Another season of And Just Like That has wrapped, but what about the show’s arguably most hated character?
By Michele Yeo
And just like that, we’ve bid adieu (for now) to Carrie Bradshaw and the gang as the Sex and the City reboot has wrapped up its second season. After the fever dream that was the first season, fans couldn’t help but wonder if Che Diaz, easily the most divisive character in the Sex and the City multiverse, would figure as prominently in And Just Like That Season 2 as they had in the first. The answer was a resounding yes. And once again, fans had…thoughts. Some of those thoughts even made it into the show when, midway through the season, the series writers got real meta on our asses and included a scene where a focus group gives feedback on Che’s pilot, the ridiculously named Che Pasa. One participant comes for Che’s neck saying, “The whole Che character was like a walking Boomer joke that felt so fake to me. Some phony, sanitized performative cheesy ass dad joke bullshit version of what the non-binary experience is. It sucked.” It wasn’t lost on the audience that the focus group member seemed to be speaking for Che haters, and the show’s writers and producers have confirmed as much.
Che continues to be controversial in Season 2, and that’s not lost on Sara Ramirez, who plays the much-maligned character. The actor recently took to their Instagram page to remind us, “I am not the fictional characters I have played, nor am I responsible for the things that are written for them to say.” The statement appears to be a dig at And Just Like That writer, producer and executive producer Michael Patrick King, and they go on to say, “When a cis man is in charge and has ultimate control of dialogue actors say, and you have a valid problem with it, perhaps you should be interviewing him.”
Michael Patrick King has said he was surprised by the cold reception to Che, telling The Wrap, “I couldn’t understand it because I think Sara Ramirez is a spectacular actor, so I was like, ‘Okay, where is this coming from? And what do we do with it?’” While MPK is right about Sara Ramirez and their acting ability, he’s being deliberately obtuse about the character he created. In the same interview with The Wrap, he called the negative reaction to Che “judging a book by its cover” – but are we judging Che just because they’re non-binary, or are we judging Che because they’re simply an asshole? The list of reasons to dislike Che is a long one. Who smokes pot indoors in an elevator? Who tells their romantic partner they’re moving across the country…via musical performance? Who doesn’t tell their significant other that they were, and technically still are, married? Who has friends over until 4 am when their significant other has to wake up at dawn? These are all valid reasons to dislike a character. Not to mention Che is the cringiest, least funny comic to have ever picked up a mic. And don’t even get me started on that podcast.
Season 2 of And Just Like That offered up a softer, more vulnerable side of Che when their pilot wasn’t picked up and they found themselves flailing in their career. But any goodwill Che amassed during their flop era was pissed away when they tore Miranda to shreds in one of their standup sets. Sure, comedians can turn their real life into material, but Che’s material was just plain mean. You can get away with a certain degree of meanness if that material is also funny – but because this is Che Diaz we’re talking about, the laughs were nowhere to be found.
So, no, Che is not likable. But do they have to be? Is there an inherent need or some sort of unspoken requirement for a character who is a non-binary queer person of colour to be amiable and sympathetic? Because there are so few of these characters on our screens, are show creators required to make these characters a shining beacon of representation? Should they not be afforded the same antihero leeway as straight white male characters like Tony Soprano, Don Draper and Walter White, with all their complications and contradictions?
Also, when it comes to likeability, is Carrie Bradshaw, the main character of And Just Like That and Sex and The City, likeable? If you Google “Carrie Bradshaw the worst,” countless articles and think pieces come up blasting Carrie for being selfish, a villain, a narcissist, toxic, a terrible friend and a materialistic consumerist – yet audiences still find her compelling enough to watch for six seasons of Sex and the City, two movies, and what will now be at least three seasons of And Just Like That. Whether Che Diaz will return for the recently announced third season remains to be seen, but if their declaration at Carrie’s last supper – “I’m transitioning emotionally. The old me is fucked. And the new me is not here yet” – is any indication, it sounds like we may be getting a slightly revamped version of the character. Hey, it’s Che Diaz 2.0.
MICHELE YEO is a pop culture-obsessed Toronto-based long-time writer who has written and produced for outlets such as Entertainment Tonight Canada, CBC and MuchMusic. She is not, unfortunately, Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Crazy Rich Asians fame, although she did write and produce Yeoh’s episode of A&E Biography.
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