Note: the following article contains spoilers about this week’s episode of And Just Like That.
I’ve been merrily hate-watching And Just Like That since its inception, feebly accepting that once-beloved characters are now shells of themselves and that Aidan, he of leather twine necklace notoriety, would ever wear that jacket. Its latest episode, however, transgressed from inane to insulting for its handling—mishandling—of Lisa Todd Wexley’s pregnancy.
In the dwindling moments of last week’s installment, the conflicted AJLT fandom learned that LTW (the resplendent Ari Nicole Parker)—established documentarian and certified-hot Upper East Side private school mom—was pregnant. This week’s episode reveals that Lisa is understandably devastated by this development: She already has three school-age children that her husband barely helps with, including a teen old enough to have sex with his girlfriend at the Mandarin Oriental, and PBS just decided to make a 10-part series of her documentary. (“They’re Ken-Burns-ing you,” Miranda quips.)
LTW tearfully unloads her baby news while perusing vintage Italian glassware with Charlotte.“How did this happen?” Lisa laments. “I thought I moved out of Babyville.” What she says next feels gutting: “Goddammit, I thought it was finally my time.”
For a fleeting moment, AJLT actually won with its relatively-little-seen depiction of a happily married mother’s unhappiness about expecting. That’s real. As a 41-year-old mother of two, I’ve been part of countless similar conversations with friends. Being married and being a mom does not mean that every pregnancy is welcome, for so many reasons. But then, just as quickly, the show drops the dramatic ball.
And Just Like That, a series that’s clunkily and brazenly obsessed with so-called wokeness, proceeds to pretend abortion isn’t an option for Lisa, a woman of extreme privilege in New York, a state where it’s still legal and protected. “Lisa, I think you can do this,” is Charlotte’s immediate reply, with absolutely no acknowledgment of the fact that Lisa could very well choose not to. We all know Charlotte is historically a Pollyanna, but she’s also a loyal friend on a series supposedly all about female friendship, who probably voted for Hillary and carted her kids to the Women’s March. Would she not even gently remind Lisa that she could opt to end a pregnancy that’s making her utterly miserable?
