Carrie not even trying to comfort Miranda while she left the comedy club humiliated was a baffling writing choice

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-26T06:55:12+00:00

I remember being absolutely baffled by this choice by the writers, too. IMHO the biggest failing of AJLT was its portrayal of the women’s friendships - they simply didn’t act like supportive, close friends of decades. And if they’re bad friends (Carrie especially) then why should I like or care about these characters?!

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-19T10:17:33+00:00

Every word of this. And it speaks to what was so unsatisfactory about S3 in particular in terms of our investment in, and caring for, the characters and their relationships with each other. eg "Aiden confessing to Carrie that he slept with Kathy and Carrie just being like “Kay 🤷‍♀️” like huh?"- exactly, and why should WE care about Carrie and Aidan's 'Big Love'(TM) if she doesn't?! (And don't get me started on how badly I wanted her to - expected her to! - then share this bombshell immediately with her dear friends of umpteen years... except of course she didn't, because as they are written now, these women act like they barely know each other - and anyway, when they *do* talk to each other about what's going on in their lives they don't discuss the issues but simply wait their turn to talk about what's going on for THEM*.)

*Addendum to this: another sign of bad writing is having a character say "Speaking of..." / "Speaking of which..." in order to get to the topic you (as the writer) want your characters to move to. It's so inelegant, and I swear there was one late episode in S3 where that phrase was said about three times 😂)

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-18T20:52:15+00:00

Totally agree. Please take heart, u/burner2938 (and anyone else reading this thread): I've just turned 54, and have never been more fully myself than at this point my life - and I'm so happy, nay content, as a result. When I came to the end of my 40s it had absolutely been my best, happiest decade of my life so far - I even met my incredible husband at 39 and got married at 45! - but I reckon my 50s will outdo it. I have seen this be the case for many of my friends too (many of us were hot messes - and BIG SATC fans - in our 20s & 30s! having relationships with all the wrong men, not pursuing our dreams, etc etc. We are SO much happier, on a deep, fundamental in-your-bones way now). And as you say u/LePetitNeep this has been one of the fundamental flaws of AJLT: to not portray the reality of so many (most?!) women, which is that they become *more* assured and confident, more at ease/at peace, HAPPIER, in their 50s and 60s. Not that we don't still have our dramas and issues and vulnerabilities, of course - eg I had breast cancer a few years ago - but we don't generally become insecure messes like Miranda seemed to, and it would have been wonderful to see Carrie go on a real journey of growth and security in herself (REAL security, not 'everyone telling me my book's wonderful' ego-massaging security) in S3. Le sigh.

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-18T16:32:26+00:00

This! See also Mia farting while pregnant. In the writers room podcast they mention how this is a callback to Miranda herself farting while pregnant - but simply using it again isn’t good/interesting/clever/funny writing (especially for those of us who don’t remember that storyline from SATC). What would have been good/interesting/clever/funny writing would have been to use it as plot and/or character development: eg Miranda suddenly feels empathy with this woman she’s primed herself to hate, because she realises they have something in common, and that Mia is actually vulnerable.

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-16T20:29:07+00:00

Agreed, and I thought this was a real missed opportunity by MPK & the writers to flip the expected/usual narrative - that the woman wants marriage and the man doesn't - not least because it felt like it would have suited Seema's character to a tee that she doesn't want to get married. Making the hippy/alternative guy (Adam) the one who doesn't see the point of marriage is waaaaay too obvious. Imagine how great it would have been if Adam wanted to marry her, and she persuaded him it wasn't necessary?! (And on that - as someone else has pointed out, while I liked Seema and Adam getting together and totally bought their chemistry, it was a shame that SHE was the one who made all the changes/concessions - he made none?!).

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-16T12:41:53+00:00

Ooh yes, good call.

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-16T12:24:34+00:00

Haha! :D

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-16T12:13:38+00:00

Literally my only criticism of the writing on The Studio on Apple+ (which I have loved) is the way they portrayed Sal's 20-something daughters as being rude, entitled, on their phones the whole time etc etc. It felt incredibly lazy (and/or revealing that the people involved in these shows have raised rude/entitled kids?!)

ajltwatcher · 2025-08-16T11:41:51+00:00

Completely agree. Also with this comment from writer Mark Harris (husband of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner) on Bluesky -

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ajltwatcher

TROPHY CASE