And Just Like That Writers Defend Finale, Compare to Sex and the City

[This story contains major spoilers from the series finale of And Just Like That, “Party of One.”]

There’s been a sense of déjà vu for the writers on And Just Like That who were there for the first series finale when Sex and the City signed off back in 2004.

Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky joined the SATC writers room for season four and have remained on the iconic franchise through the Aug. 14 series finale of AJLT, now adding executive producers to their credits with the revival series that returned Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) into viewers’ lives since late 2021.

After three seasons, countless reviews and hot takes, and, most recently, a “hate-watching” movement for the sequel series that picked up after the six-season original series and two movies, AJLT delivered what has become a somewhat divisive ending to Carrie’s story. After breaking up with longtime love Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) earlier in the season and sleeping with her writer-neighbor (Jonathan Cake), a satisfied Carrie ends up alone, singing to Barry White and eating spoonfuls of pie in her Gramercy Park apartment. “She wasn’t alone. She was on her own,” was the last line of the episode, “Party of One,” co-written by SATC writer-director and AJLT showrunner Michael Patrick King along with Susan Fales-Hill.

The final scene, which was capped with the original SATC credits song, was a coda to the original series’ finale. That time, Carrie ended up with Big (Chris Noth), even though her girlfriends were her true soulmates, and people had things to say. “People were rabid about how it would end,” King recently recalled to The Hollywood Reporter when discussing both finales. “There were people going through garbage cans looking for sides from the script.”

The fans aren’t any less rabid now, they’re just more online. In the days since the finale released, Rottenberg and Zuritsky have been reading not-so-favorable reviews and defensive columns about an ending they and their fellow writers all agreed on. The first time around, there were “lively” arguments between the writers about if Carrie should end up with Big or not. This time, “It was the opposite of a heated debate,” says Zuritsky. “All these years later, like the characters, we’ve evolved.” Rottenberg adds, “I think that thirst for Carrie to be happy, I hope, is greater than the thirst for her to just end coupled up. This is what we all felt made the most sense to end on — and come what may.”

Still, the writing pair were caught off guard by the reaction. “She represents so much for so many people so, of course, we’re never going to please all the people all the time. I think that has been well documented!” says Rottenberg. “[But] why are people so angry? I think it comes back to the double-edged sword of these characters who have been around for decades who are so deeply ingrained in people’s lives and imaginations and their feelings. So any choices we made, I think, become incredibly personal.”

Below, Rottenberg and Zuritsky try to make sense of the reaction as they bring THR behind the process of plotting Carrie’s decades-in-the-making ending and saying goodbye to the beloved franchise after 27 years.

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When we spoke after the Aidan breakup earlier this season, you had told me Aidan wasn’t Carrie’s “forever guy” because you weren’t ready for Carrie to ride off into the sunset with anyone just yet, with an emphasis on “yet.” Now that we know the ending and that Carrie ends up on her own, can you elaborate on that feeling?

ELISA ZURITSKY The original series ending, we were very much a part of. We both remember really lively debates in the room about how it should end, and should Big come to her rescue? Does a guy like that come around one day, and should he? And what happened if he didn’t? What would it say if she was alone?

JULIE ROTTENBERG There were a lot of arguments.

ZURITSKY It was a heated debate among the writers. Ultimately, everybody knows what we chose. For all kinds of reasons at the time, the majority of us felt that leaning into the fantasy was going to be the most satisfying end to the series and for Carrie’s character then. All these years later, like the characters, we’ve evolved. We all know a lot of women who are not partnered, and are pretty happily not partnered, and felt like it was the most authentic version to give that version life. I can think of so many women who are widowed or divorced who are actually really enjoying their independence and their solitude. I feel like that’s something that is even more celebrated, or should be more celebrated now, than it ever was. So this was not heated. It was the opposite of a heated debate.

ROTTENBERG I’ve really been impressed by the number of people who have reached out to me in my life who were so relieved [by the ending], and I’m talking about women who are not partnered and women who are. That is meaningful. I feel like, maybe, were we all rooting for Carrie to be at peace, whether she’s with someone or not? People were a little bit on tenterhooks of: How is this going to land?

A friend of mine who is a big fan of the show after season two ended was like, “Why couldn’t Carrie and Aidan just have been happy? Why couldn’t you have ended with them happy?” She was really exercised about it. I know that after season three, people have different feelings about Aidan and that relationship….

ZURITSKY We took care of that! (Laughs.)

ROTTENBERG (Laughs.) But I think that thirst for her to be happy, I hope, is greater than the thirst for her to just end coupled up. The idea that she’s going to be OK — more than OK — was the hope. She represents so much for so many people so, of course, we’re never going to please all the people all the time. I think that has been well documented!

ZURITSKY I think she represents too much. It’s clear that, yeah, I don’t think there was one answer or one version that would satisfy everybody.

Hearing you say that does make me think that, at least in my life, whenever people say, “I’m a Miranda… I’m a Charlotte… I’m a Samantha,” people hesitate to say, “I’m Carrie.” It’s almost too big to declare yourself a Carrie, and that speaks to what you just said about everything she represents. She’s everyone but also, no one?

ZURITSKY It’s too much to say you’re the star.

ROTTENBERG Or maybe, she’s the most complicated. She isn’t one thing. You think she’s one thing, but she’s a different thing for everyone. But that is a big, tall burden and a lot to carry — so to speak!

I spoke with Michael Patrick King about the AJLT finale and he said this ending was a coda to the original finale and the last line Carrie spoke, but then Big called her. So And Just Like That was always about getting Carrie to the place where she’s OK if no one’s calling. He said they knew it was the ending when they wrote it; they talked to the writers room and he went to Sarah Jessica Parker. He said he remained open for something to change his mind, but nothing did. The official decision wasn’t announced until after the Aidan break up, and with only two episodes left [the finale was split into two]. He said he didn’t want “final season” hanging over the episodes.

ZURITSKY We always wrote every every season in the writers room as if the show could end. Then there’s so much that happens in his mind and with Sarah Jessica that we’re not privy to.

ROTTENBERG We never thought we’d have the chance to come back after all these years. So the fact that it came back at all was like getting to see a friend of yours who you thought you’d never see again. We got to take out all these characters and places and live in that universe again with the first season. After the first season, we were all like, “We did it. We came back. That was fun. Do we go on?” I remember having that conversation with Michael and making the decision, “Yeah, OK, let’s do it. Let’s do it again. We have more stories to tell. And we’re learning about this new show,” because we were both reviving an old thing and also creating a new thing.

Then at the end of season two, we got another chance to do this thing we love and learn more about these characters, and how to write these characters and these stories in this new way. That felt like a win. We got another chance. And then the third season was like, “Oh my God, we get to do it again.” It always felt like another chance at this impossible dream, so the fact that this time it really was the end was both something we knew was very much a possibility and also something we weren’t completely sure about.

He also spoke about how it was a conscious decision to hold back the decision from the public. He felt like people wouldn’t have engaged with the Carrie and Aidan storyline in the same way that they did, if they knew it was the end. And boy, did people engage with that. Looking back, do you feel it was right to hold back the news that this was the final season?

ROTTENBERG It’s hard to know what the psychology is with people watching a series. In my own case, when I hear “final season,” like with Homeland, I remember that last season where you know [something big is going to happen]. It’s like spending time with a friend you love and aren’t sure if they are going to be around. But I guess there is a poignancy once you know this is it. Even watching it as a viewer with my family, I experienced it differently.

ZURITSKY Over my recent vacation, I read Nora Ephron’s book Heartburn, which I highly recommend. It’s actually a very funny book, really well written. I’m sure there are other people, even more recently, who knew they were terminal and didn’t tell anyone. [Ephron died in 2012 of acute myeloid leukemia that led to pneumonia after keeping her diagnosis quiet.] That’s a very specific choice to make and in a way, it’s similar. She didn’t want to be seen as a sick person. She didn’t want to be seen as a dying person. She didn’t even want to write about that. And it also makes some people mad to find out late. Like, “How could she have not told us?” But there’s a certain dignity to keeping such information to yourself and letting people experience it in real time.

Not knowing the series was ending made it harder for me to predict along the way. Because you have been playing with so much of Carrie’s narration via the fiction novel she’s been writing and this epilogue she’s working on in the finale, do you view this AJLT ending almost as an epilogue to the Sex and the City ending? She had an ending in the original series. Then a lot happened, and here is another ending. But also, she’s not dead. Carrie lives on in our fan fiction. Do you view this as the end-end?

ROTTENBERG I like that idea. I think I might say it’s the end of this chapter. When we first announced that the show was coming out at all, I remember so many of the responses were like, “So what’s that going to be, menopause?” It was so staggering to us. Wow, is that what people think a show about women in their 50s is? Then, of course, we had a zillion stories to tell that we were living and witnessing and sharing in and laughing about and crying about. Once it was on the air, it never ceased to provoke conversation and strong feelings. So in a way, I feel like the response by Carrie’s publisher [in And Just Like That], who was played by Ashley Atkinson, and her outrage at the book’s ending could also be read as a stand in for the outrage of some viewers. But Carrie’s decision to go with what she wanted to do was I think our decision to say, “This is what we’re going to do.” This is what we all felt made the most sense to end on— and come what may.

ZURITSKY The answer to your question of, “Is this final, final, final, final? Like, are you sure? Are you signing on the dotted line that you will we will never see these characters again?” I think the best news that I can take away from the last three seasons is: Love it or hate it, those characters were extremely alive. They are extremely alive in the minds of the viewers. So much so that the feelings were passionate. I know other shows have tried to come back and have not provoked the same connection and have not stuck around more than a season because the moment is over. I think as long as the actors are alive, then who knows? People might still want to check in with them at some point. It could happen one day. I’m loathe to even say that… I’m speaking maybe as a fan, as someone who has witnessed the connection that people have to it more than anything else.

Sarah Jessica Parker spoke with the New York Times after the finale and was asked about the “hate-watching” trend. Her response was basically, “I don’t really care.” She wasn’t engaging with that, but I know the two of you do. How have you been engaging with the response to the finale? Is there anything in particular that you felt like isn’t fair that you want to respond to?

ROTTENBERG I don’t know if you listened to this, but Wesley Morris and Taffy Brodesser-Akner did a podcast on the Times that I recommend. Taffy so eloquently laid out this idea of like, the audacity of these middle-aged women living their lives, having adventures, embarrassing themselves, supporting each other, arguing with each other. Like, how dare they? And what that provoked. That was helpful to hear because I think we also look for like, “Wow, what? Why are people so angry?” And I think it comes back to what Elisa was saying, which is the double-edged sword of these characters who have been around for decades who are so deeply ingrained in people’s lives and imaginations and their feelings. So any choices we made, I think, become incredibly personal. And then I guess there’s just the aspect of social media today. Elisa had the perfect analogy about gladiators and the Colosseum.

ZURITSKY A lot of it jumps out at me on Instagram, mostly. I do feel like we’re living in a really vicious moment in public life, especially electronically. People are upset about a lot of things, and I am, too. I go through my day with so much more frustration and outrage about so many things than I ever did in my life. So I think to have a safe scapegoat and a safe place to put all of your frustration and rage and outrage … I do understand it. I don’t love that our show fills that void for people! And I think it’s a shame, and I hope … I don’t know. I hope that with time [that will change]. I even felt this way with the old show, believe it or not.

At the time, Sex and the City was not an agreed upon good show. I remember walking through the world and being cream pied, as we say, fairly regularly for this job that I loved and for a show I knew people were tuning into. There were a lot of haters back then, too. Then there was a lot of love. Then before the pandemic, there was a lot of hate again. I remember stumbling on pieces that were pulling it apart in 2017, 2018, 2019: Was this a good show? I thought it was, but I watched it again. And then, now, so much love for it. So much affection, so much adoration. So many articles about what an incredible, groundbreaking show it is. So I feel in a way like, “Oh, well, this is the way press goes.” People jump on different bandwagons at different times. I’m watching the Billy Joel documentary right now and they talk a lot about the savage reviews he got. The critics just hated him. Maybe sometimes that’s just what it has to be while others are enjoying it.

ROTTENBERG He was selling out stadiums. The fans loved him and the critics hated him, and it is helpful to see that. Elisa is right in saying that we kind of lived through a version of this on the original series, but people forget about that. People forget that the show was infuriating to many people and that it was “how dare they?” on many fronts. Now over time, in retrospect, it has gained validation.

ZURITSKY For years after Sex and the City ended, I would meet older people who would say, “Oh, you worked on Sex and the City? I never watched it. I thought it was not going to be for me, but it’s really quite good.” That’s so nice to hear it. That would be lovely here, too. And that has happened, actually, even since the beginning of And Just Like That.

Michael Patrick had also reflected on ending Sex and the City and said that even after the Aidan break up this season, he was surprised fans were still speculating how Carrie could end up with someone with only two episodes left and get that fairytale ending. Meanwhile, if Carrie ended up with her neighbor Duncan (Jonathan Cake), people would have taken to the streets! You gave everybody the ending they maybe wanted for decades for Carrie. How do you compare the experiences of ending the show then to now?

ROTTENBERG I think I’ve gotten better at being able to hold both reactions — that people are going to be really happy and people are going to be really unhappy. And to remind myself that means they care. That means they watch. That means they were invested enough. You asked how we engage with the response. I’m not on social media. Elisa is sort of my proxy social media concierge. She helps me keep up with the macro, if not the micro. I also now have two teenagers who are definitely more plugged in, so they also help share the good, bad and the ugly. One great thing about getting older is you do have a little more perspective, and I am more able to look at this moment as a moment and be grateful that as many people watched and cared enough to take to the streets with their pitchforks in anger. I’ll take that as a compliment every time.

Were you both on set when filming the final episode?

ZURITSKY Yes.

Did everybody know when you were filming the final episode that it was the final episode?

ZURITSKY No. We don’t know when the official decision was made.

I asked Michael Patrick if Sarah Jessica knew when filming Carrie’s final scene if she knew it was her final scene, and he said yes. But that was also only a scene with herself.

ZURITSKY Keep in mind, the final scene is also not necessarily the final scene. It’s shot all out of order based on scheduling.

ROTTENBERG As we did at the end of every season, we knew it could be the end, even if we didn’t know officially. Definitely after the last table read when people read that last scene, there was the feeling of, “Oh my God, is this the end? Please say it’s not the end.” We would have crew members and department heads coming up to us saying that.

ZURITSKY We had plausible deniability because we actually didn’t know, in speaking with you as well [weeks ago]. We always went through every season with the same mentality: “This could end. And I’m going to write down all of my ideas in my phone in case there’s a season four.” Both tracks were in motion.

So it wasn’t official until it was official official, even for you guys.

ROTTENBERG Yeah.

How much of you was hoping along the way that another idea would spark for Michael Patrick, or did you feel that this ending was right?

ZURITSKY Mixed feelings. I really did feel we were leaving Carrie, especially, in a beautiful place. Really all of them, in good hands. They all felt safe and different versions of happy, which felt lovely to me. But the professional in me, I loved the job. I loved working on the show. When you love working on a show, you know that’s rare. That doesn’t happen all the time. So for sure, there was both.

ROTTENBERG It’s true. There’s the professional, writer-producer in me who agreed that was going to be hard to top. Carrie is in a really good place. Let’s leave her in a really good place. It’s sort of like dropping off your kids at camp or college, which I haven’t done yet. But like, “Let’s quietly back away while Carrie is still singing to Barry White and eating her pumpkin pie, and feeling like she’s going to be OK. Let’s leave her in that in that place.” Could we have done another season? Sure. As Elisa said, we keep lists of ideas. We’re still living our lives and having insane experiences in New York as 50 something women, but once we knew it was official and could start wrapping our minds around that, it felt like, “All right, this is as good a place as any to leave them. They are all in good hands. They’ll be OK.”

I also asked Michael Patrick if any part of him thought it might be the wrong call, given how buzzy the season was. But he said no, because of the ending. The writing dictated it. But I imagine it’s not easy when everyone’s talking about your show to end it.

ROTTENBERG Also, what’s interesting about the hate-watchers is that there was something sort of funny, I guess, in the outrage that we were getting — which has become kind of the norm — that when it was then announced that it was ending, it was like, “How dare you take away this thing I’m so upset about!” (Laughs.)

The hate-watchers never said they weren’t watching.

ROTTENBERG Michael Patrick King is always the first to leave a party, and I think that was definitely his approach. And that was the same on the original series. It had reached a really insane level of popularity and he was like, “We’re going to quit while we’re ahead.” So that was also the thinking this time around. We serve at the pleasure of the king! We’re happy to have put on our uniforms and now we’re just grateful we had the chance to do it again, and to work again with that cast and crew. So many of us were on the original series. That is an impossible thing, for things to strike twice.

What will you two do next, will you work together again?

ROTTENBERG Yes, that part is easy. We have a number of projects we’re working on. So that is that is the upside, I guess, that we can now get back to our own stuff. We have a movie we’re working on. We have a couple TV series we’re developing.

ZURITSKY I am doing something very Carrie-esque right now. I’m working on my first novel.

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And Just Like That and Sex and the City are now streaming on HBO Max. See THR’s ranking of our top Sex and the City episodes.