Karen Pittman Says 'And Just Like That...' Nailed the 'Awkwardness' of a Woman Leaving a Long-Term Relationship (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers from the first two episodes of season 2 of Max's And Just Like That...

The new season of And Just Like That… sees many of the women back on the dating scene, including Dr. Nya Wallace.

In season 2’s two-episode premiere, Nya (Karen Pittman) officially moved on from husband Andre Rashad (LeRoy McClain) after trying to initiate sex over FaceTime — only to discover him in a hotel room with one of his backup singers. She purged his belongings and decided to explore the single life for the first time since the mid-‘90s.

For season 2, Pittman tells PEOPLE she hopes viewers “would see not just Nya's intellectual capacity and her ambition, but I also hope that we would see her vulnerability, her fragility, her awkwardness as a woman coming out of a long-term relationship and exploring singlehood for the first time in a very long time."

The actress believes the show “hit the nail on the head” when it comes to that experience and says “it's a lot fun to portray” a woman in that phase of her life. She thinks many viewers will be able to relate.

“We do see Brown women, Black women, melanated women as these strong, sort of supernatural forces of nature,” Pittman says. “I think it's really important to draw into the conversation about how fragile women are in the area of their emotional landscape. We all are trying to figure it out, and so it's a great joy to explore that side of Nya in season 2.”

She finds it especially enjoyable to do so alongside other ladies going through similar situations.

“The season is about new beginnings,” Pittman says. “You see that happening with Nya Wallace and you see that happening with Miranda Hobbes, and you see it happening with Carrie Bradshaw and Aidan. It's a fun romp for me as an actor to watch all the actors doing their work, but also to see how my character's arc unfolds as well.”

Last season, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Nya became friends when Miranda took Nya’s class at Columbia. Now they find themselves leaning on each other in the wake of their relationships' upheavals.

“Nya and Miranda have forged a relationship. In season 2, you'll see them develop that,” Pittman says. “As the show is so capable of doing, and it's done time and again, we explore female relationships and how women support each other through these challenging times in funny and comedic ways. Miranda and Nya are the Laverne and Shirley of And Just Like That… this season.”

Nya’s storyline overlapping with Miranda’s feels serendipitous because Pittman admits the former lawyer was her favorite character when she watched Sex and the City.

“I was definitely one of those women that on Sunday night gather around with your friends or on Monday morning would call my girlfriends and be like, ‘Oh, did you see it? And what did you think?’” Pittman says. “Even back then, Miranda Hobbes was my favorite character. So, it's such a thrill to be working with Cynthia on the show.”

Pittman teases that the rest of season 2 will be about “optimism” and “hope.”

“That is what I think the show does so well,” she says. “It's about sisterhood and female friendship, but it also is really about love. That's a joyful place to be in.”

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New episodes of And Just Like That… drop Thursdays on Max.