And Just Like That fans should be angry with Stanford Blatch’s farewell

And Just Like That producers had to write a farewell episode to Stanford Blatch, Carrie Bradshaw Preston’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) best friend when the actor, Willie Garson, was sick and unable to continue filming. Fans understand that. What they don’t understand is the way Stanford was written out…with a note.

Just like Samantha Jones’ exit, everything happens off-screen, and while Garson wasn’t able to film a goodbye scene, there were so many other options than with a note that sent Stanford to Tokyo. (The character also wanted a divorce from his husband.) In this day and age of technology, anything would have been better than a letter that Stanford would have never written.

"“Dearest Carrie, By the time you read this I’ll be in Tokyo. I couldn’t tell you ― not without crying. And you have had enough crying.”"

An “emotional farewell” had been planned according to the HBOMax series showrunner Michael Patrick King in an interview with TVLine, but since that couldn’t be filmed, “we had to put some patch to explain his absence.” In a way of two-stepping around the issue, King went on to say that he “tried to make the lightest thin ice to just skate over.”  And a note was the absolute best he could come up with?

What about a telephone call where we at least see Carrie’s side of the conversation? Or, since the producers knew Garson was sick, why not include his character’s funeral in the series? Yes, Carrie had already suffered one loss, but she was going to be crushed no matter how they wrote Stanford off. And having him go to Tokyo essentially leaves an open door that will eventually need to be closed if the series continues.

Stanford Blatch was a beloved character in the series, and he was there for Carrie through thick and thin. That the producers expect fans to believe he would willingly leave her during her grief now is preposterous.  And his departure offscreen doesn’t allow the fans to grieve the loss of such an amazing character. So it’s not surprising that And Just Like That fans wasn’t happy with the ultimate, as one fan called it, “shabby,” goodbye.