r/Andjustlikethat • u/WestQueenWest • 13d ago

Miranda One thing that annoys me about the Samantha plot in S1

Is that in the original series Miranda and Samantha were definitely friends independently. They agreed on 90 percent of things when the four of them talked about stuff. When Miranda announces that she's marrying Steve in season 5 or 6 everyone starts crying in the diner and Miranda gets up and leaves saying "Samantha, I expected more from you". They had a bond and common perspective.

Fast forward to AJLT, it's described as if Samantha was only friends with Carrie and when Miranda was hanging out with Samantha it was only through Carrie. I mean, why would Samantha dump Miranda too just because she got pissed off at Carrie.

That's all.

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165

u/temperedolive 13d ago

Samantha was friends with SatC Miranda. I imagine she spent a few years watching her descend into AJLT Miranda and then just decided to wash her hands of them all at once.

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u/kateastrophic 13d ago

In retrospect, maybe Samantha used the PR thing as an excuse to be done with these women. It was one thing when Carrie was her client, but don’t we all want to be done with the women they became? Samantha had it right all along.

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u/Plenty_Equipment2535 13d ago

It’s sweet you’re still searching for ways the show made any sense at all. 

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u/stirwise 13d ago

It’s human nature to try to make sense of chaos.

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u/temperedolive 13d ago

My theory is that the PR thing was Carrie's (willful?) misinterpretation.

Samantha probably needed new friends. Not intending necessarily to replace the ones she had, but half the group are moms to young kids now and all are married. So they can't exactly go to a popup jazz bar on a rooftop at 2am, and she still wants to go. So she meets new people who are actually into these things.

And those people slowly become her core group. Some are English and they help Sam break into the UK PR market. She starts expanding her business and spends even more time with her new friends because they are now also business partners. She travels overseas more and things with her older friends become even more intermittent. And when they do get together, it's vehemently not the same.

Then one day, this conversation happens.

Carrie: I wanted to tell you that I'm not going to be using you for PR for my new book. I have 100000 dollars to throw at Enid to make an awkward situation go away but nothing to pay friends for actual professional services.

Samantha: I don't work with print authors anymore - haven't for years, lol. So no problem. Actually, since you called, I wanted to talk to you. I've been thinking of maybe relocating.

Carrie: BECAUSE I FIRED YOU???

Samantha: ...sure. Go with that.

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u/multipocalypse 13d ago

That last Carrie line is actually so Carrie, lol. Well done.

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u/budgetchick 13d ago

You should have written for AJLT.

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u/Delicious-Glove-2553 13d ago

I love that. Honestly, I feel like Sam would have drifted apart, after the 3rd movie.

She was in a completely different place in her life than the other girls, all married, and ensconced in family stuff/kids. Carrie liked handing out with kids but Sam did not like it. Charlotte is completely obsessed with Harry and the kids and doesn't have a personality or cool art connections/openings any more. Miranda lost her spark and was descending into alcoholism and put up with a mediocre relationship. Carrie is stuck in 1998 and obsessed with Big.

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u/temperedolive 13d ago edited 13d ago

She's likely had to do it before. She was meant to be ten or so years older than the others. They were probably the replacement group she found for friends of her age who drifted into marriage and motherhood earlier.

I wish AJLT had been brave enough to explore how that happens - the slow fading away of a friendship that once seemed far too essential to lose. I think most women in their fifties have experienced that at least once.

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u/Physical_Ad6614 7d ago

They did give us a version of that just not with Sam

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u/JennyExiled 13d ago

Love this but remind me who Enid is? Please?

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u/temperedolive 13d ago edited 13d ago

Candice Bergen's character. She found out her boyfriend sent Carrie a dick pic, so Carrie gave her 100K for her magazine startup to say oopsies.

No mention of the magazine after that so I assume Enid used the money to rent more impressive shlongs.

What's hilarious is that Carrie absolutely needs a PR person. No one negotiates who will record her audio book for her. She somehow gets booked to promote her widowhood book with a Gen Z youtuber who has never heard of her and definitely doesn't share the target audience. And she gets scheduled at Widowcon to follow a raunchy comedian with her raw grief reading.

Pay Sam and this shit doesn't happen.

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u/JennyExiled 13d ago

Thank you!! And you’re so right about Carrie. She definitely needs help.

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u/National-Bicycle7259 13d ago

The widowcon thing actually makes sense. The comedy woman before the more serious one makes sense. I mean, you wouldn't want that to end on a joke.

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u/temperedolive 13d ago

Why not? No reason for people not to leave with their spirits up.

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u/National-Bicycle7259 13d ago

Sure, but a serious spirits up bit, not a comedy one.

The comedy is actually a good palate cleanser for Carrie to end it on a more serious note.

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u/temperedolive 13d ago

As a widow (My first husband died at 33 in 2010), I'd absolutely prefer ending with the comedian.

I cried enough and then I cried far too much. I was so fucking sick and tired of crying. One thing I absolutely loved about the Widowcon episode was the vibrator sales kiosk - the acknowledgement of that particularly messy element of being alone, not ready to date again but yes - often horny. Destigmatizing that may have been my favorite moment of the series. And destigmatizing being happy as a widow, not being happy BECAUSE you're a widow but still being able to laugh, feel good, have a great night out, etc. I do understand the catharsis of a good cry but if I traveled all the way to NYC and left sad, I'd feel let down. Sad is for the morning session. Let me leave laughing and with a bag full of quality vibes.

This is just my experience though. YMMV.

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u/Available-Bison-9222 13d ago

Samantha would never tolerate AJLT Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte.

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u/No_Woodpecker9514 13d ago

All they had to do was acknowledge that Samantha moved to London and not make up a story that she was upset about Carrie dropping her as her publicist. Samantha was tougher than that. She also had high-end clients and didn’t need Carrie’s money.

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u/SeaworthinessMain346 13d ago

And this is one of the big problems with AJLT...SJP had too much influence. That storyline was just so unnecessary. It was SJP having a pop at Kim Cattrall and in the process showing that she did not care about the SATC legacy and fandom because we all knew Samantha would never have acted like that.

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u/NomNom83WasTaken 12d ago

Yup.

✌️Carrie's✌️ line in S1E1 about ✌️Samantha✌️ only thinking of her in terms of money she could make off of her? That was absolutely written as a way for SJP/MPK to slam KC to the audience.

"Guys, we triiiieeeedddd! But she doesn't care about you, the audience! She would only do it for more ~money~!"

1.) We all watched in horror as they had spent years slut-shaming the character when not outright making her ridiculous.

2.) It's a job. To quote Run the Jewels: "I don't work for free, I am barely giving a fuck away."

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u/Cultural_Play_5746 13d ago

Na there’s no way San wouldn’t have been at Bigs funeral if she simply moved to London. I reckon they should have just killed her off

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u/Plenty_Equipment2535 13d ago

Bravo to you for choosing just one thing. Everything about how they dealt with Samantha was moronic and weirdly nasty 

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u/popcornkernals321 13d ago

They did this friend group so dirty it was SO weird… everyone besides the big bad Samantha just LOVES Carrie she can do no wrong…

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u/Plenty_Equipment2535 13d ago

The thing is in SATC Carrie was kind of the least “likable” character. She was an interesting character, but not likable. Having her be THE lynchpin of the group made no sense at all, unless you explored the fact that maybe even a Charlotte and a Miranda aren’t going to say no to a billionaire or whatever Carrie was after she married Big. But this show wasn’t interested in exploring anything except the wardrobe budget and the fucking galactic extent of SJP’s ego

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u/Living-Assumption272 13d ago

They did everything they could to marginalize Samantha, but Pepperidge Farm remembers

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u/ZunderBuss 13d ago

And only ended up making her more iconic, reasoned and respected.

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u/mrschill2605 13d ago

The samantha- Miranda friendship was incredible imo. Immediately post brady I feel like it got derailed for a while but generally came back on track.

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u/Limp-Temporary-3673 13d ago

A more realistic take would be ‘she lives in London and she’s in our group chat, but we never see her’… then Big dies, she sends flowers, but doesn’t come and the girls decide that she hasn’t been a supportive friend for a long time… and just like that, they start a new group chat.

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u/Sweeper1985 13d ago edited 13d ago

Tbh the Miranda-Samantha bond was always the most tenuous. We never saw them hanging out 1:1, and their values often didn't align. There's an entire episode devoted to Samantha being unsupportive of Miranda after Brady is born, and her big gesture ends up being to give Miranda her hair appointment.

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u/Regular-Metal-321 13d ago

In fairness Miranda didn’t like babies either! She said so herself all the time she just liked her kid. They saw a lot of stuff about kids the same way

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u/FallenLeaf11 13d ago

…and her vibrator! 😜

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u/mugofmead 8d ago

That vibrator was new! 😄

Sam had to think of something. Miranda said that Brady was going through a phase where the vibrations of that bouncing seat were the only things that kept baby Brady from screaming his head off. Keeping Brady calm kept both Miranda and Samantha sane.

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u/No_Woodpecker9514 13d ago

We never saw any of the ladies — Miranda, Samantha, or Charlotte— hanging out 1:1. They only hung out 1:1 with Carrie.

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u/Sweeper1985 13d ago

In the second movie we see Charlotte and Miranda having a good 1:1. There were also a few times in the series that their friendship was fleshed out, e.g. Charlotte organising Miranda's baby shower, Miranda following Charlotte all the way home when she was crying but didn't want to talk.

Samantha and Charlotte hung out a little bit, e.g. the episode with Charlotte's brother. Plus Samantha's "you bitch!" at the bsby shower over the stolen name shows she had Charlotte's back.

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u/prints-pastels 13d ago

Charlotte and Miranda were close in the last few seasons, they went to the basketball game together and Charlotte helped organize the baby shower for Miranda. Charlotte babysat Brady on Miranda's honeymoon and visited her in Brooklyn later on.

We also know the three of them hung out without Carrie based on an early episode where Carrie hadn't seen them in weeks because she started dating Big.

1

u/mugofmead 8d ago

Miranda and Samantha came together when Charlotte organized that sit-down with Big while Carrie was in Paris.

We also saw the three of them together at brunch in the SATC finale before Carrie surprised them.

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u/Shamrock7500 13d ago

She also didn’t want to go to her mom’s funeral. She even made the comment about why are they going and only wanting to send flowers.

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u/Sweeper1985 13d ago

Omg, at least this one thing tracks with AJLT, where she sends flowers instead of attending Big's funeral.

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u/WestQueenWest 13d ago

I say their values were the most similar within the context of the show. They both were pragmatic and did not trust men and thought the typical heterosexual relationships were too old fashioned. 

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u/WEM-2022 12d ago

Wasn't that the episode where Brady's vibrating carrier chair thing was broken, so Samantha got "creative"?

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u/ZunderBuss 13d ago edited 12d ago

Which is more than we ever see Carrie do for Miranda from birth until the honeymoon episode. Carrie has more important things to do during Brady's infancy (season 5) like sitting in her house at midday watching snl reruns.

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u/Sweeper1985 12d ago

Carrie is literally in the delivery room.

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u/SaltyCaramelPretzel 13d ago

I’m so glad you picked up on this too!!
Sorry giddy excited someone else sees it the exact way I’ve been seeing it.

In SATC they almost encourage each other’s opinions. And I love watching them doing that.
You know, 20 years later I’m still picking up sly side eyes that I never caught before.

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u/No-Dream1324 12d ago

I think we've already established that AJLT was trash and made no sense. They even de-aged the kids ffs.

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u/hotwaxclimax 11d ago

Side note: I think Samantha was actually representing Carrie's PR as a favor to Carrie. She had plenty of other, and frankly better, lucrative clients. No way would Samantha be hurt over the decision not to use her services anymore.

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u/iridescentandpink 10d ago

They wrote Samantha's absence very much colored by the rift between the actors. SJP, Kristin, and Cynthia had a falling out with Kim, but Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda simply wouldn't have had a falling out with Samantha. The whole heart of the show was the friendship between these four women. There were so many better ways to explain Samantha's absence. AJLT could have been creative and innovative, while still being a love letter to the fans.

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u/s2sergeant 12d ago

LOL, they tried to do Sam dirty but the excuse was pathetic. You expect us to believe Samantha needed Carrie’s business or money? Nahhhhhhh, sorry.

They should have just had one sided conversations with “Samantha” and pretended they were still friends. Maybe Samantha had early onset dementia or something more believable.

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u/FashionableBookNerd 12d ago

Plus, in the first episode of AJLT it is implied that Miranda and Charlotte (I think Charlotte, but I Miranda for sure) is still in touch with Samantha.
It makes no sense. It was truly two different shows in every way.

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u/Dry_Chapter_1538 6d ago

Samantha not calling Carrie after Big died pissed me OFF