There has been a flurry of TV news of late, as Max announced that it has renewed And Just Like That for Season 3, while Paramount+ has unveiled the release date for its Frasier revival starring Kelsey Grammer, and Amazon has pulled the plug on Season 2 of both A League of Their Own and The Peripheral.
And Just Like That is a follow-up to HBO’s Sex and the City, and the sequel series stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis, as well as original cast members such as Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, and Evan Handler.
I’ll confess to watching every single episode of Sex and the City, which I adored, but I sampled one episode of And Just Like That and couldn’t stand it. I’ve heard the show got better, and really improved in Season 2 when John Corbett’s Aidan came back, but part of me just wants to leave the past in the past, as it just ain’t the same show without Kim Cattrall‘s Samantha Jones — the character I most closely identified with, obviously.
Cattrall will cameo in the Season 2 finale, which will air this coming Thursday, though she shot her scene separately from the rest of the cast, which also includes Sara Ramírez, Sarita Choudhury, Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pittman, Christopher Jackson, Niall Cunningham, Cathy Ang, and Alexa Swinton.
“We are thrilled to spend more time in the Sex and the City universe telling new stories about the lives of these relatable and aspirational characters played by these amazing actors,” showrunner Michael Patrick King said in a statement. King also executive produces the series alongside John Melfi, Julie Rottenberg, and Elisa Zuritsky, plus Parker, Nixon, and Davis.
“We are delighted to share that since the launch of Season 2, And Just Like That ranks as the #1 Max Original overall, and is the most-watched returning Max Original to date,” added Sarah Aubrey, head of original content for Max. “As we approach the highly anticipated season finale on Thursday, we raise our cosmos to Michael Patrick King and his magnificent team of writers, producers, cast and crew who continue to charm us, 25 years later, with dynamic friendships and engaging stories. We cannot wait for audiences to see where Season 3 will take our favorite New Yorkers.”
Besides Steven Soderbergh‘s crime thriller Full Circle, I can’t really think of any major Max launches since late June, when Season 2 of And Just Like That premiered, but hey, I’m skeptical of all viewership stats and “records” coming out of streamers.
Elsewhere, the first two episodes of the long-gestating Frasier revival will premiere on Paramount+ on Oct 12 in the U.S. and Canada and the following day in all other territories. Directed by James Burrows, both episodes will also air back-to-back on CBS on Oct. 17 starting at 9:15 p.m.
Grammer reprises his Emmy-winning role as Frasier Crane, and the series explores “the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge, and an old dream or two to finally fulfill,” per the streamer.
Jack Cutmore-Scott will co-star as Frasier’s son, Freddy; Jess Salgueiro will play Freddy’s roommate, Eve; and Anders Keith will play Frasier’s nephew, David. Meanwhile, Nicholas Lyndhurst will play Frasier’s old college buddy, Alan, who is now a college professor, and Toks Olagundoye will play Olivia, Alan’s colleague and the head of the university’s psychology department. Additionally, Bebe Neuwirth will guest star in one episode as Frasier’s ex-wife, Dr. Lilith Sternin.
Grammer executive produces alongside writers Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli, as well as Tom Russo and Jordan McMahon of Grammnet NH Productions.
And finally, Amazon has walked back its decision to bring back A League of Their Own for a shortened season consisting of four episodes. The show had been renewed back in April and appears to have been another casualty of the strike, as Amazon was concerned that it wouldn’t be able to stream Season 2 on Prime Video until 2025. Season 1 aired in August 2022, so execs deemed that to be simply too long of a wait, though series co-creator Abbi Jacobson expressed skepticism regarding that explanation, calling the streamer’s decision to blame the strike “bullshit and cowardly.”
The baseball series was based on the classic 1992 movie of the same name, and Jacobson starred alongside D’Arcy Carden, Chanté Adams, Melanie Field, and Kate Berlant. She also executive produced the show with co-creator Will Graham, as well as Jamie Babbit and Field Trip’s Hailey Wierengo and Desta Tedros Reff.
A League of Their Own wasn’t the only Prime Video series to be canceled due to the strike, as Amazon also declined to move forward with Season 2 of The Peripheral starring Chloë Grace Moretz. I’m a big fan of Moretz but I couldn’t work myself up to even watch a single episode of that series, so I can’t blame Amazon for pulling the plug.
