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About 20 minutes into Netflix's new series Sweet Magnolias, I had a revelation: This is just like Sex and the City. Mind you, it takes place in a small South Carolina town (the fictional Serenity), and there's no sex. There's not so much as a steamy make-out session. No, this show is about as Hallmark as a show can get (besides the ones on actual Hallmark). But even still, something about seeing the three main women together, drinking cocktails on their sacred Margarita Night, reminded me of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha. Only instead of overpriced cosmopolitans at a pretentious downtown restaurant, the women of Sweet Magnolias mix their own drinks and bond in their living rooms.

Their names are Maddie Townsend (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott), and Helen Decatur (Heather Headley), and each of them is going through something difficult. Maddie's husband (Chris Klein) has left her after having an affair with the much younger Noreen (Jamie Lynn Spears). Dana Sue is grappling with working, single motherhood after leaving her husband and firing her vindictive sous chef. And Helen is the glue keeping everyone together, though she's yearning for a child and partner of her own. All at major crossroads in their lives, the women⁠—who've been best friends since high school⁠—decide to open a spa together, a tangible sign of new beginnings. Sweet Magnolias chronicles that journey and all the personal, juicy narratives that come with it.

I won't divulge too much⁠—but if I'm being honest, there really isn't a lot to say. Which isn't a bad thing. Much like Sex and the City, Sweet Magnolias isn't plot-driven; it's a character-oriented piece. Watching these women sit around their warm, cozy houses and muse about life is the entertainment. I always said I could spend hours watching Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha talk about nothing, and I feel the same way about Maddie, Dana Sue, and Helen. Their presence is comforting.

Of course, this may be specific to just me. I grew up in South Carolina, and many of my friends' mothers are just like these women. I've witnessed plenty of iced tea gab sessions, church bake sales, and Friday-night football games⁠—all things I rejected wholeheartedly, and still do. I mean, I left the second I graduated college and moved to New York City. But in light of all the confusing, horrible things happening in the world right now, I find myself looking for comfort more than usual—for a home in the midst of chaos. Sweet Magnolias is an exaggerated depiction of Southern living for sure, but it feels like so much of what I grew up around. It feels like home. And if I can't go home right now and sit outside with a glass of homemade lemonade, then this show is the next best thing.

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