Carrie’s voice is back. So is the show’s soul as ‘And Just Like That…’ grows up

PARIS AP She s messy It can be messy But it s real So says Cynthia Nixon not just of Miranda Hobbes the character she s embodied for almost three decades but of the show itself And Just Like That HBO s Sex and the City revival has come into its own in Season less preoccupied with pleasing everyone and more interested in telling the truth Truth in this occurrence looks like complexity Women in their s with evolving identities Not frozen in time but changing reckoning reliving Queerness that s joyful but not polished Grief without melodrama A pirate shirt with a bleach hole that somehow becomes a talisman of power At its glittering European premiere this week Nixon and co-star Sarah Jessica Parker flanked by Kristin Davis and Sarita Choudhury spoke candidly with The Associated Press about how the show has evolved into something deeper rawer and more reflective of who they are now A voice returns Season marks the return of Carrie Bradshaw s iconic internal monologue that once defined Sex and the City The series has inevitably followed Carrie s rhythm but now it brings back something deeper her voice Literally We ve perpetually loved the voiceover Parker revealed It s a rhythm it s part of the DNA The decision to restore it producers say was deliberate The voiceovers return just as Carrie rediscovers her direction offering viewers a renewed sense of intimacy and connection That advancement is echoed in her rekindled relationship with Aidan and her acceptance to step back for him to focus on his troubled son The character who in first stopped a cab in Manolo Blahniks and once floated through Manhattan chasing shoes and column deadlines is now grounded in reinvention the wounds of loss and cautious hope The word is grown up She doesn t burst into tears or stomp out of the room anymore Parker stated She asks smart victim questions That s not effort that s just her nature now People seem surprised that she is mature Parker added But that s just basic developmental stuff hopefully completely by living we get better at things It s not surprising It s just real Warts and all If Carrie is the compass Miranda is the seismic shift Miranda s arc which now includes a late-in-life queer awakening may be the show s the greater part radical contribution to television And for Nixon who publicly came out as queer while still playing straight in the original Sex and the City that evolution is deeply personal There s never a too late moment Miranda comes to queerness at Nixon reported That doesn t mean everything that came before was wrong It just means this is her now And it s messy It can be messy But it s real That embrace of imperfection lies at the core of Nixon s philosophy and the show s power On television where characters linger in our lives for years there s a unique intimacy and empathy that develops Television puts someone in your living room week after week They re imperfect they make you laugh and eventually you say I know that person They re my friend she mentioned That s more powerful than one mythic perfect film That s where the change happens That change includes how queerness is portrayed Nixon recalled how earlier generations of LGBTQ characters were forced to be flawless or two-dimensional to justify their screen time There was a time when gay people on screen had to be saints or martyrs she disclosed Now we can be characters like Miranda who ve had rich fulfilling heterosexual lives and now stumble upon queerness and not in a tidy way There s collateral damage That s significant That depth Nixon commented comes not just from character but from the format Unlike film which requires resolution in two hours television lets people grow and falter in real time The writers are smart And Miranda s transformation isn t just personal It s political In Season she s seen retraining in human rights law joining protest movements and wrestling with systemic questions mirroring Nixon s own off-screen life In the actor ran for governor of New York on a progressive platform bringing her activism directly into the populace arena That convergence isn t accidental she says On long-running shows if the writers are smart they start to weave in the actor Nixon mentioned When I started Miranda and I were very different But now we ve grown closer We re almost the same person in temperament in values Season narrows its scope pulling focus back to the emotional cores of Carrie Miranda and Charlotte Several side characters are gone including Che Diaz and what remains is a cleaner more character-driven story I think one of the great things about our show is we show women in their s whose lives are very dramatic and dynamic Nixon commented You get to this age and there s a lot going on if you choose to keep moving forward Friends friction and freedom Kristin Davis who plays Charlotte noted that those life shifts come fast and often overlap She really starts to unravel Davis revealed But the ecstasy is her friends are there Sarita Choudhury who plays real estate powerhouse Seema echoed that sense of late-blooming autonomy She s feeling that if you have your own business your own apartment your own way you get to say what you want Choudhury commented There s power in that It s a subtle rebuke to the long-held media narrative that midlife is a decline Not just fashion declaration Fashion as ever is present but now it feels more personal than aspirational Parker described insisting on wearing a ripped vintage Vivienne Westwood shirt with a bleach hole It had to be in an key scene It meant something she mentioned Even the show s iconic heels still clacking through New York s brownstone-lined streets feel louder this season And yes Carrie is writing again not her usual musings but a historical romance that lets the show wink at its own pretensions Taxis become carriages Voiceovers drift into period drama Her beloved blouse vintage shredded almost costume fits the mood perfectly century-leaping fashion for a century-leaping Carrie The protagonist as ever walks the line between costume and character And Just Like That is a show that s learned to walk loudly into its next chapter You re better in the present day than you were years ago Parker stated That s not just Carrie that s everyone