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There was a time when it meant something to be Team Aidan. Introduced in Sex and the City as the anti-Big, Aidan countered the elusive coldness of Carrie’s main love interest with a dressed-down folksy appeal. A furniture designer who wore turquoise rings, stacked cord necklaces and brown suede jackets, Aidan had a playful style and a healthy approach to communication. But in And Just Like That season 3, he has fallen far from grace. Throughout the SATC spinoff, Aidan’s outfits are, to put it kindly, bleh. Gone is his rustic charm, replaced with a dim city-washed aesthetic that feels forced. He wears ill-fitting T-shirts that somehow always look sweaty and trousers that puddle at his shoes. His flamboyant patterns are no more; traded for a sea of grey, navy and black button-downs. Missing is his once-signature jewellery, leaving us with no modicum of self-expression at which to grasp. Who even is Aidan in And Just Like That?
Photography courtesy of HBO
Back in the day, his tinted sunglasses and affinity for leafy prints caught flak, but he had charisma and a can-do attitude. Now, he’s whiny, sullen and contradictory. Despite imposing a five-year no-contact period on Carrie to focus on his son, he breaks his boundary repeatedly. The chemistry between them is gone, and his charm is replaced with childishness. It’s most glaringly obvious in season 3 episode 6 of And Just Like That, when Aidan comes to visit. Their reunion starts with a crash. Aidan stands outside Carrie’s apartment wearing a navy button-down and trousers that are exact wrong shade of blue. He attempts to throw rocks at her window (something he’s successfully done before), but instead of tip-tapping romantically against the vintage glass, he shatters it. He erupts into a “Fuuuuuuck!” and petulantly throws his hands to his sides. Later, cleaning glass off her floor, he says he thought the pebble throw would be cute because it’s their thing. Carrie, standing above him, strokes her slicked braid and says, not without disinterest, “Maybe we need a new thing.”
Photography courtesy of HBO
The next day, motivated by guilt which he will soon reveal, he travels hours away to track down the right replacement glass. When Carrie finds him back at her apartment after his expedition, he’s in a flannel and grey jeans, pacing with Eeyore-like defeatism. He laments that none of his fixes are quite right, and after Carrie comforts him with a kiss, he blurts out that he cheated on her with his ex-wife. Carrie tells him she understands, but then he gets mad at her for not agreeing to stay celibate during their five-year break. “That’s what I agreed to!” he grumps, not realizing how insane this sounds after just admitting to sleeping with someone else.
Photography courtesy of HBO
While the entire episode is a bad look for Aidan, mid-way through is particularly bleak. Walking into a funeral with Carrie, he wears a shrunken suit that looks awkward and uncomfortable. The sleeves end before his wrists; the trousers cut off at his ankles. Depressingly, Aidan seems okay with it. “I like a tight pant,” he announces to Carrie’s friends on the sidewalk. When he goes to sit down inside the venue, his pants split—a nail in the coffin of his aesthetic villainy.
Photography courtesy of HBO
Throughout the season, Aidan’s emotions span from mopey and mean to corny and robotic. He doesn’t listen to Carrie, often brushing her off, turning the conversation back to himself or delivering an irrelevant country quip. When she has no clothes while staying with him in Virginia, he has her ride an ATV by herself to the store. When she tries to bring up the fact that his ex tricked her into procuring Adderall for their son (albeit not at the best time), he snaps at her. And after a particularly hard-to-watch phone-sex scene, we get the sense that he’s not in tune with her needs at all. Aidan has gone from well-accessorized handyman to some moody guy with a closet full of greige.
Photography courtesy of HBO
Where are the warm browns? The denim on denim? The rugged leather jackets? Perhaps Aidan’s downfall is best shown through Carrie’s newfound obsession with Tums. At the top of the episode, she’s seen popping a chewable from a full tub, and by the end, she’s perusing the drugstore for a fresh container. The woman’s stomach is upset, and I blame her lazy lover’s limp T-shirts. Continue Reading
