And Just Like That finale review – a sad, heavy-handed and far too faecal farewell

This whimper of an ending features a vile plumbing disaster, and a deeply unconvincing callback to Sex and the City’s last scene. It deserves a much camper sign-off than this

And just like that: it’s over. A mere two weeks ago, it was announced that the Sex and the City spin-off was ending imminently, with showrunner Michael Patrick King having decided season three was “a wonderful place to stop”. It felt more than a little abrupt, leading to tabloid rumours that HBO was pulling the plug on the much-maligned series. An Instagram post from Jonathan Cake, who played Carrie’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) latest love interest was jokey, but – equally – didn’t read like the words of someone who knew he had signed up for a bit part (“Wait, did I JUST KILL [the series]? Duncan finally has one night of passion with Carrie Bradshaw and the shows [sic] over … FOREVER???”)

In any case, the fact that anyone cared at all showed that we had come a long way. Back in 2021, this Samantha-free reboot was sternly judged, with critics using words like “cringey” and “cloying”. Efforts to diversify the cast felt cynical, while Carrie’s pivot to podcasting and Miranda’s foray into queer romance with non-binary comic Che Diaz led to scenes that made even those two mortifying SATC films seem bearable by comparison.