‘And Just Like That’s Writers Know The Fans Hated What They Did To Steve Brady in Season 1

And Just Like That... Season 2 Episode 10 “The Last Supper Part One: Appetizer” opens with a welcome update on one Steve Brady (David Eigenberg). When we last saw the affable bartender on the Max series, he and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) were in the midst of a brutal breakup. Now, it seems, Steve has embarked on a new chapter — and a new business venture to boot. Aidan (John Corbett) is investing in Steve’s second restaurant business after Brooklyn bar Scout: a hot dog and clam shop on Coney Island’s boardwalk. He shows off the place to Aidan and Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), bringing Steve’s character arc to a far more beautiful place than we’ve seen before on the Sex and the City sequel show.

It’s no secret that fans of HBO’s Sex and the City were largely unhappy with Steve’s storyline in And Just Like That... Season 1. Steve’s hearing loss was used for laughs at his expense and Miranda cheated on him with Che Diaz (Sara Ramírez), precipitating the end of their long marriage. In one particularly heartbreaking scene, a battered up Steve tells Carrie that he’s never taking off his wedding ring.

Needless to say, Steve lovers thought their dude got a bad rap in the inaugural season of And Just Like That... According to the latest installment of the official And Just Like That... writers’ podcast, this reation rankled the writers on the show who maintained that they loved Steve.

“One of the infuriating things in the critical reaction that we got last year that bothered me was that people thought that we, I guess, ran a truck over Steve,” showrunner, writer, and director Michael Patrick King said. 

“And emasculated him,” writer and consulting producer Susan Fales-Hill said.

“[That] we made him somebody that was a throwaway, and there’s no one…” King said. “I really think I just love Steve.” 

“No, we love that character,” Fales Hill said, before asserting that their aim was “to show the complexity of his grief because he’s a broken-hearted man, but he’s not completely defeated.”

Which leads us to And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 10. To show that Steve was bouncing back, the writers claimed they wanted to “leave him with dignity” and “a noble ending.”* The idea — which ironically turned out to be actor David Eigenberg’s — was to have Steve open his clam shack on Coney Island.

According to King, Eigenberg called him up with an idea that had been rattling around in his head for a while. Eigenberg had visited Coney Island a lot as a child and felt that Steve would have, too. The actor also sent King a photo of a Coney Island boardwalk clam shop that he felt Steve would also be drawn to. King and the other writers fell in love with the idea. Hence this latest development in Steve Brady’s saga.

The official And Just Like That… writers’ room podcast continues to be a must-listen companion piece for long-time Sex and the City fans. In addition to offering up fun tidbits — like how Drew Barrymore defended Jack Berger’s Post-It Note breakup — it’s clear that Michael Patrick King is plugged into the audience’s reaction to And Just Like That…‘s bold storylines. Moreover, at a time when the WGA has been on strike for over 100 days, it’s heartening to hear a long-time showrunner speak repeatedly about how the writers in his writers’ room inspire the show’s best storylines and make the show better. (One of the sticking points holding up negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP is on mandatory staffing minimums.)

Still fuming over Steve’s storylines in And Just Like That... Season 1? I think we can all agree that our boy Steve Brady has definitely been left in a better place by the writers in Season 2.

*Is it just me, or are you getting the sense that next week’s And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 11 “The Last Supper: Entrée” might be the END of the Sex and the City saga from these phrases???