Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD for the series debut of And Just Like That… If you haven’t watched and want to keep yourself pure before indulging, best to step away now and check out one of our other lovely articles!
It’s been nearly a week since Sex and the City fans were left reeling after the premiere of series follow up, And Just Like That…, on HBO Max. Everyone who was eager to catch up with the now older Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte, as well as other old and new friends, got to enjoy all of that...right up until (again, SPOILER ALERT) the end of the episode sees Chris Noth’s iconic Mr. Big die after having a not Peloton-induced heart attack. While many fans are probably still crying into their Manolos (That’s what people do with really expensive shoes, right?), Noth has now spoken up about why he thinks his big Big twist had to happen.
Chris Noth has played Carrie’s sorta mysterious, on-again-off-again boyfriend-turned-husband since the first episode of Sex and the City, way back in 1998. So, it makes complete sense that fans were looking to see more of what Carrie’s life with Big had been like after they finally married in the first movie. In the And Just Like That… debut, it appeared that the couple was truly still happy, but it turns out that that’s why Noth, and series creator Michael Patrick King, thought Big needed to die. When asked by Vogue recently how he was feeling and if he’d heard from fans now that the big reveal was over, Noth said:
No, I haven’t really tuned in. I’m dressed in black. [Laughs.] I’ve got my rosary beads and I’m saying all my Hail Marys. No, I feel good. Michael Patrick King is such a wonderful craftsman, and I thought it could have gone wrong easily, you know? He was on a tight rope in terms of not being over-sentimental or morbid. I was really happy with how it came together and how the show looked and how it has reinvented itself. All things end, and it was time for him to go, unless we’re gonna be doing Scenes From a Marriage, Sex and the City style. There was nowhere to go with it but six feet under.
OK, this may be hard to hear if you’re one of the many Sex and the City fans who’d been rooting for Carrie and Big since Day 1, but, I do believe that Chris Noth and Michael Patrick King had the right idea. One of the main stories in the original show had always been about the leads and their romantic woes. With all of the ladies now partnered up for quite a while at the start of AJLT, where could the show go? Obviously, exploring what being in a long-term relationship is like makes good sense, but that didn’t really need to happen with three couples, did it?
Also, it’s worth noting that, while ideas were still being floated for a third Sex and the City movie, part of that plan was to have Big drop dead in the shower after a heart attack, which is nearly identical to what happened in AJLT. So, it would seem that those behind the show still felt that was the best course of action. As Noth noted, the only other alternatives for Big and Carrie seemed to be watching them be 100% happy (boring...sorry, folks!) or to watch their marriage fall apart, and I seriously doubt that the Carbig (Bigcar?) stans wanted that outcome, either.
Basically, it sounds like Carrie and Big’s happiness was the nail in the coffin for Noth’s character, and he added that he was cool with the way it all happened on screen, noting:
One thing Michael and I agreed on: We both called it the Bonnie and Clyde moment, which is that moment when Bonnie and Clyde are about to be eviscerated by bullets. They have that look with each other, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. They both know that it’s the end. We knew that we had to have that, that I just shouldn’t die alone in the bathroom. There had to be that last moment and no words, no corny dialogue, just a look, and I thought [King] did it so beautifully. I always know I’m gonna be taken care of by Michael Patrick King, in the writing and shooting and editing, so I felt very comfortable with dying. [Laughs.]
And, viewers did get to see that this-is-the-end look between Big and Carrie, though many likely felt it was maybe a bit too long. It did tell us what we needed to know, however: that the formerly tumultuous couple realized they wasted too much time back in the day, because while they got their happily ever after, it didn’t last nearly as long as they thought it would.
You can follow along with the Chris Noth-less And Just Like That… to see how Carrie copes, when the series hits HBO Max on Thursdays. For more to watch right now, check out our guide to December’s Christmas movies and TV schedule, or look ahead to the 2022 TV premiere dates.
