McNicholas Smith, K. 2026. ‘You’re not progressive enough for this’: Pre-woke nostalgia and queer disruption in HBO revival And Just Like That…. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261474827
| Title | ‘You’re not progressive enough for this’: Pre-woke nostalgia and queer disruption in HBO revival And Just Like That… |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | McNicholas Smith, K. |
| Abstract | Recent years have seen a trend for televisual remakes and revivals. Such shows must update themselves for contemporary audiences whilst maintaining nostalgic appeal. And Just Like That…, HBO’s Sex and the City revival, does so by diversifying and engaging with ‘woke TV’, but also with reactionary discourses. The series reveals the tensions of contemporary returns to the past, where nostalgia might extend beyond a narrative world to a social world. Thus, this article identifies ‘pre-woke nostalgia’: a regressive draw to imagined ‘pre-woke’ times. This is both epitomised and complicated in newly queer Miranda and controversial new character, Che Diaz. |
| Keywords | Television |
| Nostalgia | |
| Woke | |
| Backlash | |
| Queer | |
| Journal | Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies |
| ISSN | 1749-6020 |
| 1749-6039 | |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications |
| Publisher's version | License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261474827 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published online | 10 Aug 2026 |