are all hate watching it anyway???
I’d never seen it until the other night, when my friend wanted to watch it. Her clothes reminded me of paper dolls I had at age 9, long before I understood what real women wear in the real world. The show itself is dreck. For some amusing commentary, Tom and Lorenzo’s podcast has wearily skewered the show week after week. Your analysis is spot on.
The girls lost me in Dubai. Now I like reading about their shows, like here. Though Cynthia is my favorite, The Gilded Era lost me too. It looks very Hollywood backlot. Again, I like reading about it. Dish material. Most of all in the TGA I don't believe a word they say. Even Cynthia. She deserves something meatier and with better costumes.
I feel the same way about AJLT and yet am compelled to see it through to the bitter end. It boggles the mind how it can be so bad. And we had one season each of The Chair with Sandra Oh (created by Amanda Peet) and On the Verge (created by Julie Delpy), both of which were fantastic shows about women in midlife, and both cancelled by Netflix after one season. At least we had Better Things.
I love what you say about sex, but I’m obsessed with AJ LT. “The lines Sarah reads in voiceover are so achingly vacant, AI would sue you for suggesting an algorithm had written them.” You nailed it! My husband can’t understand why I so devotedly watch a show I hate so much. But I keep watching, despite the hats. Despite the heels. The entitlement. The shallowness. The embarrassing lines.
With you, sistah!
hahaha jeez the pizza hat, it really is the most abject and ridiculous show ever, and I was never a sex and the city fan anyway, it just got worse
ha, the way you write about AJLT—those excerpts from her novel(“the woman” oy!)—almost makes me want to hate watch it too! the zoom with margo and elizabeth was fab. and everything you wrote about sexualizing violence is 🎯: “The problem with adding the word sexual is that the emphasis shifted from the violence part to the sexual part, and what people do inside the category of sex is a private matter.” AMEN
Since I don't watch television I have no familiarity with And Just Like That. However, this excerpt from this essay made me laugh. A chuckle I needed after reading the TPM Morning Memo today.
This passage makes a serious point about the hypothetical 'women's point of view' that is a key component of the gender narrative. The narrative which insists that women are 'essentially' preoccupied with the silly and superficial (hats?) when not busy with babies and boyfriends.
'They are two brilliances, meeting on the gravel driveway of their castle in Banalia—just outside the town of Umbrage. Duncan asks Carrie for notes on “the woman’s point of view,” since Margaret, the dead Conservative Prime Minister, is presumed to have been a female underneath her disastrous social policies.'
A chuckle is good. Silly is what makes a chuckle. xxL
But I still kind of love this show. It is so confounding. And I look forward to it! Oh well, off to buy a hat!
Happy shopping I feel you.
Carrie’s novel sucks.
Wow: This entry was jam-packed in all the good ways, with all good things. I'll stick to the fun part: The analysis of "And Just Like That...". I haven't watched yet this season but you nailed my feelings about seasons past, e.g. our discomfort and annoyance with those characters who, despite "having it all," seem so vacuous and unfocused: Ironically, far less so than they seemed 20 years ago (perhaps the reason Samantha's still in London is because she's outgrown her former buds). And yet it IS like watching a train wreck, or maybe we're all tuned in for the schadenfreude and weird outfits that we can't afford and wouldn't be caught dead in even if we could.
Nailed it. Also, the writers hate the characters.
Thanks for doing the hard work of watching this. I only saw a few episodes of the original and was depressed and a little angry about its conflation of consumer fetishism and feminism. For a while I thought it had changed New York for the worse, or that it changed the way people arrived to NYC. I mean we all come for fun, for sex, for life, for putting ourselves on display, but the drunken tottering around on stilettos -- that were either cheap and ugly or bought on credit (or, most likely, both) -- looked like obeisance to the misogyny (I still love using that word where it might sound a bit dramatic) that doesn't care about our comfort or our stability, literally or figuratively. I really didn't watch it enough to have all these opinions, but that's never stopped me. Then I forgot about it -- and now I'll forget about it again. Until your next post. x.
Yep, watching AJLT - starting with the vacuous title - is like watching a train wreck. And yet, I can’t look away and like you, Laurie, I’ve watched every episode of all the seasons - and just like that, the woman (this woman) is perplexed: why am I watching this dreck? (Another commenter said Carrie’s clothes are like the stuff you’d cut and hang on paper dolls - exactly.) Partly I watch because of my affection for *Sex and the City*, which was often funny. AJLT lacks the edgy humor and unapologetic Samantha. But I still don’t know why I’m hooked on the vacuousness.
Also agree 100% about calling violence against women what it is with no gendered qualifier: it’s just plain violence.
I didn’t make it past the first four episodes of season one of AJLT. Horrible, horrible writing. Unwatchable.
Yes! And yet I watch, with a lot of fast forwarding.
I love reading your take on AJLT and the hats and the writing and can only imagine what you would be able to do if you were asked to write / edit Carrie's example novel. The show actually has so much wasted potential! But maybe it can squeak by without reaching it since we are all hate watching it anyway???
I think Carrie's novel is perfect. I wouldn't dream of changing a word. xxL
lol you're right
I’d never seen it until the other night, when my friend wanted to watch it. Her clothes reminded me of paper dolls I had at age 9, long before I understood what real women wear in the real world. The show itself is dreck. For some amusing commentary, Tom and Lorenzo’s podcast has wearily skewered the show week after week. Your analysis is spot on.
The girls lost me in Dubai. Now I like reading about their shows, like here. Though Cynthia is my favorite, The Gilded Era lost me too. It looks very Hollywood backlot. Again, I like reading about it. Dish material. Most of all in the TGA I don't believe a word they say. Even Cynthia. She deserves something meatier and with better costumes.
I feel the same way about AJLT and yet am compelled to see it through to the bitter end. It boggles the mind how it can be so bad. And we had one season each of The Chair with Sandra Oh (created by Amanda Peet) and On the Verge (created by Julie Delpy), both of which were fantastic shows about women in midlife, and both cancelled by Netflix after one season. At least we had Better Things.
Better Things!!
All I gotta say is: Thank you for this. Fresh air!!
Love every word.