A Baffling Media Subplot In ‘And Just Like That’

No one watches And Just Like That hoping to get an accurate depiction of the media industry. As Luke Winkie at Slate pointed out in a recent blog, the particularities of Carrie Bradshaw’s fame don’t make sense: she is still hustling and struggling to promote a podcast, tell-all grief memoir called “Loved and Lost”, and audiobook, even though she was invited to attend the Met Gala and at one point, had an offer to develop a TV show based off her column. In other words, the Sex and the City franchise falls within the magical realism genre. That being said, sometimes the fantasy is so baffling that I need to hold myself accountable as an enabler of this series. 

In the latest episode, “ALIVE!”, Carrie gets reconnected with Enid, her former editor at Vogue, who is now starting a new media venture — Vivante!, an online magazine geared towards lady baby boomers. Carrie attends Vivante!’s launch party (alongside Gloria Steinem) in hopes that she can get Enid to promote “Loved and Lost” in her highly popular newsletter (which according to Enid is “rivaling Goop”). As a Manolo Blahnik Machiavelli, the Upper Eastsider had a whole plan sketched out — in exchange for some promo for her book, she would agree to pen a column for Vivante! (I couldn’t help but wonder, that I have some personal news!). It turns out, however, that Enid wanted Carrie to donate $100,000 to Vivante!. Since Big’s untimely death, the “Loved and Lost” memoirist has come into a boat load of sweet, sweet financier money. Spoiler alert: she ends up donating the $100,000 after a snafu involving a dick pic (we are so back!).  

Here are a few things that this deranged subplot had me pondering from a media worker’s perspective:

• If Enid has the clout to get Gloria Steinem to attend a launch party, why does she have to shame a widow into forking over $100,000? Couldn’t she have asked, I don’t know, Elizabeth Koch or MacKenzie Scott to donate?
• Enid told Carrie that her newsletter is “rivaling Goop”.  Unless her sense of humor is drier than the Sahara’s wind and her newsletter is in fact, flopping miserably, that means that it’s possibly worth around $250 million and has millions of subscribers. Then again, bringing up the question — why does this media mogul need to manipulate a grieving Bradshaw into forking over $100,000? 
• Enid seems like a business savvy person, so, why is she launching an online magazine during an exceptionally horrendous period for digital media? Especially since her targeted demo — boomers — prefer print and TV to get their news? 
• Okay, people, let’s talk ROI. If hypothetically, Carrie’s $100,000 donation results in “Loved And Lost” ending up in this beloved newsletter, would she recuperate that investment with boosted sales? According to a cross-data examination between Goop’s “Best Books of 2022” and The Grey Lady’s 2022 bestseller list, the answer is likely… no.
• Earlier this season, Carrie refused to recite an advertisement for a vaginal odor product, causing her podcast to lose a key sponsor and inadvertently shut down. Additionally, she faked having COVID-19 to get out of recording a chapter for her own audiobook. Why would Enid rely on Carrie to regularly churn out copy about being a thriving, sexually active, and ALIVE boomer? Wouldn’t word get out that a former Vogue columnist is acting like Hannah Horvath?
• This is a mess and I absolutely can’t wait for the next episode.