‘One Final Turd.’ And Just Like That Finale Reviews Are Just Brutal As The Sex And The City Reboot Wraps

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Minor spoilers for And Just Like That… Season 3, Episode 12 are ahead.

After its run, the series “And Just Like That…” is off the 2025 TV schedule, and to everyone’s surprise, it didn’t have a grand finale you’d typically associate with Sarah Jessica Parker’s iconic character Carrie Bradshaw. Instead, things ended quite dramatically, with an unexpected twist that saw the storyline take an unfortunate turn – even ending up in a toilet. Critics haven’t been shy about expressing their honest opinions on how this revival of “Sex and the City” ultimately concluded.

The concluding episode of “And Just Like That…” stirred up mixed reactions among viewers, but critics seem to have more unified opinions. To put it frankly, many critics were highly disappointed with how the series ended overall. David Mack from Slate, for instance, even found humor in a toilet-related scene from the show, suggesting that this scene symbolized the series’ overall direction, implying it may not have lived up to expectations.

As a dedicated fan, I must admit, it feels appropriate – almost ironic – that the series, known for its inconsistent approach towards characters, storylines, continuity, and audience, would end on a somewhat fittingly unpolished note. And Just Like That… seemed to conclude with one final bump in the road.

At the finale of the Sex and the City reboot’s last episode, Miranda (played by Cynthia Nixon) was shown tidying up a toilet that had spilled over. It was a messy, disgusting scene, and some viewers felt it was fitting for the show to end in this way, giving off an unusual vibe of disregard or contempt for its own characters.

As people tuned into Season 3 of And Just Like That… via their HBO Max membership, it was evident that quite a few viewers had started to watch the show out of dislike instead of enjoyment.

Regarding the final episode, Ben Travers from Indie Wire expressed in his headline that it was “a calamity.” Furthermore, he stated that it surpassed the second film in terms of disappointing conclusions. While individually, “Party of One” was deemed acceptable, as a series finale, it presents a different narrative. In his review, he elaborated:

Initially, the visual aspects are disappointing, encompassing not just the images themselves but also the setting in which they’re presented. Episode 12 seems more like an ordinary episode rather than a series finale. In fact, it appears to be underdeveloped even as a finale. However, HBO and showrunner Michael Patrick King insist that this was the intended plan from the start.

The writer did not mince words, describing the episode as both “disgraceful” and “filled with unpleasantness.” As the quote mentions, showrunner Michael Patrick King expressed his view that this episode served as a fitting conclusion to the series. However, this reviewer strongly disagreed and considered it questionable that this episode was intended to be the final one.

In my perspective as a viewer, Robyn Bahr, over at THR, penned down her thoughts on the show’s finale. She felt that it ended with more of a quiet sigh rather than a bang, and I must agree. The surprising conclusion seemed to echo the overall tone of the series throughout, as per her observation.

In simpler terms, the final episode is quite similar to “And Just Like That” itself, filled with moments of little significance, frequent digressions, and inflated with a portrayal of excessive luxury that seems disconnected from reality. It’s as if too much time was spent on unnecessary details such as high-end wedding fashion shows and uninteresting characters who may not reappear.

In Adam White’s opinion, published in The Independent, Carrie and her friends were entitled to a more satisfying conclusion. Given the lengthy history of Sex and the City, wrapping up such an enduring story is always challenging, but the manner in which it ended left some critics deeply disappointed, as echoed by White in his writing.

In simpler terms, the final episode of And Just Like That was disappointing, as many had anticipated. It often felt silly, incomprehensible, and humorless, while also being aggressive at times. The editing seemed erratic, with plotlines that felt hastily resolved and characters making decisions that didn’t align with their established personalities. Even Carrie, a character who has learned lessons before, seemed to re-learn an old one in this episode.

In this specific episode, some critics found themselves deeply offended, while others appeared baffled instead. As Ali Trachta expressed in the New York Times.

Among all the surprising decisions the creators of And Just Like That … have taken this season, one of the most astonishing might be compelling viewers, after years of following this series, to witness a revolting toilet overflow in what seems to be the climactic scene of this long-running saga.

In my opinion, Trachta pointed out that the episode was wrapped up nicely, with no unresolved issues or dangling threads left behind.

Essentially, the critics ended up perplexed as to whether this was really the finale for both “And Just Like That…” and potentially “Sex and the City”. While the cast of AJLT seemed sentimental and nostalgic, viewers and reviewers were far from satisfied with the ending, finding it disappointing, almost as if it had flushed their expectations down the drain.

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2025-08-15 17:41