And Just Like That... has strived to prove itself socially-conscious throughout its one-and-a-half released seasons. HBO's Sex and the City reboot, now streaming on Max, has faintly swept through "contemporary" issues, commenting on race, grief, and ageism, but all the while a bit too aware of itself in the process. The show's insistence on addressing the anxieties of today, conducted as some sort of checklist, has eclipsed what the original series offered: truthful analysis of female friendship and sexuality.
Now in its second season, which is slightly less affected, AJLT presses on with its abstruse goals. But one welcome outcome of Season 2 is a cameo in episode 4, "Alive!", from someone who has actually been leading conversations for decades: Gloria Steinem.
A well-recognized leader of second-wave feminism since the '60s, Steinem founded Ms. Magazine 51 years ago. The publication, which saw contributions from the likes of writers Adrienne Rich and Toni Morrison, made waves (and controversies) as a pioneering, women-focused magazine.
So it's fitting that Steinem makes an appearance in the fourth episode of AJLT. Let's back up. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) runs into her former Vogue editor, Enid Frick (Candice Bergen) at a restaurant, in what is a starkly awkward encounter. Enid apologizes for not reaching out after Big's death; she also dances around the subject of Carrie's latest book — for which she was asked to write a blurb, but never responded. But Enid offers a consolation: she's launching a magazine for "older women" called Vivant and invites Carrie to participate. There later turns out to be a misunderstanding about what exactly that entails but we'll save that for another time.
Fast-forward to the final moments of the episode and Carrie arrives to the Vivant launch, populated with influential women in power dresses and big cheque-books, ready to contribute to the magazine's imminent rise. Among the crowd is none other than Steinem, in an extended cameo as herself.
The entire set-up of the episode — from Enid's emergence to her new magazine to Carrie's inherent ageism, which is scattered throughout the episode — seems to be shaped so that Steinem's appearance makes sense. She's supposed to be some sort of guide to Carrie, who is deeply struggling with age and being lumped into Enid's age group. This is evident with posited questions like: "Do I present as a 75-year-old retiree?"
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Here to the rescue is Steinem, who is the main speaker at Enid's event. She gives a nod to Ms. Magazine ("Can't believe that was a half century ago, oh my god!") and provides pillowcase-worthy quotes about age and change: "Every revolution starts with a conversation." Steinem also touches upon divisions across age, race, culture, and gender in a speech to an enamored crowd, implying that the media has a responsibility to helm a shift.
Later, Carrie and Steinem strike up a conversation in which the former shares her admiration. Steinem, wearing a bright red blazer, seems natural onscreen (and playing herself doesn't hurt), especially when she talks creating change and cementing solidarity. Her primary thesis is about age, and how it really shouldn't matter, nor should it stop anyone from doing what they want.
"Gloria's speech is Gloria. That is her talking without a script."
The messaging is brief, though the cameo manages to escape becoming performative as so much else of the show does. This may be because the words are coming from Steinem herself — her speech for the show was unscripted, as revealed by showrunner Michael Patrick King in the podcast And Just Like That...The Writers Room.
"It was amazing," he says in the latest episode. "Gloria's speech is Gloria. That is her talking without a script." They went on to speak about the excitement and spontaneity on set, over the many takes they took. Each time Steinem spoke she had different things to say and a unique point-of-view on womanhood and aging, explain King alongside Elisa Zuritsky, Julie Rottenberg, Susan Fales-Hill, the other writers and producers of the show.
Steinem actually does share history with Sex and the City, in some capacity. In 2012, the feminist icon praised the original show, saying, "I think that Sex and the City was one of the few pop cultural admissions that friendship among women is crucial and that has really continuing appeal." Parker, the star of SATC, was also meant to play Steinem in Lovelace, the 2013 biopic centered on porn performer Linda Lovelace. This appearance was later deleted.
The unlikely overlap between the two has finally come to fruition now, and really is a fun addition to this episode. If nothing else, Steinem is a welcome refuge from the other random politics at the Vivant party, as well as the rest of the strange happenings in the AJLT universe.
How to watch: And Just Like That... is now streaming on Max.
Topics HBO
