And Just Like That Ep 3: The One Where the Jokes Landed
Unless you're Che Diaz.
Hello, welcome to my And Just Like That recap blog. For as long as I’m feelin’ the feelin’, anyway. I didn’t see it going this way, especially when the third episode, “When in Rome,” starts with Carrie rehashing Big’s death when she has to record the audio book for her memoir about grief. I worried we’d be pulled back into the same uneven dark territory revisiting Big’s sad demise. But a funny thing happened after Carrie used the modern excuse for missing anything (Covid): it got funny.
Even Carrie’s extended ruse was a good runner, unlike the previous running jokes (oh no, you have to keep switching Met Ball dates?! STOP! I can’t take it!). The joke is weirdly timely, not in the sense that Covid is still so hot, but in the sense that we can actually joke about it and laugh recognizably, because who here has not used having Covid (or at least a Covid scare) as an excuse to get out of something?! The writers are also conscious of the timing. Anthony’s line “Now she’s got Covid?! That’s very off-trend for her,” wins the episode.
But the faux Covid is only smirky funny, while a few moments actually made me chuckle, namely Miranda’s tattoo artist being her insta-shrink (“Ricky thinks it’s all connected to my fear of losing control,”) and LTW and Charlotte making googly eyes at some hot high schooler. The NY Times recap tsk tsked said joke, musing that we wouldn’t think it was funny if the genders were reversed! Um, yes, correct musing, but also, it wasn’t that. If we have to endure storylines around prep school drama, make us laugh, and the moments Char and LTW say “Are we?!” then “They were?!” in unison were it.
Over in LA, not making me laugh is Che Diaz. (Popular opinion, I know.) I know we’re there for their big dramatic scene, which Miranda ruins1, but before we get into that, I would just like to lament that Che, not a core character and definitely not a character the audience has proclaimed they want to see more of, has gotten more screen time than Charlotte and maybe even Miranda. Anyway, fuck Che for the way they treat Miranda over attending to her kid. Could Miranda have not just hid in the ladies’ until she heard from Brady? Or maybe not just went into the taping? Sure, but Che sucks. Leave Che in LA to be self-obsessed alone! Which, of course, is what Miranda does, and now I’m psyched! Add Miranda to the brunch reservation for next week!
Episode three is filler-y in a very pleasant way and a signal we’re in a groove, and something big is about to happen. Something Aidan-shaped2. Let’s do this.
Oh, and the final laugh? '“And just like that… I got Covid.” Covid karma is real as hell.
It must be said that Tony Danza is a highlight. He deserves better, but the Bob’s Big Boy joke killed!
If it wasn’t apparent, I am and have always been on Team Aidan.
💯 agree , the Covid joke was funny especially at the end.