It's Heartbreaking What They're Going To Do to Aidan On 'And Just Like That'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 8, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 8, 2023 |

I will not claim to be a huge Sex and the City follower. I watched most (maybe all?) of the series, and I liked it, although I’ve never had strong feelings about the series one way or another. I did not, however, watch the first season of And Just Like That…, which made it weird that I decided to watch the second season. Many of the characters I know — Charlotte, Steve, Miranda, Harry! — some I’d never seen (Seema, Lisa), and some I didn’t know but I’d heard plenty about (Che). It was not difficult to acclimate to the new characters, and the old characters seemed mostly the same except for Miranda, who is romantically confused now, which kind of makes sense except that I hate that it mostly sidelines Steve.

The reason that I decided to start watching the second season is perhaps an odd one: I heard that Aidan would return. I like Aidan a lot. I also like the actor who plays him, John Corbett, whose energy I have always liked. Not just in Sex and the City or My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but also in United States of Tara or more recently in the To All the Boys movies or even How I Met Your Father. He has that same easygoing vibe as a love interest, as a husband, and even as a dad. I don’t know much about the guy personally — other than he’s been married to Bo Derek for 20+ years — but I am a big admirer of his characters.

I think the online discourse about Aidan’s return to this universe in And Just Like That… has been largely mixed (people have had issues with his jacket), but I’ve been digging it. He and Carrie have reconciled, and though it’s been years since they’ve been together (season four of Sex and the City), the two fall right back into their old relationship. They’re adorable, spending days together in bed and buying random kitchen utensils. Carrie is so smitten that she’s already lined up a visit to his farmhouse in Virginia, where she’ll meet his kids.

And herein lies my issue with And Just Like That…. He’s going to get his heart stomped on again, isn’t he? Carrie is going to pull the football away from Aidan for the third time. They’re not going to stay together! It’s too soon. Who knows how much longer this show will run; they’re not going to pair Carrie up in what is ostensibly a comedy about dating. And he can’t be the end goal, either, because you can’t dump a guy three times and expect a happily ever after. Even if they were to find each other again in season 7 of And Just Like That… and get married in the finale, we’ll all be thinking the same thing: It’ll never last. Because it never has before! The same issues are not going to go away. Carrie is always going to gravitate away from the Nice Guy and toward the Mr. Big-like characters.

It sucks, I hate it, and it’s mean, because there is no outcome between Carrie and Aidan that’s believable except their ultimate demise, and I don’t want to watch them break up again because we’ve gone through this before. Twice! Twenty-two years have not been enough time for Aidan’s heart to heal, and he’s fallen too hard, too quickly, and he’s going to get wrecked all over again. I wish I hadn’t gotten invested in this godforsaken show again.

But also, yes: Miranda’s romantic evolution has been frustrating; they really don’t know what to do with Che; Seema and Lisa have been excellent additions; Charlotte and her consistency remain the series’ MVP, and Carrie is still Carrie. If she stopped being Carrie, the show would cease to exist, but her Carrieness is also consistently the show’s weakest element.