Peloton took us for a ride – ‘Big’ time!
WE’VE been had. After disappointing the “Sex and the City” fan base with the humorless, ultra-woke reboot “And Just Like That . . . ,” it now looks like Episode 1’s death-by-Peloton was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
This, despite Peloton howling that HBO duped them, that the company had no idea the bike would be used as a murder weapon, that Big himself, smoker, boozer and carnivore, was to blame.
First clue Peloton wasn’t so clueless: Nobody got fired. No heads rolled in the public square.
Unthinkable for a product placement that resulted in an 11 percent stock slide on Day One of streaming.
Yet we’re meant to believe a company this hapless — so cavalier with its branding after a major recall earlier this year and a one-day stock tumble of 35 percent in November — could, in less than two days, conceive, script, cast, produce, shoot and edit this dead-on spot, with help from A-list movie star Ryan Reynolds, in COVID times? Sure.
This is just the latest bit of cynicism surrounding a cynical reboot that seems hellbent on quashing any goodwill the original series had: the woke-ism, the character assassination of Kim Cattrall’s beloved Samantha, the over-the-top worship of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie as “our Jackie Kennedy.” To the latter, I say: the sacrilege! As for what got us here, the online rending of garments over Big’s death, count me with Susan Sharon (a minor character long rumored to have been based on “Real Housewives of New York City” star Dorinda
Medley — to my mind, the most interesting thing about this entire reboot).
“Am I the only one,” Susan asks, “who remembers what a p- - -k he was to her?”
No! No, Susan Sharon, you are not.
Those fans actually mourning Big — and I have read posts confessing to tears, sobs, paralyzing shock — must be the same viewers who find Carrie’s self-absorption and lack of life skills utterly adorable.
Clearly, the show runners always have — treating Carrie’s years of blowing all her money on clothes, cocktails and $800 shoes as not just a valid lifestyle choice but an aspirational one.
A toxic couple
And the decision to depict Carrie and Big — one of the most toxic, abusive TV couplings ever — as the pinnacle of true love was equally irresponsible and sloppy.
Yet so many fans still buy what “SATC,” and now “AJLT,” are selling.
Same when it comes to believing Peloton’s Monday statement to the Los Angeles Times that the ad was shot on the fly — at the same time the company did very clumsy damage control via in-house cardiologist Suzanne Steinbaum.
“Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle — including cocktails, cigars and big steaks — and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in Season 6,” Steinbaum said within hours of the reboot’s debut.
“These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which is often a significant factor, were likely the cause of his death. Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.”
Know what else may have helped? Carrie calling 911 instead of flailing and squealing like it was just another Thursday.
But, of course, it’s all just fiction anyway.