And Just Like That, Samantha Jones's cameo was a complete waste of time
The brief phone call was one of the most disappointing moments of television ever.
Samantha Jones has made her grand return! The fab four are finally back together! This is what we've been waiting for all summer long! There's just one problem – despite all of the hype, the interviews and the press releases, Samantha's cameo in the finale of And Just Like That season 2 is probably one of the most disappointing moments of television ever.
After a decades-long feud with her Sex and the City cast mates, Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha, once swore she would never appear on the reboot. But then, earlier this year, Variety reported that Cattrall would return to appear for one single phone call scene "without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series".
Evidently, she didn't want to be there, but as she told Kelly and Mark Live, it was "for the fans." And despite knowing that her appearance would be extremely brief, we were, nonetheless, thrilled to have her momentarily back. What would she say? Would she lend a few wise words about Aidan? Would she and Carrie have it out? After all, the Samantha we all knew and loved never held back. She was iconically blunt and fearlessly independent. Perhaps a quick injection of her energy would help to make this increasingly nonsensical season a little more comprehensive.
But, sadly, our tiny glimpse of Samantha landed like a lead balloon.
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Just moments into the episode, Carrie receives The Call. Okay, a bit soon for the episode's main event, I thought, but let's go.
"Hello, London," Carrie says, as though they've been talking every day.
"My flight is three hours delayed, Carrie, I won't be able to make it there on time," replies Samantha from a black cab. Miranda and Charlotte apparently invited her and she was planning on coming for one night only to bid farewell to Carrie's apartment.
"It is your apartment and I have to pay my respects," she explains. "Put me on speaker. Go ahead, put me on speaker and hold up that phone."
Samantha then proceeds to say her goodbyes to the apartment: "Thank you for everything, you f**king fabulous, fabulous flat." Does she have a British accent now, Carrie jokes.
"Who's Samantha? This is Annabelle Bronstein. I'm from India," she says, referencing the episode in season 6 of Sex and the City when she pretended to be said Annabelle Bronstein to sneak into a private club. "Ta ta, and cheerio. And have a great night," Samantha concludes, before hanging up.
And just like that, the cameo is over – in about 10 lines of pointless dialogue, delivered, very obviously, on two different sets on two different days. Did her appearance do anything to advance the plot or change the direction of Carrie's arc in this season? No. All it did was serve as a depressing sort of mirage, reminding us that the character we once loved doesn't really exist anymore.
Back before And Just Like That was announced, Cattrall suggested in an interview with Piers Morgan that the team should hire someone new to fill her place.
"Maybe they could make it an African American Samantha Jones or a Hispanic Samantha Jones?" she said. And in a way, that's what they did – they brought in a diverse range of new characters, including the wonderful Seema (Sarita Choudhury), an equally fierce and fascinating woman. In other words, the show has moved on from Samantha – and it's clear that once they decided to bring her back, they didn't really know what to do with her.
Having the beloved character return for a jarring minute of disjointed dialogue and one nostalgic reference is hardly the cameo we had hoped for. And while the showrunners and Cattrall herself claimed they did it "for the fans", it's safe to say that this empty cameo will leave most of them even more depressed by Samantha's absence from the show than they were before.
And Just Like That is available to watch on Sky Comedy and NOW in the UK and on HBO Max in the US. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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