The Only Time Thanksgiving Was Mentioned on ‘Sex and the City’ Was in the Franchise’s Final Moments
Have you ever taken a close look at Sex and the City? The iconic HBO series celebrated female friendship, but it did not celebrate holidays, at least during its initial run. While the original series carefully circumvented all talk of holidays and seasons, the reboot, which ended after three seasons, attempted to embrace them. In fact, the only time Thanksgiving was ever mentioned during the franchise was in its very final moments, when an awkward Thanksgiving dinner was clearly set up to herald in a season 4 that never happened.
‘And Just Like That…’ celebrated Thanksgiving just once
Sex and the City actively avoided mentioning the holidays, but And Just Like That… did not. If you are in the mood to enjoy a Thanksgiving episode with Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes, you technically can do it. It’s unclear if you really want to, though.
The only Thanksgiving episode in the Sex and the City universe came in its final moments. The series finale of And Just Like That… centered around the holiday. In the episode, Miranda agrees to host a large Thanksgiving party, including the woman with whom her son is expecting a baby. As the party falls apart, Miranda’s home is inundated by an odd mix of would-be guests, none of whom actually belong there. It was a truly chaotic, but completely anticlimactic, series finale. While most fans hated it for its lack of cohesion with the rest of the series, it kind of fits the reboot’s reputation.
Why did the original series avoid holidays?
And Just Like That… embraced holiday themes in its short three seasons. Some fans loved that, while others believed the reboot was straying too far from its source material. Those who hate the addition of holidays, including Thanksgiving, in the Sex and the City reboot, note that the original show’s creators had a very good reason to avoid them.
In the past, Darren Star addressed why the series initially avoided mentioning the holiday. Star, who worked on the original series’ earliest seasons, argued that holiday episodes had a tendency to “date” a show, and HBO was aiming for something a bit more evergreen. The show’s writers also felt like the holidays didn’t exactly “fit” the show’s narrative, as all four women were initially single and living very distant lives from their biological families. It also helped the team avoid introducing extended family into the show.
